OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #802249
JANITOR,ASPHYXIATED,CLEANING,NITROUS OXIDE,INATTENTION
Event description
EMPLOYEE ASPHYXIATED BY NITROUS OXIDE
Investigation abstract
On June 20, 1989, Employee #1 was asphyxiated by nitrous oxide. Employee #1 was working alone and was assigned to clean the operating room where nitrous oxide c ylinders are kept. The employee was found slumped over a cylinder of nitrous oxi de in the nurses' lounge. There was an unbroken seal on the nitrous oxide cylind er and a T-handle wrench used to open cylinder valves was found at Employee #1's feet. The preliminary coroner's report showed high levels of nitrous oxide. Oth er tests showed no presence of alcohol or drugs.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 19 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 453
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1953
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.