105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #975607

ASPHYXIATED,SUICIDE,NITROUS OXIDE

Event
ASPHYXIATED,SUICIDE,NITROUS OXIDE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
975607
Report ID
551800

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED BY NITROUS OXIDE ASPHYXIATION.

Investigation abstract

At about 2:50 p.m., Employee #1 who was working as a temporary quality control t echnician for Dallas Group of America Incorporated placed a dual-cartridge light gas and organic vapor respirator over her face. She then took a 6 ft-long clear flexible vinyl tube, connected it to a cylinder of nitrous oxide gas, and opene d the valve on the cylinder. Placing the tube deep into her mouth, she laid down on the floor next to the cylinder, and was killed as a result asphyxiation.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 32 F

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    19
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    1890
    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.