OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #992941
RESPIRATORY,INHALATION,GAS,LANDFILL,OVEREXPOSURE
Event description
Five employees exposed to unknown gas
Investigation abstract
On July 27, 1987, Employees #1 through #5 were performing various duties on the two minutes and could not identify the odor, although they reported an acid tas te in their mouths. All five employees were checked on-site by a local fire depa rtment rescue squad and transported to W. C. A. Hospital, Jamestown, NY. They we re checked and released, and returned to work at the landfill. working face of a sanitary landfill. Employee #3, a compactor operator, noticed an unusual smell and asked Employee #1 for verification. When he was within appr oximately 10 yards of the source of the smell, Employee #1 experienced shortness of breath and weakness in his knees. Employee #2, who was approximately 4 yards away from the source of the smell, immediately left the area with Employees #1 and #3. Employee #4, a pan operator, also left the area upon noticing the smell. Employee #5, another pan operator, was approximately 100 yards from the source and did not detect any odor. Employees # 1 through #4 were exposed for less than
Victims (5)
-
#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 26 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 21 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 50 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#5 Non-hospitalized injury Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 7
- 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.