Worker Dies in Fermentation Tank in Montana

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A 35 year old worker at an alcohol and feed mash production operation died of asphyxiation from carbon-dioxide (124389) in a fermentation tank. The victim had been working for 3 weeks at his present job, which was to hose down the interior of fermentation tanks, 84 inches in diameter by 88 inches high, which hold about 1200 gallons each. His safety training had been minimal
  
  the only reference to entering a fermentation tank was not to do so because of the carbon-dioxide hazard. It was felt, following the accident, that the victim's hat may have fallen into the tank and in an effort to retrieve it, he fell into the tank. He was unable to climb out and efforts on the part of the foreman to aid his escape failed. He was in the tank approximately 2 hours before he was removed. The atmosphere in the tank tested as 48 percent carbon-dioxide and 6 percent oxygen. Recommendations arising out of this accident include the introduction of a comprehensive safety program at this facility, in addition to the operations manual now available. This was to include air quality testing
  
  ventilation of the space to remove contaminants
  
  monitoring of the space to maintain a safe oxygen level
  
  lockout/tagout procedures to control hazardous energy
  
  employee and supervisory training in entry, testing and use of personal protective equipment
  
  and emergency rescue procedures.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution Air Pollution, Indoor Confined Spaces Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Air-quality Confined-spaces FACE-86-13 Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 8 Safety-practices
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Confined Space
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8613
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Montana ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00170049
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-221701
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 86-13, 1986 Mar ; :1-5
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon dioxide (CAS RN 124-38-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1986
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1986/01/29
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1480260ae862ed62871d754263a249cf17b72c55723e1b538e63e12dcadf38433394dbf8d8bec7930ead4e198fcb752de2c7f5b2f7e39adb1ee18db544676382
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164457/cdc_164457_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 247.88 KB ]