Three Dead in Confined Space Incident in New York: FACE 86-34

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  As a result of a confined space incident in a degreasing tank, three workers died. The manager, the foreman, and a laborer at a metal products finishing operations facility were cleaning out a trichloroethylene (79016) degreasing tank on a Saturday. They were alone in the building at the time of the accident. The tank was cleaned three or four times a year on a weekend when the facility was closed. The degreaser tank was 8 feet high, 30 feet long, and 6 feet deep with a 30 by 40 inch opening at each end. The usual procedure was to shut off steam, drain the tank, open the bottom doors and allow the tank to cool and vent overnight. One man was then to enter via a ladder, remove fallen metal parts, place them in a box, and pass the box to a worker on the outside. The third man was to stand by to assist. The three men were to rotate their spots every 5 minutes. There were no witnesses to this accident as the men arrived at the building at 7:30am and were discovered in the tank and unresponsive at 7:30pm. Metal debris had been cleaned out of the tank. The trichloroethylene had not been drained off and its temperature was 100 degrees-F. There was no sign of a ladder used for entry. All three men died. Recommendations arising from this accident include: making certain employees are aware of hazards associated with their jobs
  
  development and implementation of a written safety and training program
  
  and development of comprehensive policies and procedures for confined space entry.
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Chlorine Compounds
  • Confined Spaces
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Metals
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
  • Solvents
• Keywords:
  • OSHA Region 2
  • FACE-86-34
  • Cleaning-compounds
  • Organic-solvents
  • Chlorinated-ethylenes
  • Confined-spaces
  • Metal-finishing
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  All ; Confined Space
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8634
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• 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 pdf pages
• Volume:
  1986
• Issue:
  34
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00170390
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-222469
• 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 86-34, 1986 Jul ; :1-7
• CAS Registry Number:
  • Trichloroethylene (CAS RN 79-01-6)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1986
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS 2022)
• Start Date:
  1986/07/05
• Resource Number:
  FACE 86-34
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164591/cdc_164591_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 263.36 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:007dfee81fabd6e35c6d1aa19fe15e2b75a13ec6b7ecc21c0a727a1e00e929eabafecebc28951cbe39e738e480af9963be2295d46a68f5e1bdc4d9cac0c12136