Anhydrous Ammonia Nurse Tank Rupture Kills Agricultural Cooperative Worker

Details

• Personal Author:
  Epp, Robin L. ; Jones, Martin L. ; Madsen, Murray D. ; Rautiainen, Risto ; Sanderson, Wayne T.
• Corporate Authors:
  Iowa Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (Iowa FACE) ; University of Iowa. College of Public Health. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Description:
  A 68-year-old male agricultural cooperative worker died from complications associated with injuries he sustained two weeks earlier when an anhydrous ammonia nurse tank ruptured in the spring of 2003. Just prior to the incident, the victim and a coworker had been filling four nurse tanks with liquefied anhydrous ammonia at a nurse tank refilling station. The victim had just finished filling and disconnecting the nurse tank from the anhydrous ammonia transfer system, when a seam at the base of the cylinder near the front split open, causing a rapid expansion, and subsequent explosion of the escaping anhydrous ammonia. The force from this event threw the coworker against a nearby pickup, and knocked him unconscious. The victim shut off the anhydrous ammonia transfer system and went to aid his fallen coworker. Emergency response personnel arrived at the scene and stabilized the victim and coworker. Both men suffered chemical burns to more than 50 percent of their body surface area, and had eye and respiratory system injuries. The coworker survived his injuries but the victim died thirteen days later from complications associated with the incident: pneumonia due to inhalation burns. Recommendations based on our investigation are as follows: 1. Owners of liquefied anhydrous ammonia nurse tanks should institute periodic testing programs to ensure that the tanks remain structurally sound. 2. Employers and operators should ensure that emergency response procedures are in place and utilized by workers to adequately protect them from hazards.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Burns Farmers Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-workers Chemical-burns Equipment-design Equipment-reliability Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-operation OSHA Region 7 Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE03IA027
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Grant
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030160
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-111419
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 03IA027, 2005 Jun ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  Iowa Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:46cab48568620abe739eab998463759a434f6ccd896a7be746c4f1d2fdcea8c0eb0a74bbf145d6193cb3de83cf0e90db6aab67c1be2854d35833f8dc12f56a85
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166340/cdc_166340_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 89.52 KB ]