Three Contract Workers Die while Repairing a Sodium Hypochlorite Tank at a Wastewater Treatment Plant - Virginia

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  This case involved the death of three contract workers who were killed while repairing the interior rubber lining of an 18,000-gallon sodium-hypochlorite tank located at a municipal treatment facility for wastewater. The victims, a male foreman and two male laborers, were employed by a contractor that specialized in repairing and fabricating storage tanks. They were using toluene (108883), xylene (1330207), methanol (67561), isopropanol (67630), and methyl-ethyl-ketone (78933) in the tank with no protective masks, respiratory, ventilation system, standby person, or emergency procedures. The victims had contact on September 23 with a maintenance worker
  
  2 days later they were found dead at the bottom of the tank, near the ladder. The cause of death was toluene poisoning. It was recommended that a confined space entry program be developed, implemented, and enforced, that a standby person be provided on the outside of all confined spaces, and that all contractors have a written safety program specific to the work to be performed.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Confined Spaces Hazardous Substances Occupational Health Safety Solvents Waste Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Confined-spaces FACE-93-08 Organic-solvents OSHA Region 3 Safety-practices Toxic-effects Waste-treatment
• 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/NIOSHFACE9308
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• 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:
  5 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00213101
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB93-188936
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• CAS Registry Number:
  Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3) ; Xylene (CAS RN 1330-20-7) ; Methanol (CAS RN 67-56-1) ; Isopropanol (CAS RN 67-63-0) ; Methyl ethyl ketone (CAS RN 78-93-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1993
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/25
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e17d88ad99c5fc2577cb44321d4b48b5285078adbab24a5f959ea3b8d2a39eb65e3416c2829a1987ed16db879102ffe0c18eb39ada42bb8639c90bce52e3deba
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167525/cdc_167525_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 77.52 KB ]