This week, we saw OSHA issue two willful and three serious violations totaling $122,602 to a sperm bank for bulls (cattle) after an employee was asphyxiated while filling freezers with Liquid Nitrogen. And back in 2017, we saw another sperm bank, this one for humans, have a Nitrogen incident which claimed the life of a Deputy Sheriff and critically injured the supervisor of the business. I have personally observed liquid nitrogen in businesses that I strongly suspected lacked the necessary safety programs, designs, knowledge, and training to manage such a hazardous material. I thought it would be helpful to show how a business that already uses, or is considering using, Liquid N2 should do so safely. Using one of my favorite sources, the International Fire Code, we can see the structure of a well-established plan for designing and handling liquid N2. This will be a three (3) part article as there is a lot to discuss.
Liquid Nitrogen and the IFC (Part I)
