Equipment Opening gone bad (barium sulfide wash cone with a steam line)

NOTE: this was NOT a PSM covered process.

OSHA determined the employee — on the job just two months — opened an air intake valve to inspect a noise coming from a barium sulfide wash cone with a steam line that was left open the day before. A rush of cold air in the steam line created a bubble that pushed up heated sludge onto the worker, causing fatal burns. A second worker suffered second-degree burns across their upper body.

Before OSHA concluded the investigation, the agency learned that 25 days after the fatal incident, another employee inspecting a leaking gasket under a tank full of sodium hydroxide solution suffered chemical burns when the tank overflowed. The second incident remains under investigation.

OSHA found the company:

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