From the OSHA fatality inspection for this tragedy: on May 15, 1990, Employee #1 and a coworker, both mechanics, entered a corn starch reactor to do maintenance and repair. The reactor was approximately 20 ft in length by 80 ft in diameter and was equipped with one 18 in. entry/exit manhole. The crawl space inside the reactor measured 24 in. Once inside the reactor, the coworker first detected an odor of propylene oxide and then observed the chemical leaking from an open vent. He managed to reach the manhole and escape. Employee #1, however, was overcome and died of asphyxia. Proper confined space entry procedures had not been followed.
Many workplaces contain spaces that are considered "confined" because their configurations hinder the activities of employees who must enter, work in, and exit them. A confined space has limited or restricted means for entry or exit, and it is not designed for continuous employee occupancy. Confined spaces include, but are not limited to underground vaults, tanks, storage bins, manholes, pits, silos, process vessels, and pipelines. OSHA's 1993 confined spaces standard helps to prevent more than 50 deaths and more than 5,000 serious injuries annually for 1.6 million workers who enter confined spaces each year. Propylene is a colorless gas with a slight odor or a liquid under pressure. The acute (short term) health effects with exposure to high levels can cause you to feel dizzy and lightheaded; very high levels can make you pass out and even die from lack of oxygen. Contact with liquefied Propylene can cause frostbite. Exposure may cause an irregular heart beat. This can cause death. For more details on confined space hazards and their control, go to the OSHA webpage at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/confinedspaces/index.html . This is from the January 1993 Alternative Views #503: DEADLY CORN which presented the documentary film, Deadly Corn, produced by labor video activists by Rose Feurer and Dave Rathke of Labor Vision of St Louis. The film shows the abusive and dangerous conditions of the workers in a plant in Illinois, and the struggles of the union members against unsafe working conditions and 12 hour days. Members of Allied Industrial Workers Local 837 averaged 21 years in the plant at the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, a corn-processing plant in Decatur, Illinois. In the 1980s, Staley and the Union cooperated to correct many health and safety hazards after adeadly fire and dust explosion in the late 1970s. When British multinational Tate & Lyle bought Staley in 1988, nearly 80 years of peaceful and mostly cooperative labor-management relations ended. The new owners hired union-busting experts as top managers in Decatur. During 1992 contract talks, these managers attacked seniority and the grievance procedure, and they sought to impose 12-hour shifts, with workers switching between nights and days every 30 days. The proposed to strip the existing 116-page contract down to 17 pages. Local 837 debunked the company's claim that the plant was "uncompetitive" by demonstrating that the value-added per worker was $467,000. They believed that the company wanted to provoke a strike, replace workers with scabs, and bust the union. The Staley workers had just seen UAW members in their town abandon a five month strike when Caterpillar threatened to permanently replace them. They were locked out by Staley in June 1993 after nine months working without a contract. Local 837 then mobilized nationwide support for an aggressive corporate campaign against Staley. The workers and their Union struggle for another 30 months, returning to work in December 1995. The Allied Industrial Workers Union (AIW) is now affiliated with the United Steelworkers Union (USW).
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Confined spaces: deadly spaces (4 of 4)by WorkSafeBC17,852 views
This is a tragic example of unsafe work practices and unqualified people handling dangerous materials. This was so unnecessary and sad. Thank you for this retrospective look back!
kazanlaw 1 month ago