UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 4:45 p.m. on February 19, 2019, an employee was working for a land grant univ ersity. He arrived at work, reviewed the list of tasks to be done, and chose to power wash a swine nursery. The swine nursery comprised four 1.5-meter by 3-mete r (5-foot by 10-foot) pens that needed to be power washed. The swine nursery was not equipped with electrical components, so a gasoline-powered power washer had to be used. The water hook up was inside the nursery area. Two hose lengths wer e attached. The hose lengths were not long enough to set the machine fully outsi de, so the power washer was placed with a wheel propping open the outside door. The employee began power washing the swine nursery. After approximately an hour of work, he started feeling symptoms: headache, blurred vision, weakness, and di zziness. He turned everything off and noticed the the outside door was partially closed (cracked open) from the wind. The employee walked to the pavilion, falli ng down from dizziness a few times. He was suffering from elevated carboxyhemogl obin blood levels. He was hospitalized. Later, he was transferred to a different hospital to receive hyperbaric chamber treatments. Following the employee's exp osure, it was determined that the employee had been exposed to a concentration o f 150.4 parts carbon monoxide per million parts of air for an 8-hour time-weight ed average (TWA). The exposure concentration was determined by the employee's ca rboxyhemoglobin (%COHb) medical blood gas measurement.