Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1789327.015 - Everett Ship Repair, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Northwest Area Office

Investigation Summary

On November 14, 2024, an employee was working as a laborer on the dock at a shipyard moving materials into and out of a staging area. The staging area is next to an area where the employer was preparing to have a caisson sandblasted. Sandblasting media and the material being blasted leaked out from gaps around the caisson causing the employee to be incidentally exposed to sandblaster chemicals. The employee experienced respiratory distress causing him to go the same day to the hospital where he was released. The employee continued having respiratory issues. On the morning of November 18, 2024, a roommate found the employee dead. The cause of the employee's death is unknown and is possibly due to an adverse reaction to inhalation of blast media and materials which included coal slag, steel grit and paint particles from the materials that were being removed.

Keywords: Abrasive Blasting, Allergic Reaction, Asphyxiated, Blasting, Breathing, Carbon Steel, Chemical, Chemical Exposure, Coal, Dust, Dust Inhalation, Engineering Controls, Inhalation, Laborer, Lack of Engineering Controls, Lack of oxygen, Lung, Non-PEL Overexposure, Overexposure, Repair, Respiratory, Respiratory Tract, Sand, Sandblasting, Ship, Shipyard, Shortness of breath, Steel