Abstract: On September 6, 2002, Employees #1, #2, and #3 worked on the inner stage turbine and pumps at a chemical plant that manufactured sulfuric acid. The plant was shut down for repairs. The acid flow was stopped and blocked off. The water that flowed in the tube side of the cooler was recirculated back to the cooling tower. Four tubes in the cooling tower leaked water at 30,000 gallons per minute to the acid side of the process. The weak acid mixture traveled to the tower on the acid side and into a conductive line (used to measure concentrations of the acid) to the 5,000-gallon storage tank of sulfuric acid, which was approximately 60 percent full. The addition of the water into the concentrated acid caused an exothermic reaction and the mixture was expelled from the acid tank onto the three employees. All three employees sustained chemical burns and were hospitalized.