Inspection Detail

Inspection: 312662075 - Heraeus Metal Processing Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Monrovia District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 8:53 a.m. on July 16, 2009, Employee #1 was working in a metal processing plant. Employee #1 was blending chemicals while extracting the metal Ruthenium. Employee #1 was told to continue the task of manufacturing Ruthenium chloride in the CP New Bay area, a task assigned to him by the operator on the previous shift. The previous shift worker was the regular operator, with 10 years experience, who usually ran this reaction. Employee #1's regular job was filtering product out of the kettle (metals like platinum, palladium, ruthenium and iridium.) Employee #1 had never received training on the procedure of extracting Ruthenium and he had never performed this procedure under supervision before. As there was no supervisor on site, Employee #1, received his work assignment from the previous shift operator and was told to continue this work. Employee #1 was wearing appropriate personal protective equipment including glasses with side shields, hard hat with face shield, safety shoes, and work uniform. Employee #1 suffered second-degree and third-degree chemical burns due to the chemicals he was using in this process after the reaction mixture came out of the reactor container. Employee #1 was hospitalized.

Keywords: BURN, PPE, CHEMICAL REACTION, CHEMICAL BURN, UNTRAINED, CHEMICAL