Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
phosgene were used in large scale and many safety precautions were taken.
In the 25-year history, there had been two workplace deaths - both from the
same incident. The accident was not a fire or an explosion. It did not involve
one of the poisonous gases. Rather it was from nitrogen. One worker went
into an area that had been blanketed with nitrogen and was overcome due to
lack of oxygen. A second person also died after going into the same area to
rescue the overcome worker.
Common gases such as oxygen and nitrogen have been involved in
tragedies in the NASA space program. In the early years of space explo-
ration, NASA circulated oxygen rather than air in the spacecrafts. In 1967,
while training for Apollo 1, there was an unexpected spark and three astro-
nauts burned to death. In response, NASA began using nitrogen to blanket
compartments prone to sparking. Years later, in 1981 five workers on the
Columbia space shuttle entered a compartment that had been inerted
with nitrogen. They hadn't realized that the compartment had not been
subsequently flushed with breathable air. Three of the five died.
Unfortunately there are other cases of nitrogen asphyxiation. In November
2005, two contract workers performing maintenance at a Valero refinery died.
One died while attempting to rescue the other. The Chemical Safety Board
investigated this accident and issued a case study and safety video to help
prevent more tragedies from nitrogen.
Chemicals have hazards and need to be handled with appropriate caution.
However, they are often sensationalized in the media. Consider the next sen-
tence which may be a cause for great alarm. There is one chemical that is the
second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children aged 1 to 14
years, and the fifth leading cause for people of all ages. That sentence might
cause the lay person to be terrified of chemicals. Can you guess what chemical
it is? It is H
2
O and the deaths are due to accidental drowning.
It would be a mistake to conclude that chemical tragedies only occur in
industrial settings. Unfortunately there can be household accidents and acci-
dents in academia. For example, in 2009 a researcher at UCLA died from
injuries sustained in a fire that started when the plunger came out of the
syringe she was using to transfer a solution of t-butyl lithium [2].
Despite the tragedies and probably because of the focus on safety, the
chemical industry is safer than the lay person might imagine. OSHA main-
tains statistics on the number of reportable injuries and illnesses per year per
100 full-time workers. OSHA requires that a work-related injury or illness
resulting in one of the following: death, days away from work, restricted
work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of
consciousness, or diagnosis of a significant injury or illness by a physician
or other licensed health care professional be reported. In 2010, the average
number of reportables for all industries including state and local government
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