Nitrogen possible cause in S Carolina fatality

06 November 2006 17:42  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Nitrogen poisoning may have caused the death of a worker on Saturday at the 3V Inc. chemical specialties facility in South Carolina, federal safety officials said on Monday.

A worker was killed and another was hospitalised after both fell ill on Saturday afternoon while working in a confined space, identified as a dryer in the Georgetown plant, according to the US Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB).

“The company has told CSB staff that the interior of the dryer had an oxygen-deficient atmosphere,” the board said.

A safety board investigator is at the 3V plant site in Georgetown, South Carolina to probe the fatality and may have a preliminary evaluation later on Monday, said board spokesman Randy Gilmour.

 “One of the things we’re going to be looking for in that accident is whether it is yet another case of nitrogen poisoning,” Gilmour said. The board investigated the 5 November 2005 nitrogen asphyxiation death of two contract employees at the Valero Energy refinery in Delaware City, Delaware.

The board issued on 2 November a safety warning about the risks of nitrogen asphyxiation among workers at refineries and chemical plants where the odourless and colourless inert gas frequently is used to purge pipelines and process vessels of other gases or contaminants.

In 1999, the board issued a formal recommendation for nitrogen to be odorised in order to alert workers to the presence of a potentially fatal atmosphere.

Officials at the Georgetown offices of 3V were not available for comment on Monday.  The company is the US unit of 3V Italia, headquartered at Bergamo, Italy.  Georgetown is on South Carolina’s Atlantic coast about 60 miles northeast of Charleston.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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