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| These pictures are not intended to make light or demean the injured worker. These images are commonly used in our facilities to denote the hazards of slip trip fall incidents. |
The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted in the past the dangers associated with working around molten aluminium. Here is incident involving a possible slip or trip scenario resulting in a serious injury:
A worker at an secondary aluminum plant in the Southeast United States is recovering from burns he got in an accident at the plant on during the week of October 6, 2013.
The local fire department said the man stumbled into a pot of hot aluminum.
Sources told the local tv station that the worker, whose name has not been released, suffered burns to at least 40% of his body. The worker suffered burns to his back, buttocks, and legs.
The aluminium company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
As with a majority of the incidents this blogs posts, little information was available about how this worker came to be in a pot of molten aluminium. His injuries to his back, buttocks and legs leads one to assume that either the worker slipped and fell backwards or tripped and flipped over to land on his back. Nevertheless, this injury did occur and the worker has serious burns.
The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog hopes this worker recovers from their injuries. We understand that the recovery process will be long and will keep this worker in our prayers.
As with a majority of the incidents this blogs posts, little information was available about how this worker came to be in a pot of molten aluminium. His injuries to his back, buttocks and legs leads one to assume that either the worker slipped and fell backwards or tripped and flipped over to land on his back. Nevertheless, this injury did occur and the worker has serious burns.
The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog hopes this worker recovers from their injuries. We understand that the recovery process will be long and will keep this worker in our prayers.
Please comment.
5 comments:
In absence of the details that lead to the accident of a serious burn, one should now analyse the same such a way that such incidents do not occur in future at any location where molten metal is put a pot. 40% injury is the area of the skin affected but what about gravity of burn, It must be second degree burn if not most serious. Hope that the victim recovers
I investigated a similar type of accident, except in this case a worker fell into a hot zinc tank and died from his injuries. The employee was breaking a solid layer of zinc, which was floating on the top of the tank using a long pole. The employee was wearing all his PPE, i.e., face shield, heat jacket & gloves, full body harness and lanyard; however, he never inspected his PPE before using it. The hot zinc bubbled and landed on his lanyard which over a period of time deteriorated this lanyard, when I inspected it I found it to look like “Swiss Cheese”, full of holes. The lanyard broke along a series of holes which broke dropping the employee into the hot zinc, Cause of the accident? Lack of training.
PPE is meant to be the last line of defence, surely this type of work could be automated to remove the workers from contact with the molten metal? Wouldn't you at least use harness material that could stand up to being splashed with the molten metal?
While I agree with the statement, the reality is that in many cases it is not viable to automate the process either due to complexity or cost.
In many cases serious injuries or deaths that may happen and cost the company money are still considered to be less important than capital investment that will cost the company money.
As safety professionals we may not like it but human lives can be costed.
Sorry for the delay in commenting. But, the APSB wants to thank all of you for your comments. The APSB tend to learn so much from the comments that are left. All of you have made good points. Dealing with molten metal is hazardous, automated machinery can lessen the hazard but not eliminate it. As well as proper clothing and ppe are last defense that a worker has to minimize injury. Keep the comments coming, great discussion.
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