"three workers were burned by molten metal on their legs"

 Every plant that deals with molten metal understands the hazard that it presents to their workers. Overtime some plants have evolved to where they have installed engineering controls that have greatly reduced their workers exposure to molten metal. Other plants due to their nature of their manufacturing process are rather limited to the engineering controls that they can install. For instance some foundries are very labor intensive and on occasion workers can be burned by molten metal. Here is a recent story.

Emergency crews were first dispatched to the foundry shortly before 11:30 a.m. one morning during the week of January 29, 2017. All three workers were burned by molten metal on their legs. Officials say all three were sent to a hospital for treatment. The names of the victims are not being released at this time.

Officials said it appears no mechanical failure was responsible for the injuries. There was no fire or explosion. The cause of the injuries is under investigation. The scene was cleared around noon.

The foundry company released the following statement:

"Three workers suffered non-life threatening injuries after metal splashed during a routine pouring process. Two workers received treatment for minor burns while the third suffered burns to his leg and was taken to the hospital for further treatment. He is expected to make a full recovery."

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog prays that the injured workers recover fully from their injuries. We have posted photos of molten metal burns on this blog

. We have spoken with many workers who have

We do not know what type of personal protection equipment (PPE) the injured workers were wearing. One of the television news reports stated that the workers were burned on the back of their legs. If that is indeed the case we would assume that the workers were wearing protective chaps. Which exposed the back of their legs to molten metal. In many foundries that we have toured the use of aprons and chaps was commonplace. Unfortunately, those clothing options allow for gaps in the protective clothing exposing areas where molten metal can come into contact with the worker’s clothing. We would recommend that when handling molten metal workers personnel protection equipment is all encompassing and provides protection against molten metal to their entire body.

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