"employee's foot was coated with the molten aluminum....."

 

Aftermath of molten aluminium flowing into a boot.

On our travels around the industry our contacts will give us photos and videos. The first time someone gave us a video we asked why? The response back was “because you care and talk about safety to many plants. If this video can prevent an incident use it.” From then on it has continued. We never tell where the video was recorded. Because yet again, we do not care where an incident occurs. We place no blame on the company nor the worker(s). We are focused on preventing a recurrence. With that said, we misplaced the photo that we wanted to use in this post. It was a gruesome photo showing the aftermath when molten metal flowed into a boot. The foot in the photo shows classic third-degree burns. The above photo shows burns of lesser degree. Regardless, the worker in the photo above suffered immense pain and hardship. This past incident highlights the importance of proper footwear around molten metal.

In  2019, an employee was pouring molten aluminum into a mold that had two risers when it leaked out of the bottom of the mold during the first attempt to pour. The employee made a second attempt and stood closer while starting to pour into the mold. The employee's foot was coated with the molten aluminum when it leaked through on his second attempt and sustained burns to his foot when the metal melted through his athletic shoes. The employee was hospitalized.

It soon will be the 2^nd anniversary of the incident above. We pray that the worker has recovered enough to have a productive life. Many times a worker who suffers molten metal burns to this severity will have a number of surgeries. We pray that after every surgery that the worker recovers fully.

We pray that every company who handles molten metal requires, supplies, and confirms their workers, contractors, visitors where the proper footwear. Because if they don’t their foot or feet will look like the photo above or worse.

The company was fined less than $20,000. That fine means little to the injured worker. We give a presentation one time regarding fines and incidents. We explained a variety of incidents, either an injury or fatality. We then discussed each fine. We offered a rhetorical question. Do you think the fine is punishment enough to the companies? We added before you answer, imagine if you are one of the injured or dead workers. Now answer. We tell workers you have to be safe because it means little to you after you get injured if your employer is fined. If anything it means nothing, but you have to deal with the injury or your loved ones have to deal with absence if you are killed. We acknowledge that is blunt talk but it works.

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