Harcros Chemicals Inc.

An employee was introducing an air sparge to an atmospheric blending vessel which contained sodium glucoheptonate (SGH) mother liquid heated to approximately 210 degrees Fahrenheit. The employee opened a valve to introduce air at the base of the vessel and rise through the vessel contents. The valve was stuck and when the handle broke free it turned further than desired and released more air than intended. The air rising through the vessel caused the SGH mother liquid to splash out of a 23-inch diameter manhole in the top of the vessel approximately 11 feet above the employee. The heated liquid fell onto the employee causing first- and second-degree thermal burns to his back.

While opening a valve an employee was splashed with chemicals and sustained chemical burns to the right leg, right arm, and face.

An employee was moving a pallet jack from a loading dock onto a trailer when the pallet jack became stuck in a gap between the dock and the trailer. The employee attempted to pull the jack free of the gap when his hand became pinched in the equipment, resulting in a partial amputation of the right index finger.

An employee was using a forklift to unload a pallet of 55-gallon drums from a tractor trailer. A 55-gallon drum containing hydrofluoric acid was leaking and the acid was released into the air. The employee was hospitalized for exposure to the acid including lung and throat injuries.

An employee was washing out a tank with hot water that was about 130 to 140 degrees. The hot water scalded his back, resulting in third degree burns.

An employee was on a two-step ladder performing cleaning activities in the de-oiler machine. The employee fell back and his right arm was caught in the equipment, resulting in a right forearm fracture that required surgery.

An employee was changing an insert in the tool head of a CNC machine. The employee had stepped up approximately 28 inches onto the door track of the machine. When the employee went to step back down to the floor, they lost balance and fell backward onto a rack of metal parts. The employee sustained a compression fracture to the spine.

An employee was packaging steel coils on a turntable. As he walked across the turntable, he slipped and fell onto a coil. His left bicep was lacerated by the slit edge of a coil.

An employee was monitoring a lumber-stacking machine when they slipped and fell into an unbanded bundle of lumber. The outer row of lumber then fell on their left leg, fracturing their leg and ankle.

An employee was putting parts away in a warehouse. He tripped and fell into metal shelving, resulting in a broken arm.

An employee was tightening a belt on a conveyor when the open-end wrench caught his right ring finger at the distal phalange and amputated it.

An employee was troubleshooting equipment. Due to an equipment malfunction, the employee fell off a beam that was 12-feet high above a powder mixer. He struck another piece of equipment on the ground level and ended up on the ground, unconscious. The employee was hospitalized with burns to his hands, a brain bleed, and fractures to his wrist, pelvis, and tailbone.

An employee was filling an ammonia nurse tank. Ammonia (NH3) released from a valve and contacted the employee's chest. The employee also inhaled ammonia vapors and was hospitalized.

An employee was dumping a load of trash from a self-dumping hopper into a roll-off dumpster. The hopper shifted while the load was dumping and pinched the employee's left hand against the forklift forks. The employee's fingertip was amputated.

An employee was working on a glyphosate tote line. As she was backing up on a 13-inch-high platform, one of her feet slipped off and she fell backward. Her head struck the floor and she lost consciousness, suffering a skull fracture and a brain bleed.

An employee slipped while climbing a ladder on a skidder, fell to the ground, and suffered a tibia/fibula fracture. The employee was hospitalized.

An employee was lowering the bucket of a track loader that contained a grade stake and the grade stake punctured his foot, resulting in hospitalization and surgery.

An employee was using a pike to move a pallet of sugar that was stuck in the powder racking. The employee fell backward, landing on his right leg. The employee's leg was fractured and he was hospitalized.

An employee was working to fix the forks on a forklift when the fork(s) fell on her toes. The second and third toes on her right foot were fractured, lacerated, and required stitches.

An employee was delivering a 65-foot boom lift to a rental customer's construction site. The employee set up the ramp truck in the parking lot adjacent to the construction site. He elevated the boom 4-5 feet to clear a temporary fence. While driving the boom lift off the ramp, the wheels slid to the driver's side of the ramp truck, ultimately sliding off the ramp. The boom lift fell off the side of the truck and rolled onto its side. The employee sustained a fractured clavicle, a dislocated shoulder, separated/fractured ribs, a punctured lung, and a fractured left femur. The employee required surgery.