Exposure to environmental heat unspecified · Effects of heat n.e.c.
At a glance
Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Evonik Corporation, 4201 Degussa Rd., THEODORE, ALABAMA 36590
on — Effects of heat n.e.c., affecting the BODY SYSTEMS .
Final narrative
An employee was changing a valve on an enclosed unit when they started to feel ill. They went to the hospital due to dehydration/heat illness.
An employee was climbing down from a portable manlift when the cage area he was holding onto collapsed and he fell about 6 feet to the floor, breaking his wrist and pelvis. He was hospitalized.
At about 10:30 a.m. on August 7, 2025, a warehouse technician working for Tnemec Company, Inc., began sweating profusely a half-hour into their shift. The employee was using a forklift to move staged pallets of paint to a shrink-wrapper, shrink-wrap the pallets, and then load the pallets onto a truck using a forklift. The employee became ill about two hours later and was hospitalized for heat-related illness.
On July 29, 2025, an employee working near a metal furnace. Toward the end of his shift, he was charging a furnace and began to experienced heat exhaustion. He had also been in areas of elevated temperatures due to heat sources such as direct sunlight and a combustion engine. The employee was hospitalized with dehydration.
Two employees were lifting a roll of steel poly bar (50 inches and approximately 150 pounds) from ground level to a height of 4 feet at the 66-inch rubber calendar. One employee dropped the roll, resulting in the poly bar contacting the injured employee's right knee. The employee was hospitalized with fractured right patella.
Employees were loading a 295-pound transformer onto a pickup truck using a forklift. The injured employee was acting as the spotter. The transformer hit the tailgate of the pickup truck and the spotter's right hand was struck by the transformer, resulting in amputation of the ring fingertip.
An employee was wearing full PPE while emptying a 55-gallon drum of phosphorus pentoxide and fainted, collapsing and striking their head against the ground. The employee was hospitalized and it is likely that heat caused by wearing full body PPE contributed to fainting.
An employee was troubleshooting a plug in the super-absorbent polymer line. The employee opened an inspection port and their right hand was caught in a rotary valve, resulting in the amputation of four fingers between the knuckle and the first joint.
An employee was conducting a quality control measure by taking a chemical sample for lab analysis. When the employee was opening the sample point, it broke off and crude 2-Ethylhexyl thioglycolate (EHTG) shot out at 265 degrees, and it covered the employee's legs and right arm and splashed the right side of their face. The employee was hospitalized with first- and second-degree burns to their right thigh, lower right knee, inner left thigh, and upper left forearm.
An employee was traveling down the maintenance aisle of a warehouse on a single-pallet front rider jack. The jack malfunctioned, causing the brakes to apply; the employee fell forward onto the concrete warehouse floor. The employee suffered an injury to the left leg and was hospitalized, requiring surgery.
An employee was operating a metal roller machine to roll a small piece of metal. The employee's right index finger became caught between the metal and the machine, and the fingertip was amputated.
An employee was directing a truck driver to a dump site when the truck's peanut trailer slipped off the kingpin. As the trailer fell, a ladder attached to it lacerated the employee's ear. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was unloading a forklift from a trailer to the ground. The employee was climbing down the ladder of the trailer when their foot slipped through one of the rungs, causing them to fall backward onto the forklift forks. The employee was hospitalized for fractured ribs.