Death of maintenance worker

Death of maintenance worker in USA, 2006:

Incident occurred at a food processing plant.

Incident involved installing a temporary vacuum hose on a drain pipe to remove the ammonia 

from a refrigeration unit so they could replace a leaking cooling coil.

A pipe fitting split suddenly while workers were trying to drain anhydrous ammonia from 

refrigeration equipment, spraying anhydrous ammonia on the face.

Source: US Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Data and Statistics available at 

http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/index.html and US Chemical Safety Board news report www.csb.gov accessed on 10 March 2009.