Injury from Hazmat cleanup.

[mamkling]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado

I've been working for the same trucking company on the dock for 2 years. I recently moved and my very first day at the new terminal I was told to cleanup a hazmat spill. Both terminals I worked at I have never seen any dockworkers use hazmat protective equipment to cleanup a spill. I have never been trained or been shown where the hasmat protective equipment is.

When I went to cleanup the trailer their was a trainer and trainee already working on it. A drum of flammable liquid had been punctured. The fumes were powerful. You could smell them from 40 feet away. After 20 minutes in the trailer I asked the manager for a ventilation mask. I had 2 witness that watched me ask him. He came back 10 minutes later with dust masks and quickly walked away. We ended up cleaning up the spill, however, I went to the clinic because of eye irritation at the end of the week. The drums were still on the dock and I saw a label that stated DO NOT inhale mist or vapors. We inhaled the fumes for almost 2 hours in a confined space.

Is there anything I can do to hold them accountable? I have been to the clinic twice and they won't help me get the MSDS from my employer so they can verify what I was exposed to..

 

[FlyingRon]

The clinic's job is not to badger your employer. I presume you requested the MSDS and were denied?

OSHA information about your rights as well as the complaint procedure (see the big FILE A COMPLAINT button) is here https://www.osha.gov/index.html

 

[mamkling]

The clinic's job is not to badger your employer. I presume you requested the MSDS and were denied?

OSHA information about your rights as well as the complaint procedure (see the big FILE A COMPLAINT button) is here https://www.osha.gov/index.html

I don't want them to badger my employer, I want them to inform me or my employer of what they need to properly diagnose me. The didn't tell me they needed the MSDS until the 2nd visit. Thanks for the info.

 

[FlyingRon]

I don't want them to badger my employer, I want them to inform me or my employer of what they need to properly diagnose me. The didn't tell me they needed the MSDS until the 2nd visit. Thanks for the info.

It's not their job to figure this out. If you don't know what you were exposed to, you need to contact your employer.

 

[justalayman]

So, what was the chemical. It would have been on the label of the barrel. I'll look up the msds of you will provide the name and if applicable the concentration of the chemical involved


Beyond that, you can contact osha or your states version if they have one. They will likely send an investigator to the location

 

[mamkling]

It's not their job to figure this out. If you don't know what you were exposed to, you need to contact your employer.

Yea, I'm gonna try to go back to the clinic and tell my employer they need to provide me with the msds.

So, what was the chemical. It would have been on the label of the barrel. I'll look up the msds of you will provide the name and if applicable the concentration of the chemical involved


Beyond that, you can contact osha or your states version if they have one. They will likely send an investigator to the location

I will definitely be contacting OSHA to see if what they did was a violation of any regulations. I took a picture of the batch number.

 

[Ladyback1]

Yea, I'm gonna try to go back to the clinic and tell my employer they need to provide me with the msds.



I will definitely be contacting OSHA to see if what they did was a violation of any regulations. I took a picture of the batch number.

have you filed a work comp claim? If no, why not?

If yes? Get an attorney who specializes in work comp and let the atty assist in getting your employer to cooperate.

 

[ElleMD]

If there is no lingering effect, there is noting for a WC attorney to do, nor would they hound the employer for the MSDS. I've handled more of these cases than I can count. Ask the employer for the MSDS (though you should know where they are kept). Or, read the name off the barrel and google it. The MSDS is always online. It is your responsibility to inform the clinic what you were exposed to and bring the MSDS, not the clinic's to play 20 questions and hunt it down.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

That was a very stupid call by your boss. If you are going to work at a trucking company, you should learn the hazardous materials you will be handling. Most flammable liquids will evaporate though your company should be calling a HAZMAT specialist to handle cleanups in the dock area. Generally, dock operations should be shutdown until the trailer can be safely pulled away to allow evaporation. I would say an OSHA violation occurred and a report should be made on the incident.

 

[FlyingRon]

It matters not who you work for, the MSDS must be available to workers. Once the containers were open and not just being stores/shipped additional requirements were necessary from the employer.
There are specific employer obligations to employees that are exposed. This is clear cut. The employer here is not in compliance. The clinic (I'm assuming this is a distinct entity from the employer) isn't responsible for any of this, it's an employer-employee relationship.

All this again I've already provided. This is what OSHA does.

 

[mamkling]

have you filed a work comp claim? If no, why not?

If yes? Get an attorney who specializes in work comp and let the atty assist in getting your employer to cooperate.

I'm going to file a work comp claim tomorrow. Is workcomp within the company or outside of it? I need to look into getting an attorney too.

That was a very stupid call by your boss. If you are going to work at a trucking company, you should learn the hazardous materials you will be handling. Most flammable liquids will evaporate though your company should be calling a HAZMAT specialist to handle cleanups in the dock area. Generally, dock operations should be shutdown until the trailer can be safely pulled away to allow evaporation. I would say an OSHA violation occurred and a report should be made on the incident.

I called OSHA to do a formal inspection. I signed the paperwork and sent it in a week ago. I don't think they've showed up yet. My boss also attempted to write me up a couple of weeks later for cleaning up the spill. He falsified what happened saying I went against procedures that I had been trained on to clean it up. He didn't write up the other two guys, only me. I was the only one that asked to go to the clinic.

Is this grounds for an EEO case? Retaliation for seeking treatment? I refused to sign the write up. He also tried to give me a packet explaining how to deal with Hazmat. He told me to initial it. I refused. I knew he would backdate it.

The chemical was a resin solution that contained Styrene Monomer.

It has been found to cause cancer in animals. Causes eye, nose, throat irritation. Can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea. On the barrel it said do not inhale, must use protection. It can also cause pulmonary edema.

 

[justalayman]

Well, the good news is that unless you drank it or you have continuing symptoms, you are going to be fine. It is a hazardous material but generslly it requires long term/ continued exposure to cause any long lasting problems (unless you drink it anyway).

It sounds like the legal issues are the bulk of the issue now.

Your employer is required to have on site, available to the employees, with the location of the msds for any chemical requiring an msds they may be exposed to. That is the law. If osha comes in and asks any employee where the msds is kept and the employee was not informed, that is a citable violation.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

It is a form of Benzene. All that was needed was to open the loading doors and allow it to evaporate. An employee with breathing equipment could have used a tow motor to pickup a pierced drum and put it outside.

 

[Zigner]

It is a form of Benzene. All that was needed was to open the loading doors and allow it to evaporate. An employee with breathing equipment could have used a tow motor to pickup a pierced drum and put it outside.

A tow motor? Would said employee understand the hazards due to flammability?

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

The drums would have been skidded. The tow motor operator had the forks to high and forked a barrel. It is one of the most common damage issues in trucking. The tow motor would be touching wood. Then technically, the supervisor should call for a hazmat cleanup team but once it evaporates there is nothing to clean. If there is an injury, the Hazmat cleanup team should be called because of OSHA.

Gov't Regs often require Hazmat teams be called regardless of the logic of their arrival. For example, I had a brake malfunction on a semi, the computer took over braking all wheels and causing a jackknife in the rain. Once recovery was out of the question, I turned the wheel to keep the tractor jammed into the trailer hoping to avoid going through a guardrail. After destroying about 30 yards of guardrail, I continued to ride out the jackknife, because touching the brakes might have caused the trailer to swing wide and hit traffic trying to clear the truck. After sliding downhill about 250 yards, I slammed into the Jersey Barriers in the middle of the road backwards, crushing the right fuel tank along with destroying the truck. About 185 gallons of diesel spilled out of the crushed tank and ran across 30 feet of highway into drain that dropped into the ravine/creek I almost ended up in. About 100 yards down stream it went into a major river. The fire dept spread sand onto the diesel oil on the road to absorb it and the rain washed the sand and diesel into the drain also. I received a call from the Hazmat team asking what the status was, he said they were about 1.5 hours away. I told him it was a waste of time for them to come since the sand would clean the road and it was all being washed into the river. He insisted they were going to drive for 1.5 hours to get there, re-clean 30 feet by 5 feet of highway and then drive 1.5 hours back. More leakage was not an issue as the fuel tank was crushed so badly the wrecker crew tossed it into their pickup truck. I could not resist and told him by the time he got here, the diesel was going to be 40 miles downstream at least. He ignored the reality.

A tow motor? Would said employee understand the hazards due to flammability?