Fatality File

“Somebody better do something about that [propylene oxide (PO)] gas before someone gets killed in there.”

“[I]n there” was a cornstarch processing tank, a tight and dangerously restricted area known as a “confined space.” And within hours after these words were uttered, a worker making repairs inside that space succumbed to toxic PO vapors. In a twist of tragic irony, the victim was 54-year-old Jim Beals, the very worker who had sounded the all too prophetic warning to begin with. How Jim Beals Died in a Confined Space The tragedy began […]