Bas Research: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Sep 8, 2017: Employee sustains second degree burns in an explosion

At 4:03 p.m. on September 8, 2017, an employee was working under a fume hood with a container of homogenized plant material with ethanol in a 5,000 ml glass Pyrex beaker. The Pyrex beaker had been placed on a heating plate. A mixing rod on a fixed mixer machine was extended into this beaker in order to mix the plant material in a 200 proof ethanol solution. The employee was also manually turning the beaker while adding additional heat to the solution with a heat gun. The employee moved the beaker close enough to the mixing blade at the tip of the mixing rod such that the mixing blade impacted with the internal side of the glass beaker. The glass shattered upon impact and the flammable mixture of plant extract and ethyl alcohol sprayed out of the opening, contacting the heating element of the heat gun. An explosion occurred that contacted the employee's hands and torso. He sustained second degree burns, which he was hospitalized and received treatment.