California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) issued 11 citations totaling $371,250 to Baxter Healthcare Corporation, doing business as Baxter Bioscience, for deliberate and willful workplace safety violations that resulted in the death of one of their technicians and serious injury of two others. On January 21, a 33-year-old Baxter technician collapsed when he entered a seven-foot-deep, 6,000 liter tank containing nitrogen gas. Air in the tank had been displaced by the nitrogen gas resulting in an oxygen deficient atmosphere. OSHA regulations require employers to have special protective procedures in place prior to employees entering these types of confined spaces. In this case, the employer had not tested the atmosphere prior to entrance to insure there was sufficient oxygen, which led to the technician's death. Cal/OSHA's investigation further revealed that when the technician was discovered, a supervisor ordered two other employees to enter the tank and retrieve him, without testing the atmosphere of the tank or providing proper equipment and other safeguards necessary for a safe rescue. As a result, the two other employees were seriously injured.
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