Video Depicts 2021 Liquid Nitrogen Release at Poultry Processing Plant
A new video released by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) features an animation of events that led to a deadly liquid nitrogen release at a Foundation Food Group poultry processing plant in Gainesville, Georgia, in January 2021. The release caused the deaths of six poultry plant workers by asphyxiation. Three other plant workers and one firefighter responding to the incident were seriously injured, also by asphyxiation. CSB’s video describes safety issues that contributed to the incident and outlines recommendations that the agency made to OSHA regarding cryogenic asphyxiants.
CSB investigators determined that a damaged “bubbler” tube, a device used to measure liquid nitrogen levels inside industrial freezers, was among the equipment and process failures that led to the release. According to CSB, the damaged bubbler tube represented a “single point of failure” in the design of the freezer that malfunctioned, as there were no other safeguards to prevent the release of liquid nitrogen. The investigation also found that Messer LLC, the freezer manufacturer and owner, had practiced improper product stewardship; Messer had identified deficient safety practices by Foundation Food Group but continued to supply the plant with liquid nitrogen. Foundation Food Group had also failed to install atmospheric monitoring and alarm systems at the plant, prepare employees for the possibility of a liquid nitrogen release, and implement a process safety management system, the investigation found.
CSB Board Member Sylvia Johnson and agency investigators Drew Sahli, Tyler Nelson, and Bill Steiner provide commentary throughout the video.
“When an organization introduces a hazardous chemical into its process, it should implement robust process safety management practices to effectively control the risks, regardless of whether a regulation requires it,” Nelson explains. “But the CSB also believes that there is a need for a specific, enforceable regulation of cryogenic asphyxiants such as liquid nitrogen [from OSHA] so that companies are required to act where FFG did not.”
CSB recommends that OSHA publish a guidance document on process safety management for compressed gases and cryogenic asphyxiants in addition to promulgating a specific standard.
CSB’s new video, “Fatal Fog: Liquid Nitrogen Release at Foundation Food Group,” is available on its YouTube channel. For more information, see the agency’s news release.