Mysterious Death Reveals Risk In Federal Oil Field Rules

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I'm clearing out old emails.

Mysterious Death Reveals Risk In Federal Oil Field Rules

March 30, 2016·5:28 AM ET

On a cold night in January 2012, Dustin Bergsing climbed on top of a crude oil storage tank in North Dakota's Bakken oil field. His job was to open the hatch on top and drop a rope inside to measure the level of oil. But just after midnight, a co-worker found him dead, slumped next to the open hatch. ... Even though an autopsy showed Bergsing had hydrocarbons in his blood — things like benzene and butane — the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's investigation found no safety violations. And it didn't fine the oil company.

Reporter Mike Soraghan came across Bergsing's case while researching oil field fatalities for EnergyWire, an online business publication. ... "A 21-year-old kid just sort of dies out in the middle of nowhere and nothing happens?" Soraghan says. "I just remember reading through it and thinking, 'That's it?' "

With the help of Dr. Bob Harrison, who specializes in occupational and environmental medicine, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a pattern was uncovered: nine oil workers found dead on oil pads in the past six years, many of them young and otherwise healthy.

Based on Bergsing's autopsy, Harrison believes they passed out after they opened oil-tank hatches and were engulfed in large amounts of petroleum gases. ... "It was one of those aha moments that I have every so often in my career as a doctor treating patients with toxic-chemical exposures," he says. ... Families of at least six of the deceased are suing their employers. Since last year, NIOSH has warned the industry about the hazard, but exposure continues — in part because another federal agency's rules make it difficult to use safer measurement methods.

....
This story was produced by Inside Energy, a public media collaboration focused on America's energy issues. Contact reporter Emily Guerin at [e-mail].

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Toxic vapors suspected in deaths of three Colorado oil and gas workers

Toxic vapors suspected in deaths of three Colorado oil and gas workers

By Monte Whaley | [e-mail] | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: May 17, 2015 at 2:48 pm | UPDATED: April 23, 2016 at 1:34 am

Joe Ray Sherman’s death on a Weld County oil patch last year was tragic but not entirely unexpected. ... The 51-year-old was diabetic and suffered heart problems. The native Texan moved to Colorado 20 years ago in hopes that the clear, mountain air would get him healthier. ... The Weld County coroner confirmed what many believed, ruling his death while servicing one of the county’s oil wells was caused by heart disease.

But his March 2014 death soon became part of a mysterious puzzle that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is piecing together along with eight other oil field deaths over the past five years. ... All of the fatalities occurred at crude oil production tanks, and all the victims were either working alone or weren’t being observed by anyone. Most of the death certificates listed natural causes or heart failure as the cause. ... Three of the deaths were in Colorado, three more in North Dakota and one each in Texas, Oklahoma and Montana.

By late April, federal health officials had enough evidence to sound a national alarm over a dangerous trend in America’s oil fields. The men died after inhaling toxic amounts of hydrocarbon chemicals after either tank gauging — measuring the level of oil or other byproducts in tanks coming out of wells — or from taking samples of oil for more testing. ... The exposure happens when hatches on production tanks are opened manually and a plume of hydrocarbon gases and vapors are released under high pressure. The gases and vapors can include benzene, a carcinogen, as well as hydrocarbons like ethane, propane and butane. ... Besides explosions and asphyxiation, high concentrations of hydrocarbons can cause disorientation and, in some cases, sudden death.
....

Oil and gas sites are exempt from many OSHA rules, and working in the industry is considered one of the most hazardous in the country. The national occupational fatality rate for the oil and gas industry was seven times higher than general industry and 2½ times higher than the construction industry between 2005 and 2009, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.
....

Monte Whaley
Monte Whaley is a Palisade native who covers education and other interesting topics for The Denver Post.

Follow Monte Whaley @montewhaley

[underpants]

2. Interesting. Not to make light of this but the Ketchup factory deaths (6)

http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/6-workers-drown-in-lucknow-ketchup-factory-tank/643705/

Six persons died and two others were injured when they fell into a tank at a ketchup manufacturing unit in Lucknow's Talkatora area on Wednesday evening. The injured have been admitted to the Trauma Center.

The victims worked at the Akansha Food Products unit in Mayapuram locality in Rajajipuram. The factory owner, Ritesh Arora, has been detained by the police.

The 20-feet deep tank was used for fermenting vegetables. According to the police, one of the workers, Usha, was trying to scoop up fermented liquids from the tank, when her ladder slipped and she fell into the tank.

"When the woman fell in, the other workers jumped in to help her," said Rajiv Krishna, Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow. The police suspect that once inside the tank, the workers fell unconscious due to the gases from the fermented liquids and drowned.