FACE investigation documents factors contributing to a worker’s death inside pressure cooker
By Robert Harrison, MD, and Laura Styles, MPH
The headlines a few weeks ago were alarming. The tragic death of a worker in a 270-degree oven three years ago led to a $6 million agreement to settle criminal charges in what Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said was the largest payout in a California workplace death (see news report). The California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program investigated this case, and the investigation report provides additional details: On Thursday, October 11, 2012, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a 62-year-old Hispanic male machine operator working in a food processing plant died when he was sealed inside a pressure cooker. The victim was assigned the task of loading the steam pressure cooker called a “retort” with carts of canned tuna using a pallet jack. When the victim’s supervisor went to check on the work progress, he noticed the pallet jack and carts loaded with canned tuna in front of the retort. The inlet door was open and the outlet door was closed. The victim was not visible. The supervisor instructed a co-worker to load the retort while he went to look for the victim. The co-worker loaded the retort with the carts containing 12,000 pounds of canned tuna but did not look inside prior to loading. The inlet door to the retort was then closed and sealed by another employee and the steam pressure turned on. After an extensive search for the victim, the supervisor had the retort turned off and the outlet door was unsealed and opened. The victim was found unresponsive inside the retort by the outlet door and pronounced dead at the scene by responding police and fire personnel.