20260827121943

Fatal Fog: Liquid Nitrogen Release at Foundation Food Group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UoyIV6oZEc

This accident happened on January 28, 2021.
In this USCSB video, the Foundation Food Group (FFG) processing plant experienced an uncontrolled liquid nitrogen release which resulted in the deaths of 6 workers and seriously injured 3 others.
This accident occurred because a single part experienced a failure, reporting that there was no liquid nitrogen to equipment responsible for supplying more liquid nitrogen if the level was low. This resulted in the equipment continuously releasing liquid nitrogen which overflowed and vaporized, creating a dangerous atmosphere for workers.
This accident could have been prevented if there was not a single point of failure -- if there were more liquid nitrogen monitoring parts in the equipment instead of just one and if the room had its own atmosphere monitoring equipment.
The company also did not implement robust process safety management practices.
USCSB recommended that OSHA add "specific enforceable regulation", such as making a standard on how cryogenic asphyxiants should be stored, used, and handled and developing a guidance document for process saefty management practices applicable to cryogenic asphyxiants.
Messer LLC, the company which supplied the equipment which failed, continued to supply liquid nitrogen to FFG despite FFG failing to address safety issues that Messer identified.
Liquid Nitrogen's volume can increase by 700 times when vaporizing from liquid to gaseous form.

The six fatally injured people were:

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