FAQ

Employees in a woodworking shop were using compressed air to clean sawdust off their clothes. One man pushed the hose between the legs of another worker. Operations failed to save the injured man’s life.

He died in agony within three hours. Investigation showed that air pressure was shallow. Some of the injuries suffered by the victim included:

• The bowel is torn open in three places
• The abdominal cavity is filled with fluid, blood, and fecal matter
• Abdominal cavity membranes torn in several places
• Abdomen and hernia canals ballooned
• Bruises and bleeding
• Shock

A man working on a car had cut the right side of his index finger, only about 3/8″ long (10mm), which bled very little. The mechanic was so intently occupied with the work that he continued. He went ahead washing a few small parts in some cleaning fluid, and when he had finished, he held some of them in his left hand and began blowing them dry with a compressed air gun.

Apparently, the jet of air sprayed over the small cut he had received earlier. A short while later, complaining of great pain, he staggered to his shop manager and complained that his body and head felt as though they were going to explode.

He was rushed to the hospital where his condition was diagnosed as “air bubbles in his bloodstream”. These and traces of cleaning fluid were in his blood. Luckily the employee recovered within for days but the doctor gave him a warning that he would not soon forget.

“You could very easily have died”, he said, “from one or both of the dangerous elements in this situation: in using the air hose on an open wound and failing to get prompt first aid attention for a minor cut”.

A Vancouver garage had a mechanic working on a car, and while this man bent over the front fender, another person passed by with a air hose pointed toward the mechanic. The air was on, inflating his intestine causing several ruptures. He was rushed to the hospital and his life was saved by an immediate operations.

At Newport News, Virginia, a shipyard worker died after a day of intense suffering following the introduction of 90 pounds of air pressure into his body.

Another worker in a scrap iron company located in Waterbury, Connecticut, suffered 60 agony-filled hours after two of his friends decided to have fun with an old man and chose an air line as their toy. They same article went on to further explain that this was not the first time an air hose had caused a fatality in that state.

One man in a Massachusetts factory was killed in exactly the same way. Another had a narrow escape when cleaning the palm of his hand with air; the air entered his body through the pores of his skin and inflated his whole arm for nearly three days.

A case was cited in the Industrial Commission of Ohio’s “Monitor” as a victim of air hose horseplay. For about 12 years the victim of this simple playful act was in and out of hospitals. The year of suffering that it brought to the victim is a rather heavy price to pay for gratifying an employee’s whim to have a little fun.

A machine operator in a woodworking plant covered with sawdust decided to clean himself off with compressed air. He held the nozzle 12″ from the palm of his left hand. When he opened the nozzle the air, under 80 pounds of pressure struck and entered his hand. Before he realized what had happened, his arm had blown up as big as a grapefruit and was shooting pain – from fingertips to shoulders. He had excruciating pain in his head and a feeling that the top of his head was about to be blown off. This feeling was so real and the pain so intense that when help arrived, he was actually trying to hold the top of his head in place.

The surgeon said it might have been worse. Had the air forced its way into the bloodstream, it would have made its way to the very small blood vessels of the brain causing a clot, which would have burst the vessels and caused death.

It should be apparent by now that whenever air is used for cleaning purposes, there can be an inclination to get playful with the hose. A serious or fatal introduction of air into the body openings can be so quick and the result so damaging that we should all do everything we can to avoid even a chance occurrence.

Air under pressure can be just as dangerous as high-pressure steam, and when released suddenly can cause serious injury. It can maim, tear, or embed matter into the skin and bones of the human body. Air played around the face can blow out an eye, or if directed at the ear, it may puncture an eardrum and cause deafness. A person who has been painting or covered with dirt or soot can have poisonous particles blasted into the body where they immediately combine with the blood. Even air without impurities is dangerous when forced into the bloodstream through a cut or pores of the skin.

Some people believe that air in the bloodstream will cause a joint or other affected part to swell up (accompanied by severe pain) and cause small blood vessels of the brain to burst. This is only partly true. People have died because their bowel ruptured as a result of pressure as low as four pounds per square inch.

In some countries, horseplay with compressed air is a punishable offense. To point an air hose at a person is as serious an offense as pointing a gun. It is worth remembering that clothing offers no more protection against compressed air than it does against a bullet

The use of compressed air to blow away dirt, chips, iron fillings, or sharp fragments is a dangerous practice. If the pressure is strong enough to remove these particles, it will be strong enough to blow them into your eyes, ears or nose, or even the skin. It is far safer to use a brush or vacuum cleaner.