Document MMg1Jx686LoQ7yva0oeXYRN8a
Tank Incident #6
Brief Summary
Tank #209 - Gulf Oil Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio - July 1937
Tank had been pumped out about two months before cleaning started and
manhole left open for ventilation dpring this time.
Three men worked on job and all worked inside tank for various periods
which are not well defined in history.
Of the three men,
was the foreman, would appear to have
been in the tank the most (and the evidence is fairly clear on this
presumption) was effected the least, ^^^who would appear to have had
intermediate time of exposure of the three men, was moderately ill. Anna
continued to have symptoms for considerably longer than would have been
expected. It is of interest that the urine lead levels on this man continued
to be high for much longer than would be expected.
The evidence is fairly
clear that
spent the least time within the tank and he is the
one of the three who was most severely ill and succumbed.
No respiratory protection was used excepting a canister mask used by
but this was used only the afternoon of the third day. The concentration of lead in the urines of ^0^.nd
and in
the tissues of
was sufficiently elevated to confirm the diagnosis
of lead intoxication.
This is clearly another instance of failure to use respiratory
protection in a tank which was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.
Although the writer is not impressed with the reliability of sludge
analytical methods nor the necessary correlation between percentage lead in
sludge and that in air it nonetheless should be mentioned that the organic
lead concentration in sludge was quite high (before cleaning started sample
showed 0.13% lead and the day after cleaning 0.23% lead).
There is reason to believe that tanks which remain idle some time
, 00173Si
2 Tank Incident #6
before cleaning operations start develop more dangerous conditions than those which are cleaned immediately after being pumped out.
3 men involved on job. 3 men with confirmed diagnosis of lead intoxication, 1 died. 10-27-1963 - LWS
0017582