Salvage Drum Delivered and Opened, Creating Chemical Exposure

What Happened?

On June 30, 2022, a university employee received a salvage drum delivery.  The employee opened the salvage drum and received an inhalation exposure of methanol fumes.  The employee was told to move to fresh air and the room was evacuated until Environmental Health and Safety personnel arrived to determine the source of exposure. 

                  

What was the cause?

Salvage drums are defined as “special packaging into which damaged, defective, leaking or non-conforming hazardous materials packages, or hazardous materials that have spilled or leaked are placed for the purpose of transport for recovery or disposal” (49 CFR 171.8).

This container should not be opened without first considering the risk of potential exposure to the materials contained in the container, or of potentially exposure the container contents to air. This salvage drum contained the broken remnants of a bottle of methanol. The employee was not aware of this and opened it as they would any regular chemical delivery.

What corrective actions were taken?

Environmental Health and Safety processes and delivers most chemicals for academic departments through the ‘Chemical Gateway' and this salvage drum was no different.

Gateway personnel were instructed to hold all future salvage drums for review and likely disposal preventing them from reaching the final customer. Chemistry stockroom personnel were instructed not to open any future salvage drums and instead contact Environmental Health and Safety for chemical waste collection and disposal.

How can we prevent incidents like this?

• Do not open salvage drum containers if you receive them. These containers may be marked as "salvage" or "overpack" on the outside of the container.
• Be mindful that ‘salvage drums' are not typical commercial chemical containers and should be processed as hazardous waste by Environmental Health and Safety.