FEAR OF JOB LOSS MAY HAVE HAD ROLE IN ARSENAL DEATHS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992                   TAG: 9201290149
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN                                LENGTH: Medium
FEAR OF JOB LOSS MAY HAVE HAD ROLE IN ARSENAL DEATHS
Fear of being blamed for an ether spill and possibly losing their jobs may have played a role in the deaths of two arsenal workers in October, according to an Army report released Tuesday.
One worker, Mary Duncan, had been warned after a previous spill in an alcohol area at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant that "further failures could result in dismissal," the report said.
"The workers' perception of management's response to chemical spills creates an atmosphere of fear of disciplinary actions which may include job loss," the report said.
Duncan, 56, and Ivery Boysaw, 44, died Oct. 18 while trying to clean up liquid ether that had overflowed from a tank they were loading.
They violated rules by entering a confined dike area around the tank without permission, most likely to "prevent detection of the spill and avoid disciplinary action and possible dismissal," the report said.
The report contained no recommendations, however, because no mechanical or procedural failings were found. Army officials are reviewing tentative recommendations to determine whether similar accidents could be avoided.
Roy "Junior" Duncan, Duncan's husband, received the report Tuesday and had read only some of it by evening.
"I'll make up my mind as to what to do later," he said. When asked if he agreed with the Army's conclusions, he said, "There's no way of knowing."
Officials with the Army and Hercules Inc., which runs the plant, were unavailable for comment.
There were no witnesses to the accident, so Army investigators pieced together events from evidence found at the scene and interviews with the women's co-workers.
Duncan and Boysaw were unloading liquid ether, used in the manufacture of propellant, from a railcar about a half-mile away into storage tanks. The job required them to operate tank valves from atop a wooden platform over the huge tanks.
The spill occurred when the valve on a tank two-thirds full was left open, allowing ether to flow in and the tank to overflow. It remains unclear how the valve was left open - a railcar worker who prepared the transfer or either woman could have mistakenly opened it, or it could have been left open from a previous shift.
When they discovered the spill, the women shut off the valve and drained that tank into an adjacent one. Then they tried to clean up the spilled ether with buckets and dustpans.
But that's what Edith Hampton, one of Boysaw's sisters, can't believe.
"It's like wading into a river with a bucket and dustpan. It was over their shoes," said Hampton, who also works at the arsenal.
Among other findings and conclusions, the Army report said that:

The supervisor, John Mills, is believed to have taken a break in the middle of the ether transfer, and "periodic checks on the operation would have been more valuable."
He also failed to follow up on reports from other workers of a strong ether smell, failed to stop the pumping operation when the women were discovered missing and allowed too much time to pass before sending for help.

Monitoring confined spaces and requiring permits began less than two years ago. Both women had been inside the dike areas before those restrictions without problems.

The arsenal failed to revise ether transfer procedure as required in a safety survey in 1990.

The arsenal needs to instruct workers on what to do when they lose radio contact with co-workers.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB