Yesterday, there were reports of a death and injury involved with MRI
machine somewhere on the upper east side of Manhattan, NY during
maintenance of the instrument. Initial rumors (news reports?)
indicated that the cause was an explosion. (which turned out to be
incorrect).
I tried to think of mechanisms that an explosion or death could occur
- perhaps ice build up in the nitrogen and/or Helium stacks, covering
the ports and safety values, or perhaps they were performing a N2
fill and didn't use a latex transfer line and it shattered, sending
shrapnel and liquid N2 all over or maybe a quench a closed area?
The latest news report was that one person was asphyxiated by a leaky
liquid N2 tank while he was in a trailer, and two coworkers who
noticed that he was missing and came to rescue him were injured.
They were installing a new MRI instrument in New York Hospital.
A link to the story:
http://www.ny1.com/ny/Search/SubTopic/index.html?&contentintid=8010&search_result=1
No information whether the tank was leaking slowly (how many times do
we get a tank where the overpressure valve gives off its steady
hiss?) or if it was a catastrophic leak ( such as a pipe or fitting
breaking).
We must be aware of this danger which seems so mundane, which could
especially be a problem for poorly ventilated labs.
--
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/ George D.Sukenick, Ph.D. \
\ NMR Analytical Core Facility /
/ Sloan-Kettering Institute \
\ g-sukenick_at_ski.mskcc.org /
/ 212-639-5505 \
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Received on Fri Sep 22 2000 - 18:19:59 MST