Bethlehem Victim was Twice Felled

Gas at old furnace had made worker ill a week before death

By Steven M. Luxenberg and Mark Reutter
Published on October 25, 1978
© 1978, The Baltimore Sun, © 2006, Mark Reutter

Seven days before he died of carbon monoxide poisoning October 16 while working at the Sparrows Point plant of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Robert J. Carter was exposed to the deadly gas in a separate incident that required medical treatment.

In both instances, Mr. Carter was working as a “hot blastman” at an obsolete blast furnace that had been scheduled to be shut permanently in mid-1977. The furnace is still operating because of delays in the completion of a new $200 million furnace.

The Maryland Occupational Safety and Health unit (MOSH) is investigating the circumstances of Mr. Carter’s death, including a determination of whether the company took steps to locate the source of the carbon monoxide fumes that caused Mr. Carter to become ill and go to the company hospital October 9.

Dr. Oneil M. Banks, chief of industrial hygiene at MOSH, declined yesterday to discuss the case, but he did confirm that the agency is likely to issue a violation notice to Bethlehem for health hazards found at the furnace.

According to three veteran hot blastmen, workers at the C blast furnace where Mr. Carter was assigned often were exposed to leaking carbon monoxide fumes because a critical section of piping, called a “distance piece,” did not stay in place because of mechanical problems.

The men said these problems had been brought to the attention of supervisors, but were not corrected.

Mr. Carter, 36, was found unconscious and not breathing October 16 at the No. 1 stove of the C blast furnace beside the distance piece, which was out of alignment.

The steelworker was pronounced dead of carbon monoxide poisoning after he was taken to the company’s hospital. His death was the fifth reported job-related fatality at the plant this year.

Mr. Carter had worked as a blastman only two weeks and had received inadequate training, according to the three hot blastmen.

M. Hamilton Whitman, a spokesman for Bethlehem Steel, said yesterday that the company would not answer any questions on the case because it is under state investigation.

After consulting with company officials, Mr. Whitman declined to respond to questions concerning the type of treatment Mr. Carter had received after his earlier illness from carbon monoxide fumes. This illness was categorized by Bethlehem’s medical staff as “carbon monoxide intoxication,” according to knowledgeable sources.

On the day of Mr. Carter’s death and on several succeeding days, a reporter requested information about the findings of a company-directed examination of the accident. Mr. Whitman said yesterday he has not learned of the results of the review.

Russell R. Jones, general manager of the Sparrows Point plant, said last night that he did not want to discuss this or other fatalities. “These matters are under litigation, and it is difficult for me to talk about them,” he said, referring all questions to Mr. Whitman.

The C furnace and two other outmoded furnaces (A and B) were kept in operation over the last 16 months because of delays in the completion of Bethlehem’s new blast furnace, which had been designated with the letter L.

The three furnaces are the oldest at the steel plant, which dates back to 1888. The furnaces last underwent a complete overhaul in 1959 and currently do not meet state or federal air pollution emission standards.

If the C furnace had been shut down on schedule, Mr. Carter would not have been working there on the day he was overcome by carbon monoxide gas.

According to the furnace workers, Mr. Carter and other employees were recently offered temporary positions as hot blastmen because of vacancies created when the experienced blastmen were transferred to the L furnace, which began a series of tests in early September.

“I call them 14-day wonders,” Ivory L. Dennis, a longtime hot blastman, said in reference to Mr. Carter and other recently hired blastmen.

Mr. Dennis, a former president of Local 2610 of the United Steelworkers of America, said that Mr. Carter received two weeks of preparation – one week of seminars and one week of on-the-job training – before he was assigned to work as a blastman at the C furnace.

Mr. Dennis and two other hot blastmen interviewed by The Sun stated that two weeks of training were not adequate. “You need at least a couple of months with an experienced man before you know what you’re doing,” Van S. Woodson, a 35-year veteran of the blast furnaces, said.

This training was especially necessary for blastmen at the C furnace because the equipment was so old and often did not work properly, according to Mr. Woodson and John Prioleau, another hot blastman. After Mr. Carter’s death last week, they said, several experienced blastmen were switched back to the old furnaces.

The men said they both have worked as blastmen at the C furnace, Mr. Prioleau as recently as three months ago and Mr. Woodson about three years ago.

During the time they worked there, they said, the pressurized springs and cylinders that fit the 42-inch-wide distance piece securely over the gas pipe were out of order and often did not hold the distance piece in place during the heating cycle.

As a result, the force of the combustion in the stove, which heats up to 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit, would sometimes shake the equipment and “kick out” the distance piece, the two men said.

When this happened, the distance piece would shift 6 to 8 inches to one side, allowing gas containing about 25 percent carbon monoxide to escape from the pipe.

“It happened many a time,” Mr. Woodson recalled. “If I got a whiff of it, I would get out of there.” Although carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless, and tasteless gas, it is contained in fuel that has a distinctive odor, he said.

Mr. Woodson said he warned the foreman and supervisor of the leakage problem “again and again and again.” Instead of fixing the equipment, he said, company personnel provided the blastmen with a steel bar to use as a wedge to hold the distance piece in place.

The C furnace does not have gas detection equipment. The new L furnace is equipped with such devices.

Dr. Banks of MOSH said that Mr. Carter was found unconscious at 9:50 A.M. October 16 by co-workers.

On the basis of information provided by Bethlehem Stele, Dr. Banks said that Mr. Carter was last seen at 9:25 A.M. before the start of a heating cycle, where the gas is blown through the distance piece into the stove. Mr. Carter was found near the distance piece, which was reported to be about 12 inches out of alignment, according to Dr. Banks.

Dr. Banks said a blood sample taken of Mr. Carter after his death showed a 73 percent level of carbon monoxide hemoglobin in his bloodstream, a fatal dose in most cases. A level of 1 to 2 percent is normal for a nonsmoker, while a 20 to 30 percent level causes headaches and throbbing of the temples, Dr. Banks said.

Mr. Carter had worked in the blast furnace department for eight years. Before being transferred to the C furnace, he was a cinder man at the J furnace, a job that requires a worker to control molten slag, a byproduct of the blast furnace process.

Mr. Carter, who lived in the Carney section of Baltimore County, was the father of four children, ranging in age from 10 to 19, according to a claim filed Thursday at the Workmen’s Compensation Commission.

Two weeks ago, Bethlehem was fined $7,000 by MOSH for a “serious and willful” violation involving working conditions that allegedly resulted in the death of one blast furnace worker and critically injured a second worker.

In June, MOSH fined the giant steelmaker $27,200 for 34 “serious” violations after another employee was killed when he was caught by high-speed wire and thrust headfirst into an unguarded wire drawing machine. Last month, Bethlehem agreed to pay the fine and install safety shield around the wire machines.

Mr. Carter’s death was the fifth known job-related fatality this year at the plant, which had no reported deaths last year and two fatalities each in 1975 and 1976, according to MOSH.