Incident Description

A researcher sustained a painful frostbite burn while working with cryogenic materials. The research group uses a large liquid nitrogen tank to refill small dewars for experiments. On this particular day, the large liquid nitrogen tank was depleted and the researcher improvised by transferring liquid nitrogen from a nearby dewar used for cell storage using a pair of metal forceps and a small Nalgene beaker.

A pair of small cryogenic gloves was available in the lab; however, they were too small for this particular researcher. As a result, the researcher used a pair of autoclave gloves that were nearby that were the correct size and may have inadvertently dipped the autoclave glove into the cryogenic liquid. The researcher noticed small blisters on their right thumb and index finger which spread and became more painful over the course of three days, at which point they reported the injury and were advised to seek medical treatment.

What went right?

Researcher sought treatment for cryogenic burn at Occupational Health.

What should have been done differently?

Select cryogen gloves based on the intended application and order cryogenic gloves in an array of sizes to fit all researchers handling liquid nitrogen. Inspect all cryogenic PPE for integrity periodically; discard any with holes or tears.

Place all PPE for cryogenic use near the cryogenic materials and physically separate non-cryogenic PPE from cryogenic PPE to reduce potential for confusion. Autoclave gloves offer heat insulation only and can be penetrated easily by liquids.

Have all researchers who handle liquid nitrogen take the online cryogen safety class prior to use.

Seek immediate medical attention if blisters form after exposure to a cryogen to reduce the severity of injury.

Be sure to follow the proper channels to report an injury. In this case the report was delayed until the researcher sought medical help.

Monitor and reorder critical laboratory supplies.

How to prevent this in the future

Identify backup sources of critical laboratory supplies and clarify procedures for when it is not available up to and including stop work conditions.

Create and document laboratory site-specific training.