How a First-Aid Staple Becomes a Fire & Explosion Hazard: Rubbing Alcohol at Work

Rubbing alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol (IPA), is one of the most recognized chemicals in American life. We commonly (and safely) use it to clean up minor cuts, to disinfect surfaces, remove stains, etc. In workplace settings, however, isopropyl alcohol can be present at much higher volumes. If employers don’t make sound decisions about storage, ventilation, worker training, and oversight, isopropyl alcohol can instantly become a dangerous chemical that is hidden in plain sight.

For example, if a worker is given a cleaning task with a standard isopropyl alcohol solution, a task that he’s safely performed countless times before, but he’s been assigned the task while unsupervised in a room that has poor ventilation, near electrical equipment that no one has flagged, that worker can be at immediate risk of suffering burn injuries or even being caught in an explosion. All because an employer failed to provide proper ventilation and safeguards.

We are going to look at the types of workers who can be exposed to these fire and explosion risks, how employers are supposed to safeguard workers, some real-life examples of employers who failed to protect their workers, and what can be done about these risks and failures.

Commercial Uses of Rubbing Alcohol

A wide range of workers face safety risks from rubbing alcohol. This is because isopropyl alcohol can dissolve things like oil, paint, and grease, and it is thus frequently used to clean all kinds of surfaces, from furniture and household items to car parts, industrial tools, and electronics. It is also a solvent for paints, varnishes, ink, and can be added to fuel.

Isopropyl alcohol can also disinfect, killing bacteria, fungi, and viruses. IPA is widely used to sanitize and to keep things sterile in medical settings. Unlike other solvents and cleaners, IPA isn’t corrosive, and it’s very cost-effective.

It is, however, very flammable, both as a liquid and a vapor. As combustible and common as isopropyl alcohol is, workers in virtually any industry could at some point face IPA-related fire and explosion risks.

Why Rubbing Alcohol Use at Work Can Lead to Fire Risks

The type of rubbing alcohol that you’ll find in your home is usually a 70% concentration, and you would rarely use more than an ounce or two at a time. In industrial settings, you would likely be using significantly higher volumes of isopropyl alcohol, gallons of the stuff, and you could be even using a solution that has a 91% or 99% concentration.

At a 91% concentration, isopropyl alcohol is a powerful industrial cleaner, one that can be used in hospitals and similar settings. Industrial and laboratory uses for IPA can require the 99% concentration formula.

Isopropyl alcohol’s flash point, the temperature at which it can ignite into a blaze or an explosion, is just 53° to 64°F. That means that IPA can ignite at room temperature without any special conditions. As a vapor, IPA has a wide concentration at which it can ignite, between 2% and 12.7% of the air, a buildup that can easily happen in enclosed spaces. These IPA vapors are also heavier than air, so they can travel along floors, collect under equipment, and can reach an ignition source in a completely separate area.

When rubbing alcohol burns, it can reach over 1,600°F, causing third-degree burns in less than a second. When IPA burns, it does so as a nearly invisible flame; a worker may not see that fire until they are already in it. While an open flame or sparks from tools or machinery can set IPA off, even static electricity can spark a fire or an explosion.

What It Takes to Start a Rubbing Alcohol Fire or Explosion at Work

Rubbing alcohol is very dangerous in industrial settings, but the ways to safeguard against those dangers are well-documented. The issue lies with employers, whether they are meeting the legal and practical obligations for safe, large-scale use of isopropyl alcohol.

Inadequate Ventilation

One of the reasons that rubbing alcohol is used for cleaning is that it evaporates quickly. When this cleaning is done in an enclosed space, that same property means that these isopropyl alcohol vapors can build up fast.

OSHA requires ventilation for areas where flammable liquids are used, in order to maintain vapor concentrations well below the lower flammable limit.

The practical reality, however, is that ventilation systems are often designed once, then ignored. These systems are not tested under changing circumstances, they aren’t maintained or repaired as often as they should be, and when production volumes increase, the ventilation isn’t increased to match. Or when contractors arrive at a site, they might not be made aware that their work requires more ventilation than has been provided.

For these and many other reasons, a lack of ventilation can help isopropyl alcohol vapors to accumulate and even travel in low spaces, unknown to workers in the affected area.

Uncontrolled Ignition Sources

While isopropyl vapor buildup is harmful to breathe in, what magnifies the danger of this vapor buildup is an ignition source. In many workplaces, there are motors, electrical panels, HVAC equipment, and other machines that can be treated as permanent background fixtures rather than hazards to be evaluated alongside chemical use. Safe IPA handling requires explosion-proof equipment, which means explosion-proof ventilation, lighting, and material-handling equipment.

Static electricity is a risk for setting of isopropyl alcohol as well. The pouring and transfer of isopropyl alcohol can generate this static electricity, as can normal motions, such as walking. There have to be precautionary measures against electrostatic discharge, such as anti-static footwear, mats, monitors, and more.

Ignition Sources in Operating Rooms

In medical settings, preparing the skin for surgery with rubbing alcohol, or having swabs that are pre-soaked in isopropyl alcohol, has led to surgical fires. In fact, it is estimated that 550 to 650 fires occur in operating rooms each year in the United States. A couple dozen of these fires are reported as causing injury or even death.

The good news is that the overwhelming majority of these fires are put out before any harm is done. While operating room fires are rare, and casualties rarer still, these events are also underreported. They do still happen, and they primarily pose danger to patients. They also put medical workers in harm’s way. Very little rubbing alcohol is needed to ignite in the presence of electrosurgical instruments. In fact, in one study, even when medical staff abided by the manufacturer guidelines of waiting three minutes for the rubbing alcohol to dry, and not letting the IPA pool, surgical fires still occurred 1 out of every 10 times. When rubbing alcohol did pool where it was applied as a skin preparation, it would ignite a surgical fire 1 out of every 4 times, even after staff waited three minutes to proceed. This wasn’t even industrial strength IPA; these operating rooms were using a 70% isopropyl alcohol solution.

The official recommendation by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons article was simply to not use alcohol-based disinfectants ahead of surgery, or to at least keep the IPA from pooling.

Due to the characteristics of isopropyl alcohol, as a liquid and a vapor, it doesn’t take much of an ignition source at all to set it off.

What Employers Are Required to Do About Isopropyl Alcohol

As a Class IB flammable liquid, isopropyl alcohol’s use falls under OSHA’s flammable liquids standards, under 1910.106. There are clear, specific standards for IPA’s storage, handling, ventilation requirements, grounding and bonding, personnel training, and approved electrical equipment.

Employers are also meant to live up to OSHA’s General Duty Clause, which states that employers are supposed to provide a workplace that protects employees from known hazards that can cause serious injury or death.

Workers have a legal right to know about flammable hazards, including a right to safety documentation, training, and equipment for every chemical they handle. Workers also have the right to refuse work that they reasonably believe poses imminent danger.

Missed safeguards appear across various industries, across years, and across geographic locations: no grounding, no vapor monitoring, inadequate ventilation, and so forth. When investigators find this pattern after a fire or an explosion, it is not a coincidence. In virtually every incident, you can point to a predictable system failure.

Real Incidents: What the Record Shows

Whether it’s in an industrial setting or a hospital, employers must control both vapor buildup and ignition sources. When employers fail to provide fire-risk training to their employees, and companies fail to prevent vapor buildup and ignition sources, it is the workers who pay the price, with their health or even their lives.

Some real-life examples of the dangers of isopropyl alcohol in the workplace include:

• October 2003 in Seattle, Washington: One morning, a worker was spray painting on drywall inside of an apartment, using up around 10 gallons of primer. This primer consisted of isopropyl alcohol and ethanol, which together had a flashpoint of just 63° F. The breakers in the apartment’s electrical box had tripped, and every other breaker was still on. The bathroom fan was also running, while all but one window in the apartment was closed. No ventilation was provided. After about 15 minutes of spray-painting, a flash fire erupted, engulfing the worker and sending flames out the door. He suffered third-degree burns over almost 100% of his body and died. His employer, a site preparation contractor was fined for 11 serious violations and two other citations.
• January 2007 in Vista, California: A pharmaceutical prep worker was coating tablets inside of a pill tumbler with an isopropyl alcohol sealer. While using a large metal drum with a lid, and a 1-quart metal ladle, the worker was wearing latex gloves, a hair net, and protective gear. When the worker moved his hand into the pill tumbler, a static charge built up, which discharged when he touched a plastic bucket next. This discharge was enough to ignite the IPA vapors, engulfing the worker in flames. A coworker was able to successfully use a portable fire extinguisher, but the injured worker suffered numerous second-degree burns and had to be treated in the hospital for 8 days. His employer was fined for 9 safety violations.
• June 2020 in Gardena, California: A worker—who was allowed to operate alone—was pouring an IPA-based coating agent onto tablets in a coating drum when a thermostat heating coil ignited the IPA vapors in the coating drum. The flash fire burned the worker’s face and arms and he was hospitalized for two days. His employer was fined for serious violations.
• June 2020 in Lynchburg, Virginia: A manufacturing worker compacted a 55-gallon drum that held rags drenched in a 99.8% isopropyl alcohol solution. The vapors ignited, and the flames engulfed the worker, inflicting deadly burn injuries. The deceased worker’s employer was fined for serious violations, including two repeat violations. The initial OSHA penalty of $148,431 was upgraded to $283,368.
• January 2023 in Berkeley, California: Two workers were sent to a site to install patches of sheet flooring, equipped with tools that had been cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. The securing bolts in the floor had yet to be removed, so one worker went to their van to bring the portable grinder, wiping that down with isopropyl alcohol as well. Once he started up the grinder to cut the securing bolts, the worker’s clothes caught on fire. His coworker’s clothes also started burning as he tried to help put out the fire. Both would suffer and succumb to third-degree burn injuries. Their flooring contractor employer was fined for serious violations, which the company is trying to protest.
• May 2023 in Newburyport, Massachusetts: One worker was killed and four others hospitalized in a chemical plant explosion that held 55-gallon drums of methane and isopropyl alcohol. Since 2020, this very same plant had suffered six other explosions. The company had been fined by OSHA and the EPA, but these fines were contested at every turn and also reduced. The company had been fined in 2015 for exposing workers to chemicals and fined again in 2019 for mismanagement of highly hazardous chemicals.

Rubbing Alcohol Fires & Explosions: System Failures, Not Momentary Mistakes

The sad reality is that even though there are clear and effective safety standards in place for the safe use of isopropyl alcohol in the workplace, fires and explosions still occur. And the resulting serious injuries and tragic deaths are virtually never due to mere chance. These casualties stem from long-standing conditions and lapses in safety standards.

When employers fail to provide workers with their due, that is, a workplace that is free from known hazards, agencies like OSHA might uncover their wrongdoing and levy fines. But the amounts rarely exceed five figures, a negligible amount to these companies, especially since they can contest the fines and very often get them reduced. Because of a lack of robust enforcement, there are too many companies in operation that keep ignoring warnings and citations, continuing to willfully expose their workers to the severe fire and explosion risks of isopropyl alcohol.

In the aftermath of preventable harm and tragedy, workers’ compensation is not the ceiling of accountability. While filing a lawsuit after an apparent accident can be the furthest thing from the mind of a worker who is dealing with the trauma of burn injuries or of a family that is grieving the loss of a loved one, getting legal help can be the way for such people to find real answers about what went wrong and demanding accountability. Employers who failed to prioritize the safety of their workers, failing to prepare and protect them to safely work with isopropyl alcohol, must be held responsible. No matter what.