Science park engineer dies from link to nitrogen feed

The incidence took place on Friday night, in a semiconductor facility, AMPI, in the science park. Chen Wei-jiue, an assistant engineer, began his nightshift to repair machinery inside a clean room at 10 p.m.

The clean room is normally filled with nitrogen which might cause fainting or even death if it replaces the available oxygen in the air. The company's regulations prohibit employees from entering the clean room alone; Chen violated the rule by going in without any companions.

Chen was discovered by his co-workers and rushed to the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Hsinchu, where he was pronounced dead from oxygen deficiency on early Saturday morning.

It is not known why Chen made the fatal mistake of connecting to the nitrogen tube and not the oxygen tube. According to his family members, Chen is an experienced worker at AMPI for the past three years who was unlikely to have made such an error.

The family members allege that the company should bear the most fault. They argued the company did not adequately differentiate the oxygen feed from the nitrogen feed, and did not strictly enforce the rule of not entering the clean room alone.

According to the Chinese language newspaper, The China Times, a medical expert pointed out that inhaling pure nitrogen can cause oxygen deficiency, which can cause brain death in three to five minutes.

Prosecutors found that the company only properly labeled the gas feeds on one end of the lines, but not the other end, news Web site Nownews.com reported. The coroner expects to conduct further examination on the cause of the death starting today.

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