Paulding, Ohio-The Paulding County coroner has concluded that the cause of death of a Sherwood, Ohio, man trapped while cleaning out a farm fertilizer tank May 28 was asphyxiation, according to the sheriff’s department. The victim was identified as Joseph Allen Potter, no age listed, who was removed lifeless from the tank after becoming wedged in a baffle section of the enclosure. Potter and Thomas McDonald had been using a gasoline and water mixture to remove sludge from the stainless steel bulk tank, which was mounted on a trailer hitched to a pickup truck. Just how long Potter had been in the tank was unclear, but McDonald told the sheriff’s investigator that Potter started coughing and couldn’t be removed. “There was nothing I could do but hold his head out of the water and gasoline and wait for help. He said Potter had been able to talk to his son on the phone from inside the tank and then started coughing and told McDonald to “get out of there.” McDonald was treated at the scene for exposure to the fumes and then taken to the hospital.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain