“With 15+ violations, priorities don’t include...safety and health.."

Government safety organizations are tasked with ensuring safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards. Here is a recent story where a company was cited for numerous health and safety violations.

While operating an industrial machine, a worker at casting company was exposed to noise levels that averaged 97 decibels, equal to the noise of a jackhammer, over his eight-hour shift. The casting employees were also exposed to dangerously high noise levels and crystalline silica dust, a cause of chronic lung disease, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

An OSHA inspection opened on in the summer of 2014, at the casting company resulted in one willful and 17 serious health and safety violations for not conducting noise testing or providing protective equipment and not monitoring worker exposure to noise at the foundry. The company faces proposed penalties of $76,200 during the week of January 11, 2015.

“With 18 violations, it’s clear that (company’s) priorities don’t include the safety and health of its workforce. Failing to provide basic safety equipment and neglecting to monitor worker exposure is unacceptable,” said the OSHA area director.

OSHA cited the casting company for one willful violation for failing to provide audiometric testing for employees, which can identify premature hearing loss. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirement, or with plain indifference to employee safety and health.

Noise-related hearing loss is one of the most prevalent occupational health concerns in the U.S., with an estimated 30 million people occupationally exposed to noise each year. This exposure can cause permanent hearing loss that neither surgery nor a hearing aid can correct.

Workers were also exposed to silica and other respirable dust in excess of levels allowed during an eight-hour period. The investigation found the casting company allowed silica dust to accumulate and failed to implement a respiratory protection program to limit exposure. The company also failed to train employees about hazards and provided inadequate protective equipment.

OSHA inspectors also noted that the casting company did not protect workers from the following:

·                 Dangerous machine operating parts

·                 Machines lacked effective guarding

·                 Improper lockout/tagout procedures 

·                 Electrical safety violations

·                 Unsafe practices related to forklift operations,

o   Including allowing workers to ride on pallets moved by a forklift.

A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

The company forges custom sand, ceramic and metal castings for the automotive, railroad, food service and industrial industries. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog is pleased that OSHA was able to cite the violations list above. Why, pleased? Because we would always rather a government safety agency cite a company for safety violations prior to an accident. Each and every one of the violations listed above have been posted on this blog in the past. There are too many violations listed to individually comment on them. But, the violation due to noise is a sometime overlook hazard in our industry.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog quiz:

What should you do with this posting?

A)  Forward it to your plant manager and EHS manager

B)  Print it out

C)  Review your plant for the issues cited by OSHA in this post

D)  Forgot about it

Please comment.