OSHA Enforcement Roundup: Week of 10/21

The OSHA Enforcement Roundup gives you insight into how and why OSHA assesses penalties for workplace safe & health noncompliance. 

All violations or claims discussed below are alleged only unless we say otherwise, and we withhold the names of organizations and individuals to protect their privacy.

Check out OSHA’s latest list of the 10 most-cited safety Standards here. Your OSHA Enforcement Roundup for this week:

A boat manufacturer faces $328,287 in penalties for ten safety and health hazard citations.

OSHA officials inspected this site in March 2024 due to the manufacturer’s alleged failure to submit required proof of abatement for four previous citations. Now, the company faces four failure-to abate, two serious, three repeat, and one other-than-serious violation. The alleged violations include failure to:

• Develop and maintain a written hazard communication program.
• Institute a workplace respiratory protection program.
• Develop and maintain safety data sheets for workers handling hazardous chemicals.
• Institute procedures for workers required to wear tight fitting respirators.

A recycling company in Wisconsin faces $202,820 in proposed penalties for two repeat and six serious alleged violations.

The recycling company allegedly exposed employees to unsafe levels of lead and cadmium while they dismantled cathode ray tubes from old televisions. The company was cited for the same alleged violations in April 2023. This time around, OSHA claims the company failed to:

• Train employees on the additive effects of lead and cadmium.
• Provide biological monitoring of employees for overexposure every six months.
• Collect samples for representative full shift exposures to both lead and cadmium.
• Ensure workers removed protective clothing contaminated with lead and cadmium at the completion of the shift and left the clothing at the workplace.
• Require workers exposed to lead and cadmium to shower at the end of their shift.
• Establish a regulation area to reduce the spread of contamination when employees were exposed to lead or cadmium over the permissible exposure limit.

A grain co-op faces $536,965 in proposed penalties for two willful and twenty-two serious alleged safety and health violations.

Inside the facility, OSHA claims it found more than one-eight inch of grain dust accumulation in priority housekeeping areas, and duct tape wrapped around the dust collection system, as a makeshift repair attempt. Grain dust is highly combustible—it can ignite in seconds and cause deadly fires and explosions.

Specifically, OSHA claims the company failed to:

• Conduct regular inspections on equipment.
• Certify completion of preventive maintenance.
• Comply with permit-confirmed space requirements, including developing procedures for entry operations that included hazard evaluations, atmospheric testing, rescue procedures, monitoring and training.
• Protect workers from fall hazards due to unguarded stairway holes and a lack of handrails.
• Close electrical openings and properly use flexible cords.
• Provide forklift training as required.
• Label containers of hazardous chemicals properly.

Online Training: Get to Know OSHA's Rules

Lion’s 10 Hour OSHA General Industry Online Course introduces new safety managers to a wide range of the most common workplace health & safety standards for general industry: hazard communication, providing PPE, fire extinguishers, forklifts, fall prevention, and much more.

Tags: HazCom, OSHA compliance, OSHA Enforcement Roundup, OSHA inspection, OSHA training, respiratory protection