OSHA Cites Employer With 19 Violations Following Fatality

Nov. 27, 2000
OSHA cited Hanna Paper Recycling Inc., Mansfield, Mass., for 19 Serious\r\nviolations of safety standards following the death of an\r\nemployees.

OSHA cited Hanna Paper Recycling Inc., a recycler of surplus and scrap paper products located in Mansfield, Mass., for 19 Serious violations of safety standards following the death of an employees.

OSHA has proposed penalties against the company totaling $59,200.

According to Brenda Gordon, OSHA area director for southeastern Massachusetts, the alleged violations were discovered during an inspection initiated on June 19.

On that day, a Hanna employee entered a baler to dislodge a jammed cardboard bale and was crushed to death between the bale and the gathering ram when the baler was activated.

Gordon explained the citations relating to the fatality concern violations of OSHA''s lockout/tagout standard, which requires that machinery, such as the baler, be shut down and their power sources locked out before employees perform maintenance activities or, as in this case, attempting to remove jammed bales.

The standard further requires that an employer develop and implement a lockout/tagout program which includes employee training and inspections to ensure that its requirements and procedures are followed.

In this case, the company failed to develop lockout procedures for two balers used at the plant as well as for hydraulic guillotine shears, a shredder and conveyor belts, failed to inspect is lockout procedures and failed to train employees in lockout procedures.

In addition, the balers could be locked out because they lacked operable disconnect handles and both balers also lacked working audio and visual alarms to warn employees when the machines were being activated.

"This is exactly the sort of accident the lockout/tagout standard is designed to prevent," said Gordon. "This accident should never have happened. No worker should have been inside that baler while it was operating or capable of operating."

"An effective lockout/tagout program would have prevented this accident," she said. "It would ensure that the baler was shut down, locked out and incapable of activating before entry, that employees were trained to recognize the hazard of entering the baler unless it was locked out and that inspections were conducted which would have identified this hazard. Unfortunately, these basic, commonsense and required safeguards were neither provided nor used here."

Gordon noted that the inspection also identified several other serious safety hazards which, though unrelated to the accident, pose a hazard to employees'' safety or health if not corrected.

These included instances of exposed live electrical parts, inadequately trained forklift operators, lack of a chemical hazard communication program, an unguarded work platform, improper storage of oxygen and acetylene tanks and inadequate guarding of machine parts.

Left uncorrected, these conditions expose employees to such potential hazards as electrocution, crushing injuries, falls, explosions and being caught in moving machine parts.

by Virginia Sutcliffe

About the Author

EHS Today Staff

EHS Today's editorial staff includes:

Dave Blanchard, Editor-in-Chief: During his career Dave has led the editorial management of many of Endeavor Business Media's best-known brands, including IndustryWeekEHS Today, Material Handling & LogisticsLogistics Today, Supply Chain Technology News, and Business Finance. In addition, he serves as senior content director of the annual Safety Leadership Conference. With over 30 years of B2B media experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2021), which has been translated into several languages and is currently in its third edition. He is a frequent speaker and moderator at major trade shows and conferences, and has won numerous awards for writing and editing. He is a voting member of the jury of the Logistics Hall of Fame, and is a graduate of Northern Illinois University.

Adrienne Selko, Senior Editor: In addition to her roles with EHS Today and the Safety Leadership Conference, Adrienne is also a senior editor at IndustryWeek and has written about many topics, with her current focus on workforce development strategies. She is also a senior editor at Material Handling & Logistics. Previously she was in corporate communications at a medical manufacturing company as well as a large regional bank. She is the author of Do I Have to Wear Garlic Around My Neck?, which made the Cleveland Plain Dealer's best sellers list.

Nicole Stempak, Managing Editor:  Nicole Stempak is managing editor of EHS Today and conference content manager of the Safety Leadership Conference.

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