The owners of a metal coating and painting plant located in Macon, Georgia, Aerospace Defense Coatings of Georgia, has been hit with at least $168,000 in state and federal penalties for serious and in some cases “willful neglect” of worker safety, in addition to violations of hazardous waste storage and air pollution laws.

United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors found that, according to safety records, the company exposed employees to as much as 50 times the legal limit of chromium without informing them.

The OSHA citations were issued last November and many were required to be corrected by January of this year, but the agency is still not satisfied that working conditions at the plant are safe. The facility uses hexavalent chromium in its plating operation, and its use can cause respiratory damage and lung cancer, skin rashes and chrome ulcers, depending on the type and level of exposure.

According to an OSHA news release, the agency inspected the plant in May 2010 after they received a complaint concerning a lack of personal protective equipment and mishandling, storing and disposing of chemicals.

That inspection found a number of serious problems. For example, workers were not provided with a place to eat, drink or wash without chromium residues. Wipe tests of a lunch bag, refrigerator and water fountain found chromium dust on the surfaces. The company had also failed to provide any protective clothing in a number of cases, and those respirators and other protective clothing that were provided were found to be inadequate or not stored so as to prevent contamination. Inspectors also concluded that workers were not receiving adequate training, and were unable to recognize the hazards or symptoms of chromium exposure.

After the inspection, OSHA found willful violations related to respirator protection, chromium overexposure, personal protective equipment and failure to perform periodic monitoring of chromium exposure. Willful violations are those committed intentionally or with “plain indifference to worker safety and health.” They also cited a number of serious violations, included failing to post test results that showed illegally high chromium exposure for employees, failing to provide a changing area to prevent cross contamination, failing to have a medical surveillance program to protect employees, and not training employees to respond to hazardous waste emergencies. A serious citation is issued 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.

Because the company had violated OSHA rules previously, in 2005 and 2008, they were cited for eight repeat violations related to hazardous waste, emergency response preparation, employee training, providing personal protective equipment for acids, and respirator training and storage.

OSHA originally proposed a $300,000 fine for 19 health violations it called serious, repeated or willful. That total was reduced in exchange for the company’s agreeing not to fight the penalties in court.

Steve’s Oilfield Services (Edson) Ltd, an Alberta company was recently convicted for failing to comply with an order made under Section 41.1 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and was assessed an additional $10,000 last week for failing to pay a fine.

The company was fined originally based on an incident that took place in Grande Prairie on October 22, 2003, in which a worker sustained serious injuries after being run over by a bobcat that he was exiting, according to information from Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI).The original creative sentence was $90,000.

During the court hearing in Stony Plain, provincial court judge John Higgerty said, “The question before me to answer is, has the defendant corporation, on the balance of probabilities, shown due diligence in attempting to comply with the court order? I find the defendant corporation has not.” He noted that while the company is having financial difficulties, they have made it a priority to pay other creditors, and “there has been an element of choice I find in paying nothing” since a $5,000 payment made in January of 2008, leaving most of the balance outstanding.

Since receiving the fine, the company has ceased operation and even closed its bank account last year. The judge, however, says that doesn’t take them off the hook for the penalty. He said, “the message does need to go out to other corporate defendants that it is not a free ride.”

Alberta justice officials note that this is the first time in Alberta that an additional penalty has been imposed on a company for not meeting its creative sentencing obligations. They note that, of the more than $5.7 million in oh&s creative sentence penalties assessed since 2005, 97% have been paid, including those assessed on companies in bankruptcy.

Alberta Justice will take over the collection of the unpaid fines, because they have the ability to take advantage of a number of measures as they see fit, including asset seizures and the freezing of bank accounts.

A North Salt Lake City business, Thermal West Industrial Inc., has sued the University of Utah over a plumbing failure last November that left 12 workers with scalding burns.

The accident occurred beneath a parking lot in a vault near 300 South and 1850 East last November 1. The company had been hired by the university to install hot-water piping trunks in a new tunnel system through the school’s campus. As they worked on the underground pipe, at least 40,000 gallons of hot water poured into the tunnel system through a water line that was designated inactive and abandoned, burning the workers with 400 degree (Fahrenheit) steam, resulting in injuries to 12 workers, three of them critical.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigated the work-related accident and found Thermal West Industrial was not at fault. In April, the Utah Labor Commission cited the university for failing to cap the inactive water line, even though it was still connected to active lines.

In its lawsuit, Thermal West claims it has lost customers since the incident because the worker’s injury reports caused the contractor’s safety rating to drop, resulting in lost contracts with some of its biggest customers. In all, the suit seeks $4,505,000 in lost contract revenue and $325,000 in increased workmen’s compensation costs.

An 83-year-old Alberta contract worker was working alone to complete a paint job in an office space for Devon Canada Corp. last week in Swan Hills, about 190 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, when he fell about three metres from a makeshift scaffold. As a result of the fall, he is in hospital in serious condition.

Alberta Occupational Health and Safety determined the man climbed onto a vertical lift and from there, he constructed a makeshift scaffold. That scaffold gave way and he ended up falling to the ground.

Thankfully, another worker from Devon Canada just happened to come in to the worksite on his day off and found the worker, who was conscious but not aware of his surroundings. The injured worker was immediately airlifted by STARS air ambulance to hospital.

Keywords: worker safety, working alone, fall safety, scaffold safety

Every year, too many workers are killed on the job by machinery they think has been locked out and shut off, but which turns out to be still active. Most such hazards occur during machine repair, maintenance and cleaning.

The key to preventing these types of accidents is deceptively simple, and involves developing and following a few simple procedures. Workers should never try to maintain, clean, or repair any piece of machinery or equipment without making sure it’s properly locked and tagged, and they are absolutely sure the power is disconnected. Also, no one should work with, or even near such a machine, unless they are properly trained and authorized to do so.

In order to be sure the machinery and electrical equipment is shut down completely, experts have come up with the following general shutdown procedure that can be used on all such machinery.

o Before the machine is shut down, be sure the authorized workers know the method or means to control the energy in the machine, and that the employee authorized to perform the shutdown procedure must notify all affected employees of the intention to lockout the machine.
o Next, the authorized employee should shut down the equipment through the normal stopping procedure.
o The authorized employee should then make sure the main power switches or circuits are shut off or otherwise made inoperative.
o Be sure that locks are placed on all switches or other energy sources in the “safe” or “off” position, with warning tags placed with each lock.
o Be sure that all potentially hazardous stored or residual energy, including springs, elevated parts, rotating flywheels, hydraulic systems, electrical systems, and air, gas, steam, or water pressure, etc., have been relieved, disconnected, or otherwise made safe by repositioning, blocking, bleeding down, etc.
o Once all of the above steps have been completed, the authorized employee should attempt to operate the equipment using normal operating controls to make sure the equipment will not operate. After this test, the authorized employee should return all operating controls to the “neutral” or “off” position. The equipment is now locked out.
o Once the test has been completed, be sure to place tags on machinery to warn workers not to start or operate the equipment.

Once the maintenance or service is completed, only the same authorized employee or employees who placed the tags and installed the locks should be allowed to remove them. But before doing so, the worker should check all around the machine to make sure that all maintenance items have been removed and that the equipment components are operationally intact. Check to make sure all non-authorized workers are away from the area, and cannot enter. Verify that all controls are in neutral, then remove all locks and reenergize the machine. Once the machine is ready for use, notify the affected employees.

In British Columbia, Fraser River Pile & Dredge (GP) Inc. has been fined $140,000 in Surrey Provincial Court, for charges filed under the Canada Labour Code in connection with the July 2009 death of a company worker.

The judgment, which will be paid in six quarterly installments, was rendered on March 15, but the details were only made public last week.

The incident that led to the charge occurred on July 9, 2009. The worker was working on a routine painting job on a cutter-section dredge and, according to court documents, he placed himself in an area where he was at risk of being pinned and suffocated by a piece of machinery, which led to his being crushed by a hydraulic counterweight.

As he announced his sentence against Fraser River Pile & Dredge, Judge R.D. Miller, noted the company pleaded guilty to failing to install guards, guardrails, barricades and fences on the starboard side of a dredge, “the direct result of which was” Sigmund’s death. He also noted “the corporate defendant was not vigilant in assessing their workplace for safety violations.”

“They are justifiably proud of aspects of their corporate behaviour as regards (to) worker safety,” he added, “but it was not enough and a good man died.”

Judge Miller also took into account the steps taken by the company to immediately identify and rectify the deficiencies that led to Sigmund’s death, including their full cooperation with the investigation into what happened. He noted that imposing a monetary penalty in cases where someone has died “always seems to me to be bordering upon disrespect,” but that the $140,000 penalty is “a fit sentence.”

The maximum penalty Miller could have imposed was $1 million.

Canada is on the verge of becoming the first country in the world to develop a national set of standards designed to protect workers from what they consider to be mental health injury in the workplace.

Mental health issues have been cited as the leading cause of short and long-term disability, affecting one in five workers. Nearly a quarter of Canadian workplaces have been deemed “psychologically perilous,” and a number of federal and corporate officials have provided up to $470,000 in funding to the Mental Health Commission to establish a voluntary set of best practices that could lead to improvements in workplace mental health.

The loss of work days and other disruptions to workplaces caused by mental health issues are estimated to cost the Canadian economy more than $50 billion a year. In the last five years alone, there has been a 700% increase in court-ordered damages awarded for workplace mental health injury. The recognition by the courts of a serious problem coincides with studies characterizing between 10 to 25% of workplaces as “mentally injurious.”

The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety will be voluntary for employers to adopt, and will provide them with tools to help with implementation.
The federal funds are being provided by Human Resources, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Beginning this fall, there will be a 60-day public consultation and it is hoped that standards will be ready for employers sometime next year.

Ontario’s Labour Minister used an appearance last week at the Chrysler Assembly Plant in Windsor to announce that the Ministry will continue to send health and safety inspectors into workplaces all over the province as part of a four-month safety blitz with a focus on protecting young workers. The blitz officially kicked off May 1, but it will continue all summer.

He chose the Chrysler plant for his announcement because of its excellent safety record. The plant employs 4,500 people on three shifts, making 1,475 minivans each day. That number includes nearly 400 younger summer replacement workers who, according to statistics, are nearly four times more likely than other workers to be injured on the job, often within their first month of employment. The Chrysler plant has defied those odds, however.

This latest initiative comes as a large number of high school and post-secondary students hit the summer job market, often performing dangerous work for which many may not be prepared. Regardless of their previous experience, or lack of, employers are obligated to protect them.

One key focus of the blitz will be to inform young workers that they have the right to training, the right to safety and hazard awareness, and the right to turn down unsafe work.

The ministry has charged 400 inspectors with conducting this safety blitz and enforcing the Occupational Health and Safety Act. In 2009, 7,527 young people were hurt on the job, with four dying from their injuries. Though that number was down nearly 30% from the previous year, the Ministry feels there is a lot more to do to protect them. Between 2004 and 2009, 466 young workers were critically injured on the job, with 27 of them dying as a result.

In the last few weeks, there have been at least two serious accidents involving young people texting while driving, and officials are anxious to remind people of the danger involved, as well as the possible hit to your wallet that could occur if you’re caught.

According to police, last week a 17-year-old girl from Barrie, Ontario was simultaneously texting, trying to pick up her cat and speeding on Raquel Street, when she lost control of her car and hit a vehicle that was parked in a driveway. The vehicle she hit was pushed into a boat, and the boat crashed into the house and another vehicle. All told, the extensive damage was estimated at about $100,000. In addition to texting while driving, the girl, who sustained minor injuries in the accident, was charged with careless driving.

In another such accident a couple of weeks ago, police say a Pembroke teen was texting while driving just before he crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer and was killed on Highway 17 near Mattawa.

Police throughout the province say there are still too many people attempting to text while driving, and there have been a large number of close calls and outright tragedies as a result. This despite the fact that such activity has been illegal since 2009.

If you are caught texting while driving in Ontario, the fine is $155, although you receive no points against your license. However, if you do additional damage, or if circumstances lead police to add charges of careless or dangerous driving, the fine could be much higher. The 17-year-old girl in the above accident is facing up to $500 in potential fines, for example.

In Ontario, it is only legal to use hands-free devices. Police, fire and ambulance services are exempt from the hand-held requirement. But the only time any other driver is allowed to hold a cell phone in their hand is when they’re calling 911, although officials would prefer they pull over to make those calls, as well.

According to experts, drivers who use hand-held devices are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. According to a study by the University of Utah, the use of a hand-held cell phone delays a driver’s reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at .08 percent, which is the legal limit in most jurisdictions.

Stay safe; if you have to text, pull off the road.

As part of their ongoing effort to improve the province’s occupational health and safety (oh&s) record, the Saskatchewan government has developed two new online oh&s training courses.

The courses, which cost $10 each, are designed to be taken by those responsible for conducting inspections and investigations related to health and safety, including members of occupational health and safety committees, health and safety representatives, managers, and supervisors.

The first course, entitled “Saskatchewan Workplace Inspections,” explains how to effectively prepare for and conduct regular inspections to prevent work-related injury and illness.

The second course, entitled “Incident Investigations in Saskatchewan Workplaces,” provides safety and other personnel an overall introduction and a practical approach to conducting proper investigations whenever there has been a workplace accident that causes injury.

Upon completion of either course, participants will receive a certificate. If you’d like to know more about the courses, please click this link.