The garage being built for Miami Dade College’s Doral campus in Florida pancaked on Oct. 10, 2012, crushing four workers.

One injured worker was buried in the rubble for two hours before he could be rescued. That worker is still in a wheelchair and requires more physical therapy. The driver of a cement truck was trapped in his cab for hours. He died after emergency workers had to amputate his legs. The body of one worker couldn’t be recovered for more than a week because the site of the collapse was so unstable.

Students had to attend classes on other Miami-Dade campuses until January.

OSHA issued citations totaling $38,360 to general contractor Ajax Building Corp. and four subcontractors. The violations were categorized as serious.

The contractors failed to inspect 18 columns as required, according to OSHA. They also didn’t follow project drawings and instructions.

The garage was being built with prefabricated concrete pieces manufactured elsewhere. The practice is common, but it requires close supervision by engineers and contractors, according to experts who spoke with The Miami Herald.

Just two days before the collapse, a crane struck a column in the structure. That column was repaired, but attorneys for the victims say the contractors failed to check adjacent columns for damage.

Speed over safety?

The contractors face lawsuits from those injured and the families of the deceased.

Ervin Gonzalex, an attorney who represents the families of two dead workers and a worker who was injured has said the collapse of the structure happened because the contractors were in a rush to finish the job. The garage was to open in just two months from the time of the incident.

“I think this shows what we’ve been saying all along, that this was an accident waiting to happen,” Gonzalez said regarding the OSHA citations.

Miami Dade College is not a part of the lawsuits because the garage wasn’t finished and hadn’t been accepted by MDC.

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That’s what just happened to D&C Mining of Harlan County, KY. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) went to federal court because the company owed $1.67 million in unpaid civil penalties along with interest and administrative costs.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky has ordered D&C to pay MSHA a total of over $2.1 million.

In March 2012, the Labor Department, which includes MSHA, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky filed a complaint against D&C that the company owed the money for 1,244 violations cited between Jan. 24, 2006 and Feb. 8, 2012.

D&C has undergone 10 impact inspections by MSHA since April 2010, more than any other mining operation in the U.S. Impact inspections target mines that need of increased attention and enforcement due to poor compliance history or compliance concerns, according to MSHA. The agency began conducting these inspections in April 2010 in the wake of the deadly Upper Big Branch Mine explosion.

As part of the judgment against it, D&C must also post bond with MSHA to guarantee future compliance with the Mine Act, including the payment of final orders issued for any violations.

D&C had owed a total of $2.7 million in MSHA fines, but paid $1.1 million to the agency.

In November 2012, MSHA issued a letter notifying D&C that a potential pattern of violations existed. If MSHA conducted an inspection within 90 days of that notice and found a significant and substantial violation, MSHA would order miners to withdraw from the affected area until the cited condition had been corrected.

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OSHA has fined Brite Services, Inc., of Paterson, NJ, dba Star Laundry, for 39 serious safety and health violations at its commercial laundry facility, for a total of $164,700 in penalties.

The agency found an obstructed and improperly marked exit sign. But OSHA also found other violations, including:

• electrical hazards
• allowing employees to potentially be struck by traffic while transporting laundry bins from one building to another while crossing a public street
• failing to provide a cover and guardrails for open pits
• failing to provide a handrail for a stairway
• not evaluating the workplace for permit-required confined spaces
• failure to post signs informing workers of confined spaces
• failure to develop a written confined space permit program
• lack of an energy control program for performing maintenance and service work
• failure to train powered industrial truck operators
• allowing powered industrial trucks in need of repair to remain in service
• failure to insulate or cover steam pipes less than 7 feet from the floor
• lack of proper machine guards
• not mandating safety goggle usage
• failure to provide an unblocked eyewash station
• failure to develop a written hazard communication program, and
• failure to provide hazard communication training.

“The vast number and range of safety and health hazards observed by OSHA at this facility indicates the lack of a functioning safety and health management system (SMS),” said Lisa Levy, OSHA’s area office director that covers the region. An SMS is not required by OSHA, but the agency recommends businesses develop them. An OSHA proposal would require businesses to have SMSs, also known as Injury and Illness Prevention Programs (I2P2).

Brite Services has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest the citations and penalties to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. That process could lead to an appeal before an OSHRC administrative law judge.

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Boh Brothers Construction Co. was building two bridges over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana.

On Dec. 23, 2008, a crane tipped over and fell onto a bridge’s guardrail.

The crane operator, Tilden Billiot, lost consciousness and remained in the cab for two to seven minutes while other Boh employees held onto the crane to prevent it from falling into the water.

After a few minutes, the unconscious worker slipped out of the cab and fell into the water.

While this was happening, a foreman used his cell phone to call the senior superintendent on the project to report the incident. The superintendent used his cell phone to place multiple calls, including one to the field project manager who was in the office trailer at the north end of the bridge, and one to another foreman, who was also working on the north side of the bridge.

By that time, the second foreman had already head about the incident from another worker. This foreman called the lead boatman for the two rescue boats in the lake. The lead boatman called the employee who was operating the other boat. That boat left for the location where Billiot fell into the water.

That second boat was between three and four miles from the scene. The boat traveled at a maximum speed of 30 m.p.h. If the boat was moving at top speed, it would take six minutes to reach the scene.

Billiot was brought to the shore where emergency personnel were waiting to take him to a local hospital. Billiot died in the hospital about a week later.

3 minutes before brain damage occurs

OSHA issued two serious citations to Boh, one for improper crane operation and one for failing to make a lifesaving boat available. The fines totaled $10,000.

Boh appealed the citations.

OSHA’s construction standard for working over or near water says, “At least one lifesaving skiff shall be immediately available at locations where employees are working over or adjacent to water.”

While the standard doesn’t define “immediately available,” a 1991 OSHA interpretation letter on the subject notes that permanent brain damage can occur in a drowning victim within three to four minutes because of oxygen deprivation.

Both sides agreed that the interpretation letter identifies factors relevant to a water rescue, including whether a lifesaving skiff could be made available in three to four minutes before permanent brain damage would occur to an unconscious employee in the water.

Billiot had remained in the water for 8 to 12 minutes.

An administrative law judge ruled Boh’s response time to the incident was prolonged by its failure to equip boats with the tyupe of radios used by its foremen that can receive an emergency broadcast channel.

Boh appealed the judge’s decision to the entire Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The company says the judge erred by disregarding the rescue boats and qualified operators it had available. OSHA argued Boh’s system lacked a means of direct communication with the available boat operators.

OSHRC didn’t see things Boh’s way. It said although Boh had a radio system in place, radios capable of receiving emergency communication weren’t provided to all qualified boat operators. Boh only issued these radios to its foremen, limiting rescue communication to cell phones.

OSHRC found Boh failed to comply with the OSHA standard because it didn’t have a lifesaving skiff “immediately available.” It also upheld the crane citation and the total $10,000 fine.

What do you think about this decision? Let us know in the comments below.

(Secretary of Labor v. Boh Brothers Construction Co., OSHRC, No. 09-1072, 3/4/13)

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Kevin Mashburn was on a service call last September in Gladstone, MO, when he was assaulted outside of his AT&T vehicle.

Mashburn was struck on the head with a blunt object. Police found him inside his truck when they arrived. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

It was 19 minutes from the time Mashburn told AT&T dispatchers he was attacked to when they responded. It was 50 minutes from the time of the attack until emergency responders could find him.

OSHA fined AT&T $7,000 for one serious General Duty Clause violation. The agency says:

“The employer failed to ensure employees needing emergency assistance have a means of continuous communication to readily summon assistance when needed … an employee was injured while conducting fieldwork and was not able to make positive contact with anyone to communicate his need for emergency assistance.”

OSHA suggested AT&T install panic buttons in work vehicles which would send a signal to emergency responders who could then locate the employee using the GPS system located in the vehicles. The agency also suggested that AT&T provide telephones mounted inside vehicles to insure there would always be a means of communication in emergencies.

AT&T plans to contest the citation. The company released a statement:

“OSHA’s allegations are at odds with the facts and it’s unfortunate that OSHA ignored the fact that Mr. Mashburn had multiple devices by which he could communicate his situation and, contrary to the citation, he in fact did so.”

AT&T went on to say that it provides its technicians with cellphones and laptops to contact police, the company or other first responders in an emergency.

Mashburn’s son, William Mashburn, wasn’t satisfied with AT&T’s response. He told a local TV station, “AT&T is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. I’m sure they can come up with something,” to help their employees communicate in an emergency.

Police arrested Bryan Middlemas for Mashburn’s murder. He’s been charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree attempted robbery. Middlemas, who has pled not guilty, faces life in prison or the death penalty.

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On Sept. 17, 2012, a crew employed by Highway Technologies, Inc., of Minneapolis was replacing guard rails on a 13-mile stretch of I-94 in Wisconsin.

Joseph Janisch, 34, was part of the crew. A piece of construction equipment struck an overhead power line. Janisch was found lying on the ground, unresponsive, according to local media reports.

OSHA issued 10 violations to Highway Technologies, six of them willful.

The six instance-by-instance willful violations are for failure to ensure that parts of the equipment being operated weren’t within 10 feet of a power line. These citations include instances of failure to ensure that any part of the machinery wasn’t within six feet of an overhead power line while the machinery was traveling beneath the lines.

The company also faces four serious violations for failure to:

• identify electrical work zones
• determine if any part of the equipment being operated would be closer than 20 feet of a power line
• training each worker on safe clearance distances from power lines, and
• evaluate that each employee understood the training and risks of working near overhead power lines.

Before this investigation, Highway Technologies had been inspected by OSHA 10 times since 2007, with citations for nine serious violations.

One of the inspections was conducted because of an employee’s injuries suffered from contacting an overhead power line while installing a highway sign.

Due to the type of hazards and violations cited, OSHA has placed the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). The program requires follow-up inspections to ensure future compliance. The SVEP focuses on employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. OSHA can inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations.

Highway Technologies has 15 business days from when it received the citations to decide whether to comply. One option is to appeal them to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

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OSHA has issued 12 violations to Bacardi Bottling Corp. in connection with the death of Lawrence Davis at the company’s Jacksonville, FL, facility in August 2012. Associated fines total $192,000.

Davis was cleaning glass from under the hoist of a palletizing machine when an employee restarted the palletizer. The machine crushed Davis. OSHA says Bacardi had failed to train temporary employees on using locks and tags to prevent the unexpected start-up of machines and to ensure its own employees used lockout/tagout procedures.

Bacardi was using temporary staffers from Remedy Intelligent Staffing.

“We are seeing untrained workers — many of them temporary workers — killed very soon after starting a new job. This must stop,” said Michaels. The OSHA administrator said companies must train all employees, including those who are retained from temporary employment agencies, before they start working.

Of the 12 violations, two were categorized as willful, nine as serious and one as less-than-serious, including:

• failing to develop, document and use lockout/tagout procedure for the control of potentially hazardous energy (willful)
• failing to train temporary workers on lockout/tagout procedures (willful)
• exposing workers to trip, struck-by and fire hazards caused by fixed permanent conveyors that crossed through an aisle (serious)
• obstructing exits (serious)
• failing to provide enough lockout/tagout devices (serious)
• failing to require workers to wear safety goggles and long sleeves when using air guns at 90 pounds per square inch (serious), and
• storing a mixing tank within 12 inches of an electrical panel box (less-than-serious).

Bacardi has 15 days to respond to the citations and fines. One option is to appeal them to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

(Update Feb. 14): In a statement, Bacardi said it has already addressed or put in place plans that resolve all safety and health matters identified by OSHA. The company disagrees with how OSHA characterized its actions. Bacardi says it conducted additional employee retraining on lockout/tagout, and it completed a review of equipment to prevent a similar incident.

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OSHA has cited A-Treat Bottling Co. of Allentown, PA, with 16 violations, with 14 categorized as repeat.

An inspection conducted in August 2012 was a follow-up from an earlier one. The total fines: $129,745.

The repeat violations include failing to:

• conduct baseline and annual audiograms
• establish noise engineering controls
• provide noise training
• provide machine guarding
• provide machine-specific hazardous energy control procedures and training
• ensure exits were unobstructed
• ensure proper use of flexible cable, and
• correct electrical hazards.

Similar violations were found at inspections in 2008, 2010 and 2011.

In 2011, OSHA proposed fines totaling $111,000 for 24 safety violations at the plant.

A-Treat also received one serious citation for improper material storage in an electrical service room, and one less-than-serious citation for a defective forklift.

For 14 repeat violations, the company could have been fined almost $1 million ($980,000 to be exact).

In this case, the largest single fine A-Treat faced was $19,250 for not obtaining employee audiograms. OSHA does reduce fine amounts for small businesses. But the number of repeat citations found in this case still led to a six-figure total fine.

For some businesses, $130,000 may seem like a drop in the bucket. But A-Treat is a small, regional business (it sells soft drinks) with about 70 employees.

The company has 15 business days to decide whether to contest the violation to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

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In the more recent case, A.H. Sturgill Roofing of Dayton, Ohio, says it’s challenging two OSHA citations having to do with the death of an employee last August.

According to OSHA, the temporary Sturgill employee was working in direct sunlight at a site in Miamisburg, Ohio. He was throwing rubber materials from a flat commercial roof into a dump truck. On Aug. 1 he was hospitalized for heat exposure. On Aug. 22 he died from complications related to heat stroke.

OSHA issued two serious citations for failure to:

• provide a program addressing heat-related hazards in the workplace (a General Duty Clause citation), and
• train workers on recognizing the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses, including taking preventive measures, such as consuming adequate amounts of water.

The fines total $8,820.

In a statement, the company said, “At the time of the incident, procedures were in place to deal with job site conditions but it was only 82 degrees — conditions far from those typically causing heat stress.”

The company’s lawyer, Bob Dunlevey, told the Dayton Daily News that “OSHA is currently attempting to emphasize issues related to employee heat stress and to set precedent upon which OSHA can cite other employers in the future under its General Duty Clause — no specific OSHA standard exists as to heat stress issues, but Sturgill was still cited.”

Previous heat death, larger fine

Recently, OSHA also cited the U.S. Postal Service for the heat-related death of a mail carrier in Independence, MO. OSHA issued one willful citation for $70,000 to the Postal Service for not protecting employees from exposure to the recognized hazard of working outside during periods of excessive heat. On the day of the postal worker’s death, temperatures rose above 100 degrees.

OSHA also used the General Duty Clause in this case to issue the citation. The Postal Service says it is contesting the citation.

Even though federal OSHA doesn’t have a standard regarding heat stress, California and Washington have their own state laws.

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OSHA has fined Progressive Gourmet $73,400 for repeat and serious violations at its Wilmington, MA, production facility.

Inspections were started by OSHA in September after the agency’s Andover, MA, office received employee safety complaints.

The company was issued two repeat citations with $55,000 in proposed fines for failing to:

• institute adequate procedures to prevent the unintended startup of machinery, such as cookers, ovens and conveyors, while employees performed maintenance on the equipment, and
• provide employees with training on how to power down and lock out machines’ power sources before performing maintenance.

Similar violations were cited at the Wilmington location in 2008.

OSHA also issued Progressive three serious citations with $18,400 in fines for:

• lack of routine inspections and maintenance to ensure safe operation of an anhydrous ammonia refrigeration system
• insufficient space between stored materials and overhead piping containing ammonia to allow for safe access to stored materials, and
• slip and trip hazards from wet floors.

The company has 15 work days to say whether it will appeal the citations to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Progressive Gourmet is a wholesale food manufacturer and distributor for food service and catering industries.

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Fifty of the violations are classified as serious, and eight are repeat.

The eight repeat violations include failing to:

• anchor a drill press
• implement proper machine guarding
• correct multiple electrical violations, and
• properly mount and maintain portable fire extinguishers.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation operates the power plant. That means for OSHA to classify a violation as repeat, the same or similar violation must have occurred at one of its facilities within the last five years. OSHA inspected 25 Bureau of Reclamation facilities in that time period.

The 50 serious violations include:

• fall and electrical hazards
• lack of required guard on machinery
• inadequate PPE
• lead contamination
• potential for overexposure to hexavalent chromium
• failing to properly maintain and inspect firefighting equipment, and
• insufficient lockout/tagout procedures for energy sources that could lead to amputations.

When OSHA finds violations at federally run facilities, it doesn’t issue fines.

OSHA originally found 77 violations at Hoover Dam, but some were corrected before citations were issued.

The regional chief for the Bureau of Reclamation said the agency is taking steps to ensure the violations are fixed and don’t happen again.

Hoover Dam regulates the flow of the Colorado River. The reservoir supplies almost all the drinking water for Las Vegas, which is 30 miles away. The hydropower plant provides electricity to 1.3 million homes and businesses in Arizona, California and Nevada.

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Sensient Flavors says it will reduce its use of diacetyl by 20% now and eliminate its use altogether by the end of this year where feasible.

As part of its settlement with Indiana OSHA, Sensient will pay a $99,000 fine, reduced from an initial total of $367,500 for 37 citations.

This case has been going on for five years.

In 2008, a union asked the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to evaluate health hazards at Sensient’s Indianapolis plant.

NIOSH investigated and requested a second visit to gather more information. The agency had uncovered “pulmonary abnormalities” among workers after the first visit.

In 2009, Sensient sued NIOSH, saying it was “attempting to use Sensient’s facility as its own personal laboratory.” It said it was OK with the agency taking one look, but not another one.

One year later, NIOSH released a health hazard report that found abnormal lung functioning among employees at the Indianapolis plant was several times higher than that of the U.S. population.

The company lost that battle but sued again in 2011 after receiving the Indiana OSHA fines.

Sensient took another hit when Starbucks announced it would end business with the company one week after an article in The Indianapolis Star outlined a variety of safety concerns at the plant.

Regarding the recent settlement, Indiana OSHA says, “the administrative and engineering control represent a good faith effort by Sensient to reduce employee exposures and that these controls will represent a significant cost to Sensient.”

According to OSHA:

“A number of employees exposed to food flavorings containing diacetyl have developed serious respiratory illness presenting with persistent dry cough, wheezing, shortness of breath upon exertion, and fixed airways obstruction on spirometry. Several employees have been diagnosed with asthma or bronchiolitis obliterans. Bronchiolitis obliterans occurs when small airways become inflamed and scarred, resulting in the thickening and narrowing of the airways. The symptoms and airways obstruction range from mild to severe, and do not improve when the employee goes home or on vacation.”

Bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as popcorn lung  because flavoring containing diacetyl has been used in the snack food, can be fatal.

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The worker was sandblasting at the AC&S, Inc., facility, according to OSHA, when the air line for a supplied air hood was hooked up to a nitrogen gas line. The employee, identified as Rex Wilcoxen by AC&S, lost consciousness. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

Two serious violations were directly related to Wilcoxen’s death:

• failing to label nitrogen lines at connection points, and
• not ensuring breathing air couplings were incompatible with other gas systems.

According to OSHA, “Nitrogen is an asphyxiant. Inhalation of nitrogen is dangerous only when it lowers the available oxygen in air to below life-sustaining levels.”

Other violations cited by OSHA include failing to:

• provide training on hazardous chemicals
• ensure stairs wider than 44 inches have handrails on each side
• provide process safety information and process hazard analysis
• develop a mechanical integrity program
• document that equipment complied with recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices.

The fines totaled $42,700. OSHA also issued five non-serious citations for problems that must be fixed but that had no proposed penalty.

OSHA has ordered AC&S to install a plant-wide pipeline-labeling system, using the correct color scheme for nitrogen.

AC&S says it’s working with OSHA on the violations. A statement from the company said, “We began working with OSHA immediately following the accident to address its concerns and do all that we can to ensure that this type of accident will never happen again.”

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MacMillin Co. of Keene, NH, has agreed to:

• correct all hazards cited by OSHA
• expand safety training, and
• pay a $100,000 fine.

The original OSHA fine against MacMillin was $167,580 for failing to:

• inspect the scaffold for defects
• adequately train the employees about erecting and inspecting scaffolds, and
• determine the feasibility of or ensure the use of fall protection for the workers while the scaffolding was being built.

On Sept. 16, 2011, a number of temporary workers under the direction of MacMillin were putting up scaffolds at the Keene Middle School construction site. Steven Sawyer, 58, was one of the temp workers.

A plank that Sawyer was working on snapped, resulting in a 27-foot fall to the concrete floor below.

Sawyer died two weeks later in the hospital of the injuries he suffered.

MacMillin originally contested the OSHA fines. But now the company has agreed to the terms of the settlement with OSHA which includes providing the same level of training to its temp workers as it does for its permanent staff.

In April, OSHA announced a campaign to provide employers and employees with information about working safely from ladders, scaffolds and roofs.

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On July 24, John Watzlawick, a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in Independence, MO, had just been back at work for a couple of days after a five-week absence. That day, the temperature and heat index rose above 100°F. The carrier worked out of a postal vehicle that didn’t have air conditioning.

Watzlawick told his supervisor just after 12 noon that he had symptoms of heat-induced illness. Because of his previous absence, Watzlawick didn’t have an opportunity to become acclimated to working in excessive heat.

The carrier continued working but collapsed about 2.5 hours later. The temperature was 102°F and the heat index was 104°F.

Watzlawick’s body temperature was measured at 108.7°F when he was taken to the hospital. He died as a result of his exposure to excessive heat.

OSHA issued one willful citation for $70,000 to the Postal Service for not protecting employees from exposure to the recognized hazard of working outside during periods of excessive heat.

Since OSHA doesn’t have a specific heat-illness standard, the agency used its General Duty Clause to issue the fine.

The Postal Service disagrees with OSHA’s findings and intends to contest the citation. Companies that receive OSHA fines have 15 business days to decide whether to contest them.

In the citation to the Postal Service, OSHA includes a list of “feasible and acceptable means of hazard abatement” for exposure to excessive heat:

• acclimating employees returning to work after an extended absence to working in the heat
• training supervisors in proper response to employees reporting heat-illness symptoms, including stopping work, getting to a cool place and providing help, evaluation and medical assistance
• requiring trained supervisors to go into the field and conduct in-person evaluations
• establishing work rules that encourage employees to seek assistance when they experience heat-illness symptoms, and
• establishing a heat stress management program.

OSHA’s website defines risk levels for excessive heat using the heat index:

• less than 91°F, lower risk, basic heat and safety planning
• 91° to 103°, moderate risk, implement precautions and heighten awareness
• 103° to 115°, high risk, additional precautions to protect workers, and
• greater than 115°, very high to extreme risk, triggers even more aggressive protective measures.

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The stories are ranked by your clicks. Some involve individual fines, some have to do with trends.

Here are Safety News Alert’s Top 10 of 2012 stories about OSHA enforcement:

1. OSHA tells its inspectors to look out for safety incentive programs. Reason: Some traditional safety incentive programs reward a lack of injuries. That could cause employees or managers to under-report injuries.
2. New ruling: How far back can OSHA look for recordkeeping violations? Short answer: Not as far as the agency would like to.
3. Newspaper photo of worker on roof leads to OSHA fine. Turns out an OSHA inspector doesn’t have to witness the violation in person.
4. Company to pay $400K to OSHA in settlement over injuries. OSHA went to court in this case.
5. What will OSHA fines be like in Obama’s second four years? One way to predict the future is to take a look at the past. The records of previous presidents regarding OSHA could be predictive of the next four years.
6. Worker crushed to death in machine: $702K OSHA fine. OSHA cited the company on a per-employee basis.
7. OSHA’s top 10 violations in 2012. OSHA conducted almost 41,000 violations in fiscal year 2012. Here are the top 10 types of violations.
8. Company that bashed OSHA on YouTube ordered to pay $42K for contempt. It all started when this company refused to let an OSHA inspector into its facility.
9. Worker killed by lightning strike: OSHA fines company. OSHA says the company could have done more to protect its employee.
10. Attorney: Why companies should contest more willful OSHA violations. Part of the reason has to do with a 2012 court decision.

We’ll have more year-in-review posts in the coming weeks.

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Those who have followed along the last four years won’t be surprised to find that the total amount of OSHA fines levied during the period under administrator David Michaels has gone up.

But raw numbers don’t always tell the entire story. In this infographic, the annual fines imposed by OSHA are adjusted for inflation. Total fines are still the highest under the Obama administration, but one Republican president also had a spike in OSHA penalties.

What may come as more of a surprise is that President Obama has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to reach the number of OSHA regulations enacted by a conservative president … Ronald Reagan.

And as the so-called fiscal cliff looms over the Obama administration and Congress, complete with automatic spending cuts if a compromise isn’t reached, the following graphic notes that spending to fund OSHA has indeed gone up in the last four years.

But over time, spending and fines are actually not that far apart when you lump all presidents into two groups by their political parties:

These infographics were developed by complianceandsafety.com.

What’s your take-away from this historic look at OSHA? What do you see happening to OSHA in the next four years? Let us know in the comments below.

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The worker was caught and pinned by a conveyor that had lowered during a power-down process. He died from his injuries about a week later.

ATW faces $63,000 in OSHA fines for nine violations for failure to:

• conduct and document periodic inspections of specific energy control procedures in the fabrication and tool room departments (repeat)
• guard the area around the roller lift conveyor to prevent workers from being exposed to moving parts (serious)
• train employees on personal protective measures when working around electrical equipment (serious)
• ensure workers wear proper safety glasses (serious)
• provide appropriate personal protective equipment for workers using a metal grinding wheel (serious)
• implement an effective lockout/tagout program for machines’ energy sources and to notify affected workers about power-down conditions (serious)
• develop specific energy control procedures for equipment (serious)
• train workers on the proper procedures to isolate and lock out all energy sources for machines in the fabrication and tool room departments (serious), and
• conduct semiannual testing of insulated rubber gloves that are used for work with energized electrical equipment (less-than-serious).

The company has 15 business days to decide whether to contest the fines.

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On May 20, 2012, Nancy Harris was working alone at the Whip-In convenience store in Garland, Texas.

A robber entered the store, cleaned out the cash register and then set Harris on fire.

After the robber fled, Harris stumbled out of the store, still on fire. Police happened to be passing by. Officers were able to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, and Harris was able to give them a description of the robber before she was taken to a hospital.

She suffered burns over 40% of her body. Harris clung to life for nearly a week before succumbing to her injuries.

Police arrested Matthew Lee Johnson and charged him with capital murder.

Workplace not free of recognized hazards

OSHA conducted investigations at four convenience stores owned by TMT, Inc., in the Dallas area, including the one in Garland.

Each store was cited with violating OSHA’s general duty clause for failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause serious injury or death, in this case, workplace violence. The four serious citations total $19,600.

“Handling money, working alone and standing behind open counters leave employees vulnerable to violent crimes,” said Stephen Boyd, OSHA’s area director in Dallas. “If the employer had conducted an analysis to identify risk for violence, implemented appropriate control measures and provided training to ensure awareness of potential violence, it is possible that this tragic loss of life could have been avoided.”

TMT has 15 work days to decide whether to contest the fines.

OSHA defines workplace violence as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation or other threatening and disruptive behavior that occurs at a work site.

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In May, the OSHRC reclassified 99 violations against Dayton Tire from willful to serious.

The fines stemmed from an October 1993 incident in which a Dayton Tire employee in Oklahoma City died from injuries he suffered when a machine activated unexpectedly.

What had been $1.975 million in fines regarding lockout/tagout dropped to $197,500, a 90% reduction.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, had ordered the commission to reconsider the gravity of the fines. Reason: The court said Dayton Tire made some effort to comply with the OSHA LO/TO regulations, so the violations weren’t willful.

OSHA fines are categorized as willful when the company committed the violation with either an intentional disregard of or plain indifference to OSHA regulations.

“It takes a lot to be plainly indifferent,” the DC Circuit Court wrote in its opinion.

Now, in a blog post, attorney Shannon Young of Harmon & Davies writes this decision “gives employers an even stronger basis from which to contest willful OSHA citations.”

“What this means is that as long as an employer is acting in good faith to comply with OSHA regulations,” Young writes, “even if OSHA later determines that the employer’s actions fell short of what was required under OSHA regulations, the employer should not be cited for a willful violation.”

The difference in financial penalties for companies can be huge. The maximum allowed for a willful violation is $70,000. The maximum for a serious citation is $7,000.

And there’s anecdotal evidence the district court’s ruling may be affecting OSHRC decisions already.

In a case involving trenching, an OSHRC administrative law judge ruled a willful citation issued to a construction company should be reduced to a serious violation because the supervisor at the trench site was “inexperienced, uninformed and confused about how to protect employees.”

“The facts of this case do not establish that [the supervisor] possessed a state of mind that, if he were informed of the [OSHA] standard, he would not care.”

In other words, he wasn’t indifferent.

Legislators, seeking to give OSHA more teeth, have re-introduced, every two years, bills that would increase the maximum allowable fines for safety and health violations.

However, given these rulings based on definitions in the Occupational Safety and Health Act, perhaps OSHA reform needs to focus on the definitions of certain types of violations.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

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On OSHA’s wish-list for the last four years: legislation that would increase the maximum amounts for fines.

With Republicans in control of the House, OSHA is still unlikely to get that.

But you can expect enforcement to increase anyway. Why? Because Obama’s OSHA was able to do that already:

• The number of inspections per year has increased from an average of 38,000 to just under 41,000
• The average cost of a serious violation has more than doubled; OSHA’s goal is to bring that average to $3,000, and the agency is on target to reach the goal
• More companies are facing total fines of more than $100,000 after inspections, which OSHA calls “significant cases;” in 2010 only 164 companies had significant cases, but in 2012 that jumped to 217, a 32% increase, and
• OSHA under President Obama and administrator David Michaels is more likely to characterize violations as willful, which carry a $70,000 maximum fine, compared to serious violations which have a $7,000 max. The agency also makes use of “egregious willful” violation status, under which the agency can multiply the $70,000 fine by the number of workers affected.

New and updated regulations

Three proposed regulatory updates are far enough along in the pipeline that they could be enacted quickly:

• An update of electrical power transmission and distribution regulations could come as soon as this month
• An update of the walking and working surfaces regulations could arrive after a review by the Office of Management and Budget, which is usually limited to 90 days, and
• An update of the silica regulations is also on tap, although Michaels indicated last month that it could be delayed again because regulators need to figure out how to incorporate the new hydraulic fracturing industry, commonly known as fracking, into the revised silica rules.

Four more new regulations that could be completed by the end of Obama’s second term:

• combustible dust
• Injury and Illness Prevention Programs (I2P2)
• infectious diseases, and
• Backup alarms on construction vehicles.

OSHA is also trying to figure out how to more easily update permissible exposure limits (PELs) for hazardous substances.

And as long as this administration is in charge, old-style safety incentive programs that rewarded employees for having fewer injuries are still looked upon as a bad thing because they can cause workers to hide injuries to receive rewards.

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OSHA has cited Franklin Non-Ferrous Foundry with four willful and serious violations involving a failure to protect workers from exposure to lead.

The citations are the result of an inspection in January to verify abatement of hazards cited by OSHA in 2009.

The most recent inspection found two employees exposed to excessive levels of lead during foundry operations and a lack of sufficient engineering control to reduce lead exposure levels. The company also failed to conduct additional lead exposure monitoring when alloys with higher lead content were used and the ventilation system wasn’t working. OSHA says the company also failed to regularly measure the ventilation system to gauge its effectiveness in controlling lead exposure, and respirators weren’t used when required.

These conditions resulted in three willful violations totaling $181,500.

A $4,000 serious citation was issued for employee overexposure to airborne copper fumes.

OSHA has placed Franklin in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which mandates follow-up inspections.

The company has 15 work days from receiving the citations to decide whether to contest them.

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Yep, it’s declaring bankruptcy again.

Summer and Winter Construction LLC of Concord, NH, has filed for bankruptcy liquidation.

A federal court has ordered it to pay $101,500 in OSHA fines.

The company also owes $18,000 in fines to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services for mishandling disposal of asbestos and an undetermined amount of money to the IRS.

Also listed as creditors: an insurance company and three local residents. The firm says it has less than $50,000 in assets.

Summer and Winter’s attorney blamed the situation on “a tough economy.”

Even though the company’s owner, Walter Jensen, didn’t file for personal bankruptcy, he’s been here before.

In cases such as this one, a company’s assets are sold to pay creditors at least some of the money they’re owed.

His earlier company, Sharon and Walter Construction, was formed in 1995 and filed for bankruptcy liquidation in 2004. Jensen also filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 1990 and 1994.

The $101,500 in OSHA fines are from four previous inspections:

• In 2000, OSHA cited the company for failure to provide fall protection to employees working on a roof
• In 2006, OSHA cited the company for failing to provide head protection, fall protection and adequately supported scaffolding, and
• Two inspections in 2009. Violations included improper use of anchorages for fall protection, failure to secure a hoisted load above employees, a ladder with broken rungs, lack of eye protection, unsafe use of a circular saw and incorrect use of fall arrest systems.

The company’s attorney said the fines in 2000 were against Sharon and Walter Construction which went bankrupt in 2003, and for that reason, the company shouldn’t face repeat violations for subsequent infractions. That point had been argued previously before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, but the company lost.

Courts use a multi-factor test to determine whether a successor company must satisfy the obligations of a predecessor.

In this case, the type of business was the same, and there was continuity in personnel who controlled business decisions.

More hearings on this case are scheduled within the coming weeks. It’s likely OSHA will have to settle for something less than $101,500.

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OSHA has fined Adventure Island in Tampa, FL, $7,000 for one serious General Duty Clause violation.

The citation says employees were exposed to the hazard of being struck by lightning while working outdoors because Adventure Island did not follow its own procedures to shut down the rides on the day the employee was killed. The park has a lightning strike monitoring system that indicates activity within five miles.

Justin Inversso, a lifeguard, was injured in a lightning strike on Sept. 10, 2011, when he was working on the Key West Rapids Ride. He later died at a hospital. He turned 21 the day before his death.

Inversso was standing in two to three feet of water as he evacuated patrons from the side, according to authorities. He was taken out of the water by co-workers and given CPR.

OSHA handed Adventure Island a list of ways to abate the lightning hazard when thunderstorms approach. Among the abatement suggestions:

• obtain training from the providers of the existing strike monitoring system about how to interpret data
• supplement data from the existing monitoring system with information from the National Weather Service, and
• reevaluate time required to evacuate guests from rides, especially when employees are the last to evacuate and seek shelter.

OSHA said Adventure Island should also enforce these rules for employees during thunderstorms:

• stay away from pools and avoid contact with water
• don’t take refuge under tall, isolated objects, such as a tent or tree
• avoid metal fences, pipes, rails, utility poles and other electricity conductors, and
• put down any object that might conduct electricity, such as a rake, hoe or shovel.

Adventure Island is contesting the citation. Its parent company is SeaWorld, which has had its own problems with OSHA recently because of the death of a trainer who was pulled under water by a killer whale.

In a Tampa Tribune article on the Adventure Island fine, Gary Lopez, director of an Orlando-based tour planning company, said theme parks face a tough balancing act during inclement weather. “Do you go over the top, kick everybody out of the park and lose money?” Lopez is quoted as saying. “And if you don’t, there’s the liability issue.”

What do you think the parks should do in these situations? Do you think the OSHA fine is warranted? Let us know in the comments below.

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OSHA has fined a Nebraska meatpacking facility $195,100 in connection with the asphyxiation death of a worker on Jan. 18.

The worker was asphyxiated when his clothing got caught in the machine’s roller at the Hastings Acquisition facility. The company does business as Nebraska Prime Group.

OSHA found two willful violations related to the machine that involve improper guarding and lockout devices.

The inspection also turned up nine serious violations, including failure to:

• train workers on protecting themselves from hazards associated with loose clothing around moving equipment
• conduct periodic inspections of energy control procedures
• properly train workers in energy control procedures
• prevent unauthorized alterations to forklifts
• train and evaluate the competency of powered industrial truck operators
• keep powered trucks that need repairs out of service, and
• regularly inspect forklifts.

The company has 15 business days to decide whether to appeal the citations.

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DKS Structural Services of Huntsville, AL, dba Don Kennedy and Sons House Moving Co., faces four trenching citations:

• a willful violation for failing to provide a safe means of entrance and exit from an excavation
• a willful violation for not providing cave-in protection for employees working in a trench that was 15-feet deep
• a serious violation for exposing employees to fall and crushing hazards by allowing them to stand in a backhoe bucket to lower and raise them in the excavation, and
• a serious violation for exposing workers to struck-by hazards from loose soil, rocks and equipment by not having them wear heat protection.

The whistleblower claims he was terminated for refusing to enter an unprotected trench.

OSHA’s trenching standards mandate all excavations five feet or deeper be protected against collapse.

The OSHA fines to DKS totaled $122,400.

The whistleblower investigation has been referred to the Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor for possible litigation.

The company has 15 business days to decide whether to contest the citations.

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Cal/OSHA issued 14 citations, two of them willful, totaling $168,175 to US-Sino Investments of Fremont. The citations result from the investigation into the death of Raul Zapata, a carpenter who was buried alive under a 12-foot excavation wall at a Milpitas, CA, residential construction site on Jan. 28, 2012.

Following several days of rain, Zapata had been working at the base of the excavation wall when it collapsed on him.

The situation was so dangerous that rescuers couldn’t remove his body until two days later. Rescuers would have risked their own lives had they attempted to remove the body earlier.

The excavation wall that gave way had no soil support system installed as required by Cal/OSHA’s trenching and excavation regulations. US-Sino also didn’t have a required permit for trench and excavation work exceeding five feet in depth into which workers might be lowered.

Three days before the incident, the City of Milpitas issued a stop-work order due to unstable ground. Violating the stop-work order can lead to a $1,000 fine. However, US-Sino continued work and knowingly put workers at risk, according to Cal/OSHA.

“We think this case is particularly appropriate for criminal referral based on the egregious facts leading to the worker’s death,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Ellen Widess.

Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations is conducting a criminal inquiry, although no charges have been filed yet.

California’s Contractors State License Board suspended the general building contractor license of US-Sino and its owner, Richard Liu, after determining the company failed to provide workers’ compensation insurance to its employees as required by law.

US Sino was also cited by Cal/OSHA for not having an injury and illness prevention plan or heat illness prevention plan as required by California law.

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HIOSH says a tower collapsed because the soil in which the ground anchors were installed didn’t withstand the load from the tower, cable and test rider. The safety agency says GoZip failed to take reasonable precautions to assure the anchors could support the load. Penalties total $13,500.

Citations against GoZip include failure to:

• do everything reasonable and necessary to protect the life, safety and health of employees by not assuring the ground anchors and guy cable system could support the loads imposed by the tower, ziplines and weight of riders without failure
• assure the side rails of an extension ladder extended at least three feet above the edge of a landing surface, and
• ensure employees riding the zipline used helmets.

GoZip plans to contest the citations and fines.

Two employees were making adjustments to the line after it had been in operation for about a week. One employee was test riding the zipline and another was on the platform of a tower when the ground anchors supporting the tower abruptly pulled out of the ground. The poles that held the platform came out of the ground and the tower collapsed.

The employee riding the zipline, Ted Callaway of Lahaina, Hawaii, fell about 200 feet and suffered fatal injuries. The employee on the platform, Curtis Wright of Miamisburg, Ohio, fell about 30 feet and suffered serious injuries.

The area where the zipline is located is difficult to reach. It took first responders 18 minutes to get to the men. When they arrived, Callaway was already dead.

The company that handled reservations for the zipline tours on the course suspended tours after the incident until a full evaluation of the lines could be completed.

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Speaking yesterday (6/4/12) at the American Association of Safety Engineers’ Safety 2012 conference in Denver, OSHA administrator David Michaels said the SeaWorld decision once again validates the agency’s right to use the General Duty Clause (GDC).

“This is one more example that OSHA can use the General Duty Clause in most situations where we don’t have a standard,” Michaels said. “It’s no different than the WalMart crowd safety issue. There are many hazards we don’t have standards for.”

The GDC states OSHA must provide a place of employment which is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to its employees.

Recently, an administrative law judge upheld an OSHA GDC fine against SeaWorld in the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau who was working with the killer whale Tilikum in a performance.

OSHA also used the GDC against Wal-Mart when a day-after-Thanksgiving crowd trampled a worker to death.

In the SeaWorld case, the judge reduced the citation from willful to serious, reducing the fine from $70,000 to $7,000.

Michaels said the amount of the fine wasn’t important. What was important is that, since the judge upheld the citation, SeaWorld must now abate the hazard, Michaels said. So far, the park has been doing that by not allowing trainers in the water with killer whales during performances. The park is also looking into installing a raising floor for its marine arena which would immobilize a whale should a trainer in the water need to be quickly rescued.

On the matter of creating a standard that would mandate companies to have Injury and Illness Prevention Programs (I2P2), Michaels said the agency is still talking to stakeholders. Another reason why it’s taking a while to introduce the proposed standard: OSHA is aware that each new standard it creates is usually challenged in court. Therefore OSHA takes careful steps to make sure its standards will withstand court challenges.

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OSHA has fined Raani Corp. of Bedford Park, IL, $473,000 in connection with the employee’s death. The company was turned over to OSHA by a local medical examiner.

On Nov. 17, 2011,  a worker suffered burns when hot liquid erupted from an open tank hatch.

An investigation determined the company didn’t call 911 for emergency help and didn’t wash the worker in an available safety shower. The worker was taken to a local occupational health clinic in a co-worker’s vehicle more than 30 minutes after he was injured.

The worker died from his injuries on Dec. 8, 2011.

OSHA issued six willful citations, including failure to:

• use available emergency care
• provide workers with the proper protective clothing and train them regarding its use
• provide eye, face and hand protection when handling high temperature liquid and hazardous chemicals, and
• provide hazard communication training to workers exposed to hazardous chemicals.

Workers at the facility were found wearing medical-grade latex gloves which aren’t insulated for use with high temperature liquids or the majority of chemicals at the Raani plant.

Another seven serious violations involve failure to:

• perform a personal protective equipment assessment
• correct an improperly guarded platform
• provide visible quick drenching facilities within the immediate work area
• train workers about the use of powered industrial vehicles
• enclose live parts of electrical equipment
• use proper safety precautions when transferring flammable liquids, and
• maintain dry, clean floors.

OSHA also issued one other-than-serious violation for failure to report the fatality to federal authorities.

Due to the willful categorization of some of the violations, OSHA placed Raani Corp. in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program. Now the company will face mandatory follow-up inspections.

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The two workers were exposed to the chemical toluene at Vivid Image’s Theresa, WI, location.

OSHA issued two willful violations to Vivid for:

• workers not wearing respiratory protection while working with toluene in an unventilated area, and
• worker exposure to toluene above the peak level of 500 parts per million.

The company also faces 10 serious violations, including failure to:

• reasonably evaluate toluene air concentrations
• shut off the ventilation system and block an exhaust duct while applying material containing toluene
• develop and implement a written hazard communication program, and
• provide worker training on material hazards.

Fines total $64,600. The company has 15 business days to comply, request a conference with OSHA or contest the findings.

Since two violations were categorized as willful, OSHA placed Vivid in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which mandates follow-up inspections to ensure compliance.

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Adams Thermal Systems of Canton, SD, faces three willful citations.

On Nov. 7, 2011, an employee, Larry Kinzer, was caught in a machine and crushed to death. He was 42.

The three violations are for failing to:

• develop energy control procedures
• provide machine guarding, and
• effectively train employees on recognizing hazardous energy and taking safety precautions.

Due to the willful categorization of the violations, OSHA placed the company in the SVEP which mandates targeted follow-up inspections.

An OSHA spokesman tells the Argus Leader there is no specific list of actions Adams Thermal must take or benchmarks it must achieve for the company to be released from the SVEP. However, the company must show it has corrected its safety problems. The OSHA spokesman says the company could remain in the SVEP for a year or two.

The OSHA solicitor could also recommend criminal charges, according to the spokesman.

The company disputes OSHA’s claims. CEO Mike Adams says the company will appeal the citations. Companies that are fined by OSHA have 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Two employees at the company have been seriously injured in the last eight years:

• In 2004, an employee lost four fingers in a machine. OSHA says the company willfully failed to provide adequate machine guarding.
• In 2011, an employee had several fingers crushed while operating a press. OSHA said the company failed to provide adequate protection.

While payment of OSHA fines can be delayed by appealing them, SVEP status kicks in right away before an appeal can be heard. Should the SVEP status be delayed until after an appeal is completed? Also, should OSHA spell out specific steps a company has to take to be released from the SVEP? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Bartlett Grain Co. faces $406,000 in fines for the October 2011 grain elevator explosion in Atchison, KS. A contractor employed by Bartlett, Kansas Grain Inspection Services based in Topeka, was fined $67,500.

OSHA issued five willful and eight serious violations to Bartlett, including:

• allowing grain dust to accumulate (willful)
• using compressed air to remove dust without first shutting down ignition sources (willful)
• using electrical equipment inappropriate for the working environment (willful)
• lack of proper preventive maintenance (serious)
• inadequate emergency action plan training for employees and contractors (serious)
• lack of employee and contractor training on job hazards (serious), and
• a housekeeping program that was deficient because it did not prevent grain dust accumulations (serious).

Kansas Grain Inspection Services was hit with three citations, including one willful violation involving a lack of fall protection for employees and one serious violation for the lack of a hazard communication program.

The Washington Post reports an OSHA spokesman says when there is a fatality along with a willful violation, the agency’s solicitor may consider forwarding the case to the Justice Department for criminal consideration, although no decision has been made at this time.

A written statement from Bartlett Grain’s president, Bob Knief, says the company will contest the citations. The company disagrees there was a hazardous accumulation of dust before the explosion and contends the dust found by OSHA was deposited by the incident.

Kansas Grain Inspection Services also plans to appeal the citations.

OSHA says over the past 35 years, there have been more than 500 explosions in grain handling facilities in the U.S. that have killed more than 180 people and injured more than 675.

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A photo on the front page of California newspaper The Press Democrat on Aug. 7, 2011, showed Santa Rosa Fire Department inspector Toby Rey checking solar panels on roofs to make sure they comply with setbacks designed to keep firefighters safe.

The problem is, Cal-OSHA didn’t think Rey was being so safe during the inspection. He was on the roof, 24 feet above ground, without any fall protection.

Cal-OSHA slapped the Santa Rose Fire Department with a $2,700 fine for a serious violation.

Rey said, “I just used my judgment and determined it was a safe roof to be on.”

Firefighters are exempt from using fall protection when extinguishing fires. But Cal-OSHA said the solar panel inspections weren’t exempt and that the rules that apply to construction workers applied to Rey.

When the department received the fine, Santa Rosa Fire Chief Mark McCormick argued fire inspectors who go up on a roof for 10 minutes should not be governed by the same rules that apply to workers who might be up there for hours at a time.

A Cal-OSHA spokesman said at the time that the idea that inspectors don’t need safety gear because they don’t spend much time on the roof misses the point: It only takes one moment and one step to fall.

The fire department appealed the fine, and now, months later, it’s been settled.

Cal-OSHA reduced the serious citation to a general one and lowered the fine to $300.

The fire department now agrees that its inspectors will wear the required gear in the future, according to Chief McCormick.

Santa Rosa building inspectors have since taken over the job of inspecting new solar panels.

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Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. faces $231,000 in fines.

The explosion at its plant in Steeleville, IL, happened when the two maintenance workers were welding to repair a hole in the side of a metal trough that was leaking granulated sugar within several feet of an operating dust collector. The dust collector exploded due to a spark from the welding.

The willful citations, which cost a total of $210,000, were for:

• allowing employees to work in areas containing combustible dust deflagration, explosion or other fire hazards
• ducts and conveyors that could carry sparks to combustibles weren’t suitably protected or shut down, and
• allowing employees to work in hazardous locations where combustible dust was present and electrical equipment was rated for general purpose use.

The serious citations, which cost a total of 21,000, were for failure to:

• inspect areas where welding was to be performed
• prohibit welding in the presence of explosive atmospheres, and
• ensure the safe use of welding processes in the presence of combustible dust.

OSHA has placed the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) because of the willful violations. The SVEP requires follow-up inspections to ensure compliance.

Before this inspection, OSHA had inspected several Gilster-Mary Lee facilities a total of 30 times since 2002, resulting in 46 citations. Some of the previous citations involved combustible dust and fire hazards.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to decide whether to contest them or not.

Plant explosions involving sugar dust have proven fatal. In February 2008, an explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar plant in Port Wentworth, GA, killed 14 workers and injured 36 others. A U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigation found the explosion was caused by poor equipment design, maintenance and housekeeping.

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