OSHA inspectors have determined an animal food producer in Wisconsin exposed employees to combustible dust hazards and cited the employer for a total of two dozen health and safety violations.
Here’s what prompted OSHA to propose more than $160,000 in penalties.
Combustible Dust Hazards Found, OSHA Says
A family-owned business for six generations, Strauss Feeds LLC makes milk replacer for calves and other young animals.
After receiving complaints of unsafe working conditions, federal investigators visited the Strauss Feeds facility in Watertown in February 2024.
After an investigation, OSHA found the company failed to adequately control dust levels, which created “serious combustible and airborne dust hazards.”
Among other things, the investigators said employees were allowed to use “compressed air to perform blowdown methods of cleaning to remove accumulated combustible dried milk powder dust from [various] surfaces,” including the floor, equipment, ducts, pipes, and conduits.
Doing so had the potential to generate combustible dust clouds of dried milk powder, as no controls for nearby machinery and other electrical equipment were in place, the feds noted.
OSHA blamed the hazards on the company’s “poor housekeeping, its failure to evaluate spaces for dust hazards, and an absence of engineering controls to reduce dust.”
The agency also said Strauss Feeds failed to develop a written respiratory protection program.
“Unsafe levels of airborne dust can ignite suddenly, causing explosions and fires that jeopardize the safety of workers. Left unchecked, these same dust hazards can cause workers long-term health issues,” OSHA’s Area Director in Madison, Wisconsin, Chad Greenwood said in a press release. “Companies that manufacture products that create excessive dust particles must use engineering systems and highly effective respiratory protection programs to protect employees from harm.”
OSHA also said employees were exposed to hazards from “walking and working surfaces, falls, confined space and the operation of industrial trucks and forklifts when combustible dust hazards were present, increasing the risks of fire and explosion.”
All told, OSHA cited Strauss Feeds for 19 serious and five other-than-serious health and safety violations and issued proposed fines of $161,322.
