The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor has cited AGC, Inc. of 140 Evansville Ave., Meriden, Conn., for alleged serious and other violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and has proposed penalties totaling $92,050 for those violations.
OSHA initiated safety and health inspections of the AGC facilities, which manufacture aircraft engine component parts, on Oct. 12, 2000, under the Site Specific Targeting Program. The program focuses on workplaces with exceptionally high injury and illness rates.
“Using 1998 data, the average lost workday injury and illness rate for all industries throughout the country was 3.1 per hundred workers. The rate for the AGC plant was 15.92 per hundred workers in that same period,” said Clifford S. Weston, OSHA area director in Bridgeport.
Both inspections concluded on Nov. 15, 2000.
Weston noted that the violations found during the safety inspection include deficiencies such as lack of guard railings, obstructed means of egress, problems with material handling equipment, machine guarding and electrical hazards, as well as insufficient means for controlling the lock out of hazardous energy sources. In all, the company is being cited for 33 alleged serious safety violations carrying proposed penalties totaling $71,050.
In addition, Weston said the health inspection revealed serious violations involving: lack of hearing conservation program and engineering controls for noise overexposures; lack of a hazard assessment for personal protective equipment; lack of appropriate respirator program; inadequate emergency eyewashes; inadequate training concerning hazardous chemicals, more specifically, hydrofluoric acid; hazards associated with cadmium; and the lack of protection for first aid responders where no exposure control plan was in place and employees were not offered the Hepatitis B vaccination. AGC is being cited for 12 alleged serious health violations, including proposed penalties totaling $18,900.
Three other-than-serious violations found during the health inspection address: record-keeping deficiencies, lack of personal protective equipment and lack of updated material safety data sheets. Those alleged violations include a proposed penalty of $2,100.
A serious violation is defined by OSHA as one in which there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard. An other-than-serious violation is a condition which would probably not cause death or serious physical harm, but would have a direct and immediate impact on the safety and health of employees.
Based on materials received by FMLink from environ.com
