OSHA Blasts Productivity Over Safety Focus By Steel Firm

OSHA blasted a large steel company for putting workers at risk in order to maintain production at an Alabama manufacturing site.  Concerns about time and money cost two employees their lives and resulted in serious burns for a third according to the agency.

The employees were working on a malfunctioning valve on a furnace at the site when it erupted. At the hospital, two of the men died of their injuries. OSHA inspectors determined that the explosion was caused by opening and closing a high-pressure valve that contained oxygen and hydrated lime. The men were performing work while the furnace was operating, as directed by managers.

OSHA area director Ramona Morris observed, “Management knew that attempting to operate the valve while the furnace was still running placed workers at risk, yet they allowed them to do it because they didn’t want the production line down for hours. This employer chose productivity over the safety of its workers, and two people died as a result of this decision.”

A willful citation was issued for not developing and using a procedure to control the hazardous energy and allow workers to operate the valves while the furnace is in motion. Seven serious citations were issued as well. Proposed penalties totaled $108,000. The employer has been inspected 14 times by OSHA since 2009 and issued citations for a variety of hazards. OSHA has proposed that the corporation be placed into its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) for demonstrating indifference to its responsibility under the law.

Bring OSHA Programs Up To Speed

OSHA’s standard for control of hazardous energy lockout/tagout addresses the practices and procedures required to disable machinery, preventing the release of hazardous energy while employees service and maintain equipment.

The standard requires that employers:

• Develop, implement, and enforce an energy control policy.
• Use lockout devices for equipment that can be locked out. Tagout devices may be used instead, but only if the program offers protection equivalent to that provided through a lockout program.
• Make sure new or overhauled equipment is capable of being locked out.
• Develop, implement, and enforce an effective tagout program if machines or equipment cannot be locked out.
• Develop, document, implement, and enforce energy control procedures.
• Use only lockout/tagout devices authorized for the equipment.
• Make sure lockout/tagout devices identify individual users.
• Establish a policy that permits only those who applied a device to remove it.
• Inspect energy control procedures at least annually.
• Provide effective training for all covered employees.
• Comply with additional energy control provisions in OSHA standards when equipment must be tested or repositioned, when outside contractors work at the site, in group lockout situations, and during shift or personnel changes.

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