After an worker of a Watertown, Connecticut steel fabrication firm was electrocuted on July 14, 2021 whereas repairing a conveyable water heater, an inspection by the Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) discovered that his employer, PM Engineered Options Inc., lacked safeguards to guard workers towards electrocution, in addition to mechanical, chemical, fall and different electrical hazards.
OSHA has cited the corporate for 40 severe and eight different violations of office security and well being requirements discovered throughout its inspection of the power. PM Engineered Options now faces a complete of $236,201 in proposed penalties.
OSHA inspectors decided that the corporate did not develop procedures to lockout the water heater’s energy supply throughout upkeep or present lockout coaching to the deceased worker. Additionally they discovered the corporate did not examine vitality management procedures periodically.
The aim of lockout/tagout, additionally known as hazardous vitality management, is to stop the surprising startup or launch of saved electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic or different vitality sources in machines and gear that can lead to severe damage or loss of life to staff.
“This worker misplaced his life because of the employer’s failure to implement required vitality management procedures,” mentioned OSHA Space Director Dale Varney in Hartford. “Of equal concern is the broad cross-section of hazards all through the power. Left uncorrected, they expose workers to being crushed, caught in transferring machine components, burned, chemical exposures, falling and being unable to exit the office promptly within the occasion of an emergency, akin to a hearth or explosion.”
OSHA recognized extra hazards throughout its inspection of the plant, together with inadequately guarded mechanical energy presses, forges, hydraulic presses and grinding equipment; uncovered stay electrical components, uncovered electrical bins, versatile cords utilized in lieu of everlasting wiring and materials saved in entrance {of electrical} panels; open or unlabeled tanks and containers of hazardous chemical substances and others. View the citations here and here.
PM Engineered Options has 15 enterprise days from receipt of its citations and penalties to conform, request a casual convention with OSHA’s space director, or contest the findings.
Supply: OSHA
Fascinated with Manufacturing?
Get automated alerts for this matter.
