6/1/2000

EPA ANNOUNCES RECALL OF TWO PESTICIDE PRODUCTS SOLD IN FAULTY PULL 'N SPRAY CONTAINERS

Environmental

EPA is announcing a voluntary consumer product safety recall for two faulty Pull 'N Spray home pesticide products. This alert only affects products sold in Pull 'N Spray containers; the problem is with the faulty container, not with the pesticide itself. The products are Monsanto Corporation's Roundup® Ready-To-Use Weed and Grass Killer and the Scotts Company's Ortho® Ready-To-Use Home DefenseTM Indoor & Outdoor Insect Killer5, both sold in 1.33 gallon plastic containers with a t-handle pump and application wand. This voluntary measure was issued after the manufacturers of the Pull 'N Spray products reported to EPA calls from consumers who described experiencing mechanical failures with the pump spray causing exposure to the pesticide.

EPA is working with the companies in alerting consumers to return these products to avoid any potential for container failure and, therefore, inadvertent pesticide exposure. Both companies have begun removing more than 1.8 million Pull 'N Spray products from the marketplace. Scotts and Monsanto will modify the containers and make labeling changes before returning the products to the marketplace to ensure the containers function properly. Consumers who have purchased Pull 'N Spray products should return the container with any remaining contents to the retailer where purchased for a full refund. The containers can be identified by the words Pull 'N Spray on the label or by the UPC codes. The Roundup® UPC code item numbers are either 70183-58064 or 70183-58065. The Home DefenseTM UPC code is 71549-01991. When the mechanism does not function properly, it may spray the pesticide contents onto the user or may pop out of the container and strike the user. The majority of the Pull 'N Spray product incidents were reports of skin and eye irritation associated with leaks resulting from container failures or misuses. On rare occasions, a small number of consumers have reported some respiratory difficulty associated with exposure to the Home Defense product.

EPA is reminding consumers to always read the label first before using pesticides in and around their homes or on their lawns and follow all label instructions. As an added precaution, consumers may want to wear protective equipment, such as gloves and safety glasses, to avoid potential exposure.

For additional information about returns and refunds for these Pull 'N Spray products, consumers should call the Manufacturers' Consumer Helpline at 1-800-225-2883. For additional information on the products, see: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides.

OSHA FINES SLOSS INDUSTRIES $154,000 FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH VIOLATIONS AT BIRMINGHAM PLANT

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration today cited Sloss Industries Corporation and proposed penalties totaling $154,000 for safety and health violations found during an inspection of the company's Birmingham plant.

According to John Hall, OSHA's Birmingham area director, partial safety and health inspections were conducted as a result of a formal complaint from union representatives. The inspections covered the coke plant and the slag wool plant which are high hazard areas of Sloss Industries' operation.

OSHA's safety inspection resulted in 20 serious citations with a total proposed penalty of $66,500 and three repeat violations with proposed penalties of $45,000. Among the serious hazards, Sloss Industries was cited for having removed the deadman switches from the hot cars. These switches automatically turn off power in an emergency situation. Other serious violations concerned:

• lack of complete fall protection while cleaning the slag wool roof area;
• hazards in connection with lockout/tagout standards which require that machinery be rendered inoperable during maintenance and repair;
• unguarded floor holes;
• defective mobile work platforms;
• defective exit signs;
• flammable/combustible storage hazards;
• lack of training in the use of fire fighting equipment;
• failure to prohibit smoking in hazardous areas;
• electrical hazards, and
• hazards involving aisles and passageways, abrasive grinders, sprocket wheels and chains, and compressed air.

Electrical hazards and the absence of a guard rail to protect workers from a 25-foot fall hazard at the coal dump accounted for the repeat safety violations.

Twelve additional serious citations resulted from the health portion of OSHA's inspection. Six of these dealt with exposure to coke oven emissions which can be a carcinogenic hazard. Others concerned emergency eyewash where sulfuric acid is in use; blood borne pathogen training and hepatitis B vaccine, confined space hazards, and hazard communications training where carbon monoxide is present.

Also cited among the serious health hazards was the company practice of driving a front-end loader across hot slag rather than picking up the slag with a bucket and backing out of the pit trailing the load.

"Driving across hot slag exposes a front-end loader operator to fire hazards and obstructed vision due to steam," said Hall. "The company had already experienced several fires at the Birmingham plant and a fatality had resulted in 1999 at another subsidiary of the company."

Hall added, "Employees working in an area where hot cars were in use were also placed at risk. The removal of deadman switches from the hot cars exposed these employees to being struck by or run over by the equipment."

A serious violation is one in which there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and that the employer knew or should have known of the hazard. Repeat violations occur when an employer has been cited previously for a substantially similar condition and the citation has become a final order of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Sloss Industries employs approximately 450 workers at the Birmingham site. The company has 15 working days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to contest OSHA's citation and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

FAA PROPOSES $70,000 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FOR HAZMAT VIOLATIONS

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed to assess a $70,000 civil penalty against Southwest Airlines for allegedly violating Department of Transportation hazardous materials regulations.

FAA alleged Southwest knowingly accepted a shipment containing hazardous materials as checked baggage aboard one of its aircraft. The shipment consisted of a box packed with 20 smaller boxes each containing 50 disposable lighters. Such devices are classed as hazardous materials under the regulations.

The shipment was clearly marked as "lighters" when Southwest accepted it, the FAA alleged. Southwest is a "will-not-carry" airline for hazardous materials. The airline transported the shipment from Houston to Dallas. A Southwest employee discovered the illegal shipment when it was unloaded at Love Field. Southwest then notified the FAA. The FAA has also issued a notice of proposed civil penalty to the passengers who offered the shipment.

The company has 30 days from receipt of the enforcement letter to respond to the agency.

CALIFORNIA COMPANY'S CLEAN AIR ACT PLEA INCLUDES $1 MILLION FINE

Allied Refrigeration Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., pleaded guilty on May 24 to violating the Clean Air Act and to illegally smuggling ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the United States. As part of the plea, Allied has agreed to pay a $1 million fine, $100,000 of which will be directed to the Santa Monica National Recreational Area for use on environmental protection and preservation projects.

Allied participated in a scheme to smuggle 18,000 30-pound cylinders of CFCs into the United States between 1993 and 1995. The $1 million fine represents the profits Allied made from reselling the smuggled CFCs. The principal smugglers in this scheme, Cowas Gustad Patel of San Dimas, Calif., and Bruce Burrell of Miami, Fla., have already been convicted and sentenced.

The importation of CFCs into the United States is strictly regulated because the release of these ozone-depleting substances into the atmosphere can increase human exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which is a cause of skin cancer and cataracts. This case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Customs Service, and was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.

EPA PROPOSES REVOKING METHYL PARATHION TOLERANCES

EPA is proposing to revoke or amend the maximum pesticide residue limits (called tolerances) for the organophosphate insecticide methyl parathion on many fruits and vegetables children frequently eat, including apples, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, celery, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears and plums. EPA will announce this in a Federal Register notice on Fri., June 2. This proposal follows up on the cancellations by the registrant of the use of methyl parathion on these and other commodities that EPA announced on Aug. 2, 1999.

This decision was based on EPA's determination that showed acute dietary risks from methyl parathion in food did not meet current requirements for an extra margin of safety to protect children under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA). EPA made that determination after completing a comprehensive review of methyl parathion's uses. EPA proposes to make these revocations and amendments effective upon publication of the final rule. EPA is working with the Food and Drug Administration, who also on June 2 will issue guidance on how it will handle situations involving methyl parathion residues in foods that were legally treated with methyl parathion before January.

The Federal Register is available at: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-PEST. For more information on EPA's reassessment of methyl parathion, visit http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op.

EPA CITES MALTER INTERNATIONAL FOR TOXIC CHEMICAL REPORTING VIOLATIONS

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cited Malter International for violating the federal toxic chemical release reporting statute at its chemical manufacturing facility in West Wyoming, Pa., and its former plant in Pittston, Pa.

EPA proposes a $132,000 penalty for the company's alleged failure to file timely reports on several hazardous chemicals stored in 1997 at its Pittston plant, which was destroyed by fire on September 1997, and later stored in 1997 and 1998 at its new facility in West Wyoming, Pa. (Note: EPA alleges reporting violations, not unlawful releases of these chemicals.)

This administrative action was taken under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), which requires companies that store more than a threshold amount of certain hazardous chemicals to notify state and local emergency response agencies and the local fire departments about the health risks associated with the chemicals, and safety precautions for handling or for accidental exposure.

EPA investigated the company's compliance with EPCRA after the September 1997 fire. The Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency advised EPA that the company had failed to file required reports on its chemical inventory - which complicated the local emergency response representatives' ability to respond to this fire.

EPA's investigation revealed that the company had not submitted timely reports of its storage of eight hazardous chemicals at the Pittston plant: hydrogen flouride, sulfuric acid, ammonium hydroxide, calcium hypochlorite, ferric chloride, kloronate (a mixture); sodium hydroxide, and sodium hypochlorite. EPA also alleges that the company did not file timely reports of its storage of aluminum sulfate and sodium hypochlorite at the West Wyoming facility.

The company may request a hearing to contest the alleged violations and proposed penalties.

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