OSHA announced issuance of contempt of court orders against Brian Andre, former owner of Andre Tuckpointing and Brickwork (AT&B), Andre Stone and Mason Work Inc. (AS&MW), and Regina Shaw, owner of AS&MW. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued the contempt orders against the St. Louis-area company and individuals for failing to comply with court orders enforcing citations of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
“Companies that expose employees to hazards, and then blatantly ignore citations requiring correction of those hazards, will not be overlooked,” said Charles E. Adkins, OSHA regional administrator in Kansas City, Missouri. “Employers must fulfill their responsibility to keep employees safe, as well as satisfy any sanctions levied for failing to do so.”
The cases stem from numerous citations OSHA issued to AT&B and its successor, AS&MW, for willful, repeat, and serious violations related to fall hazards, scaffolding erection deficiencies, power tool guarding, and other hazards in connection with multiple projects in the St. Louis area.
When the companies failed to comply with the court’s order enforcing OSHRC’s final order, the secretary of labor filed petitions for contempt. As a result, a special master of the Court of Appeals concluded that Brian Andre, AS&MW and Regina Shaw were in contempt of the order, and recommended various sanctions. The Eighth Circuit substantially accepted the master’s recommendations, found all three parties in contempt, and imposed sanctions, including: Brian Andre, AS&MW, and Regina Shaw must pay outstanding monetary penalties, which continue to accrue interest, and other miscellaneous fees, in the current amount of $258,582; AS&MW and Regina Shaw must pay a $100 daily penalty, calculated from the time of default, in early 2008, on the OSHRC final order; AS&MW must provide OSHA weekly notification of all current jobs, and known future jobs, at least 72 hours prior to commencement of work for a period of three years; and AS&MW must provide “competent person” training to all people currently and subsequently designated as jobsite “competent persons,” prior to beginning any work, and provide the secretary records of such training.
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OSHA Cites Construction Company for Lack of Fall Protection following Worker’s Death
OSHA cited Mariani & Richards Inc., for failing to protect workers from falls on a construction site following the investigation of a worker who fell 225 feet to his death.
OSHA began its investigation on August 18, 2009, and found that Mariani & Richards did not provide workers with any fall protection while they were performing maintenance on The Pennsylvanian Building, a historic landmark in downtown Pittsburgh. As a result of the investigation, the company has been cited with one willful violation and a proposed penalty of $70,000.
“This company was cited for the same violation in November 2007 but never took the proper steps to ensure workers were safe at this worksite, resulting in this tragedy,” said Robert Szymanski, director of OSHA’s Pittsburgh office. “OSHA will not tolerate employers who flagrantly ignore the regulations designed to protect workers on the job.”
OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.
Alternative Chemicals Ease Safety Concerns about Nonstick, Repellent Coatings
Amid concern about the potential toxic effects of the fluorochemicals used in nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, and other consumer products, manufacturers are using new versions of these chemicals that may be safer.
C&EN Senior Editor Stephen K. Ritter cites indications that long-chain compounds like perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) can cause developmental problems, liver toxicity, and cancer in animals. Uncertainty exists over their health effects in people. Nevertheless, chemical companies are working with EPA to phase out PFOS and are in the process of phasing out PFOA. The companies are replacing these chemicals with shorter chain fluorochemicals that perform just as well but appear to be safer.
Although these new ingredients are considered sound replacements, they may only be a temporary fix, pending development of a new generation of less toxic substitutes. After being surprised by the unexpected environmental persistence of PFOA and PFOS, EPA is taking extra caution with the replacements to avoid a similar problem in the future.
Railroads Ordered to Compensate Employee Fired for Reporting Work-related Injury
OSHA has ordered the Illinois Central Railroad Co. and the Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad, both headquartered in Homewood, Illinois, to pay a former railroad employee more than $80,000 in back wages, compensatory damages and attorney’s fees.
OSHA investigated the employee’s allegation that the railroads terminated his employment in retaliation for reporting a work-related injury he sustained while performing his job. OSHA’s investigation found that officials from both railroads ordered an investigation into the cause of the employee’s injury, which ultimately resulted in their decision to terminate his employment. The evidence showed that the employee was in compliance with the railroads’ rules governing the reporting of work-related injuries and not at fault for his injury.
“An employer does not have the right to retaliate against its employees who report work-related injuries,” said Charles E. Adkins, OSHA’s regional administrator in Kansas City. “While OSHA is best known for ensuring the safety and health of employees, it is also a federal government whistleblower protection agency.”
As a result of the investigation, OSHA ordered the railroads to pay the employee a total of $80,453 that includes $57,587 in back wages and interest, $10,000 in compensatory damages and $12,866 in attorney’s fees. The railroad carriers further were ordered to provide whistleblower rights information to their employees. Either party in the case can file an appeal with the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
OSHA conducted the investigation under the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) as amended in 2007 by the “Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act.” Railroad carriers are subject to the provisions of the FRSA, which protects employees who report violations of any federal law, rule or regulation relating to railroad safety or security or who engage in other activities protected by the act.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 16 other laws protecting employees who report violations of various securities laws; trucking, airline, nuclear power, pipeline, environmental, rail, workplace safety and health regulations; and consumer product safety laws.
Under the various whistleblower provisions enacted by Congress, employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor for an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program.
Toward Safer Plastics that Lock in Potentially Harmful Plasticizers
Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers—the source of long-standing human health concerns—from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics. The advance could lead to a new generation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics that are safer than those now used in packaging, medical tubing, toys, and other products, they say.
Helmut Reinecke and colleagues note that manufacturers add large amounts of plasticizers to PVC to make it flexible and durable. Plasticizers may account for more than one-third of the weight of some PVC products. Phthalates are the mainstay plasticizers. Unfortunately, they migrate to the surface of the plastic over time and escape into the environment. As a result, PVC plastics become less flexible and durable. In addition, people who come into contact with the plastics face possible health risks. The U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2009 banned use of several phthalate plasticizers for use in manufacture of toys and child care articles.
The scientists describe development of a way to make phthalate permanently bond, or chemically attach to, the internal structure of PVC so that it will not migrate. Laboratory tests showed that the method completely suppressed the migration of plasticizer to the surface of the plastic. “This approach may open new ways to the preparation of flexible PVC with permanent plasticizer effect and zero migration,” the article notes.
NSF International Certification Program to Verify Quality and Safety of Aftermarket Automotive Parts
Concerns regarding consumer safety and compromised automobile crashworthiness continue to center on the use of certain aftermarket structural parts. NSF International announced the launch of a new Automotive Parts Certification Program to address these concerns. The one-of-a-kind program verifies both the quality and performance of aftermarket auto parts via testing and inspections.
The NSF Automotive Parts Certification Program offers independent, third-party certification of steel bumpers, step bumpers, absorbers, reinforcement bars and brackets to ensure that high-quality aftermarket safety parts are available. NSF International’s certification criteria require the highest level of performance in terms of form, fit, and function, as well as the production facility’s quality systems.
The certification program was developed to counter the growing concerns that lower quality parts were being used in the automotive repair industry. Certification helps ensure that an aftermarket auto part meets rigid quality, safety, and performance standards.
Reflexxion Automotive and Production Bumper Stamping, Inc. (PBSI), who both manufacture Diamond Standard brand parts, are the first companies to participate in NSF International’s Automotive Parts Certification Program. The certification program includes:
- On-site inspection and approval of the manufacturing facilities’ production and quality system,
- In-plant part quality assurance requirements,
- Rigorous part testing to ensure the highest levels of performance,
- Comparison to original equipment (OE) parts across dimensional and material attributes
- Ongoing monitoring of certified parts through quarterly facility audits,
- Random, in-market part testing,
- An ongoing process for monitoring and taking action regarding customer complaints, and
- A traceability requirement that allows for an effective recall process.
Automotive parts that complete the requirements of this NSF certification program will bear the NSF Mark. Michael O’Neal of Diamond Standard parts stated, “The events of the last few weeks concerning crash related safety parts illustrate the glaring need for certification to assure the consumer, collision repair shop, independent distributor and insurance industry that the parts utilized for the repairs of a vehicle maintain the integrity of the original collision management system. NSF International’s 65-year history of certification, testing and inspections coupled with its extensive automotive industry experience, provides the confidence that the collision repair industry can rely on.”
“When any collision repair professional or insurance company sees the NSF Mark on an automotive part, they can be confident that the part meets the industry’s highest standards,” said Bob Frayer, Director, NSF International Engineering Laboratories. “NSF Certification also allows manufacturers to demonstrate their commitment to product quality and safety.”
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, NSF International is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited standards writing organization. Located near the automotive manufacturing capital of the world, NSF International has over 1,100 automotive clients, approximately 700 employees, operates in over 120 countries worldwide, and certifies more than 275,000 products. NSF International has been providing automotive services since 1996.
Report Backs EPA Classification of PERC as Likely Human Carcinogen and Toxic to Nervous System
The EPA’s classification of the environmental contaminant tetrachloroethylene as “likely to be a human carcinogen” is appropriately supported in EPA’s draft assessment of adverse human health effects for the chemical, says a new National Research Council report, which also recommends improvements for EPA’s final assessment. The report suggests using better designed studies than those EPA had chosen in estimating the adverse health effects of tetrachloroethylene. In addition, the report proposes ways to strengthen the scientific basis for estimating the potential to cause cancer, as well as safe inhalation and oral exposures to tetrachloroethylene.
Tetrachloroethylene—also known as perchloroethylene, PCE, or PERC—is a dry-cleaning solvent that is found as a contaminant in the air, groundwater, surface waters, and soil. In humans it can damage the nervous and reproductive systems, liver, and kidneys and is a likely carcinogen. People are mostly exposed to PERC by breathing it in the air, but exposure can also occur by ingestion or skin contact. EPA’s assessment aims to provide estimates of potential noncancerous and cancerous health effects following exposure to PERC and will be used to establish air- and water-quality standards and set cleanup standards for hazardous waste sites. EPA asked the National Research Council to review the draft health assessment for PERC independently before EPA finalizes it.
For the cancer assessment, EPA’s classification of PERC as “likely to be a human carcinogen” is supported by data that meets the relevant criteria in EPA’s 2005 Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, concluded the committee that wrote the report. The scientific community agrees in general that PERC is carcinogenic in laboratory animals, but debate continues about how to interpret and use those findings to predict human cancer risks, the report states. This debate is reflected in the committee’s examination of which possible PERC-related cancer—leukemia, liver tumors, or kidney cancer—provides the strongest data for EPA to estimate its cancer potential.
The majority of the committee members judged that the leukemia data EPA chose to estimate cancer potential contained too many uncertainties to make the data useful. These members said that a more scientifically defensible approach would be to employ the dataset that has the least uncertainty rather than the cancer dataset that yields the highest estimates of adverse health effects. Following this approach, the committee members suggested EPA use the liver-cancer data, followed by the data based upon kidney cancer and leukemia.
However, other committee members judged that the leukemia dataset should be used for estimating cancer potential. Their opinions were based on the observation that reproducible, statistically significant increases in leukemia were found in male and female rats above the background incidence of leukemia and that leukemia was the type of cancer with the highest sensitivity to PERC exposure.
For the potential noncancerous health effects attributed to PERC, such as impairments to the nervous system, EPA estimated the inhalation and oral exposures allowed per day that will likely not cause harm. As the basis for its inhalation “reference concentration” calculation, EPA selected one study that observed adverse neurotoxic effects in people who lived near dry-cleaning facilities. Based on this study, EPA derived a value of 2 parts per billion (ppb) per day. The committee recommended instead that EPA use four other human studies and one animal study that applied stronger methods and provided more reliable findings. When the committee used these five studies and applied EPA’s same estimation methods, it produced a range of daily allowable inhalation of 6 to 50 ppb.
The report was sponsored by EPA. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are independent, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter. Committee members, who serve pro bono as volunteers, are chosen by the Academies for each study based on their expertise and experience and must satisfy the Academies’ conflict-of-interest standards. The resulting consensus reports undergo external peer review before completion.
OSHA Cites C.A. Franc $539,000 for Willful Fall Hazards
OSHA has fined the C.A. Franc construction company $539,000 following the investigation of a roofing worker who fell 40 feet to his death at a Washington worksite. The Valencia, Pennsylvania-based roof installer, whose owner is Christopher A. Franc, was cited for 10 per instance willful citations for failing to protect workers from falls.
“Mr. Franc knowingly and willfully failed to protect his workers from falling to their death,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. “Despite repeated requests from workers that he provide fall protection, on this step roof, Mr. Franc refused to provide readily available protection. We will not tolerate this type of blatant and egregious disregard for the health and safety of workers.”
OSHA began its investigation immediately following the worker’s death on August 15, 2009, and found the C.A. Franc company had failed to provide any fall protection to its employees working on a pitched roof 40 feet off the ground. In addition, Mr. Franc failed to train a newly hired college student in hazards and the necessary safety measures for roofing work. As a result of the investigation, the company has been cited for 10 alleged per-instance willful violations, one for each employee working unprotected on the roof, with a proposed penalty of $490,000, and one additional alleged willful violation for failing to train the new employee, with a penalty of $49,000.
General contractor Hospitality Builders Inc., has also been cited with one willful violation and a proposed penalty of $70,000 for failing to ensure that C.A. Franc workers had fall protection.
“This fall fatality was one of five that occurred during a 15-day span in the Pittsburgh area,” said John M. Hermanson, OSHA’s regional administrator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the construction industry. Failure to provide employees with fall protection is unconscionable. We urge construction companies to take the necessary action to ensure their workers are protected.”
In a related criminal charge, Christopher A. Franc entered a guilty plea in federal court to a violation of 29 U. S. C. Section 666(e). Sentencing is scheduled for June 18.
Brian Karnofsky Jailed for Muscular Dystrophy
Brian has been arrested and will be put in jail for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) lock-up. We need to collect $2,000 for the MDA to help bail him out. Your tax deductible donation will help MDA continue research into the causes and cures for 43 neuromuscular diseases.
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Brian is the President of Environmental Resource Center. Many of you helped bail him out in 2007, 2008, and 2009, but he’s on his way back to jail this year. Don’t bother asking what crimes he’s committed—just know that we need your help bailing him out.
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