OSHA proposes $75,000 in fines to Minnesota pipe manufacturer for machine guarding, other hazards at Chatsworth, Ill., facility

CHATSWORTH, Ill. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Prinsco Inc. for 14 alleged serious safety violations, including a lack of machine guarding, at its Chatsworth pipe manufacturing facility.

An inspection was initiated under OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting Program, which focuses enforcement efforts on workplaces with high injury and illness rates. Proposed penalties total $75,000.”Employers such as Prinsco that record a higher-than-average rate of days lost due to injuries demonstrate a need to re-evaluate their safety procedures,” said Tom Bielema, OSHA’s area director in Peoria. “It is the responsibility of every employer to know and correct safety and health hazards that exist in their workplaces.”The violations involve failing to identify emergency exits; provide adequate guardrails and safe wooden ladders; properly list or label electrical equipment; close unused openings in circuit breaker boxes; and guard corrugating machines, belts, pulleys, and woodworking machines such as radial and table saws.

A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=23217

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