Bartlett Grain Co. L.P. faces five willful and eight serious safety violations cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a grain elevator exploded in October in Atchison, Kan., killing six workers and hospitalizing two others.
Among the willful violations are allowing grain dust, which is nine times as explosive as coal dust, to collect; removing dust with compressed air before turning off ignition sources; repeatedly starting and stopping inside bucket elevators to free legs choked by grain; using inappropriate electrical equipment for the working environment; and not mandating that employees use fall protection when working from heights.
"The deaths of these six workers could have been prevented had the grain elevator's operators addressed hazards that are well known in this industry," says Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "Bartlett Grain's disregard for the law led to a catastrophic accident and heartbreaking tragedy for the workers who were injured or killed, their families and the agricultural community."
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Of the serious violations are a lack of proper preventive maintenance, certification and lubrication of grain handling equipment; insufficient emergency action plan training for employees and contractors; a lack of employee and contractor training on job hazards; and a poor housekeeping program that did not prevent grain dust accumulations.
Bartlett Grain's citations are in the amount of $406,000 in proposed fines.
Kansas Grain Inspection Services Inc., which was a contractor employed by Bartlett Grain, also is being cited for one willful violation for failing to provide fall protection for employees working on the top of rail cars, one serious violation for not having a hazard communication program and one other-than-serious violation for not communicating basic advisory information about respirators to employees. These violations total to $67,500 in proposed penalties.
"OSHA standards save lives but only if companies comply with them," says Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. "Bartlett Grain has shown what happens when basic safety standards are ignored, and this agency simply will not tolerate needless loss of life."
A willful violation happens when there intentional knowledge or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements or with complete indifference to worker safety and health. A serious violation is defined as when there is a great probability that death or serious physical harm could have from a hazard that the employer knew or should have known. An other-than-serious violation has a direct correlation to job safety and health but would be unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm.
More than 500 explosions in grain handling facilities throughout the country in the last 35 years have killed more than 180 people while injuring more than 675. In explosions in grain handling, grain dust is the main source of fuel for explosions, and this dust is highly combustible and can burn or explode if a certain amount is airborne or accumulates on a surface and finds an ignition source. Under OSHA standards, both grain dust and ignition sources should be controlled in grain elevators to prevent potentially deadly explosions.
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