OSHA has cited Victoria-Calhoun Grain Co., following a worker’s fatality, with three alleged willful and 32 serious violations of safety standards totaling just over $100,000 at the company’s facility in Placedo, Texas.“Employers must ensure employees are fully trained and protected from all hazardous conditions in and around grain storage units,” said Michael Rivera, OSHA’s area director in Corpus Christi, Texas. “In this case, the employee was walking on top of the grain using a pole to loosen it. When the grain collapsed beneath him, he became engulfed and suffocated.”OSHA’s Corpus Christi Area Office began its investigation Oct. 1, 2008, at the company’s facility on Main Street in Placedo. The investigation found willful violations including failing to provide lockout/tagout safeguards during confined space entry and failing to provide workers with personal protective equipment. OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to, the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.Serious violations include failing to train employees about hazardous conditions associated with grain storage facilities and confined space entry, to ensure that floor openings holes were properly guarded and to implement a respiratory protection program. A serious citation is issued 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.Victoria-Calhoun Grain, which employs about 25 workers at its Placedo location, is an agricultural storage facility engaged in buying, receiving and marketing grain, such as corn, sorghum and oats, from farmers.

OSHA has cited Oxbow Calcining LLC of Kremlin for $75,600 and Kansas City, Mo.-based Geo. P. Reintjes Co. Inc. for $49,050 for alleged safety and health violations following the death of a worker on North 30th Street in Kremlin.OSHA’s Oklahoma City Area Office began its inspection Sept. 22, 2008, following a release of steam and heated petroleum coke - materials heated in an industrial process - that occurred the day before while workers were removing refractory brick used for lining furnaces in kiln chambers. Three workers employed by Geo. P. Reintjes Co. Inc., the subcontractor, were severely burned, one of whom later died.

Oxbow Calcining, a subsidiary of the Oxbow Group headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla., was cited with one willful violation for failing to follow written procedures for demolition of a refractory kiln. Citations also included two serious violations for failing to ensure employees were informed about the hazards associated with hot petroleum coke and failing to ensure workers were using the required personal protective equipment.

Geo. P. Reintjes Co. Inc., doing business as Reintjes Refractory Contractors, was cited with nine serious violations, including failing to use safe operating procedures for normal shut-down and tear-out of refractory materials at the kiln chamber, failing to provide necessary machine guarding and failing to adequately erect scaffolding.

OSHA requires several documents and written programs to be accessible to all employees.  This includes Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), Bloodborne Pathogens, and Permit Required Confined Spaces.  In the past, documents were required to be printed out and stored in a binder.  Frequently, multiple copies needed to be printed for different buildings or locations creating document control problems, like pages being out of order or ripped out by employees.  Other frustrations included outdated documents in circulation, extensive time required to update all the copies, and being known as the “tree killer” when approaching the copy machine. Now that we are well into the digital age, OSHA has thankfully recognized the need for some businesses to shift away from paper.  In a Standard Interpretation Letter dated September 16, 2008, OSHA states that employee access to written programs may be in paper or electronic format.  Where a standard requires that the written program be made available to employees, they must know how to easily access the documents without any barriers.  The program must meet all other requirements of the standard.   

However, it may not be that simple!  An OSHA Letter of Interpretation dated 10/28/1996 states that when computers are used for MSDS access, employees must be trained on how to obtain the information, and the employer must integrate the system into their overall hazard communication program.  This could be a major hurdle for some employers if their workforce is uncomfortable or unfamiliar with computers.   The same letter also states that employers should provide a backup computer system when the main system is down for short periods of time for maintenance, repair, or power disruption.  Providing a backup system to the main computer or printing a hard copy set of MSDS’s before shutting down the system would meet the standard’s intent.  To comply with these requirements, an employer would still be required to print a complete set of MSDS sheets or create a computer system which has an independent power source, such as a generator, and have databases stored on a server and local drive!