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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202) 219-8151
Lead Overexposures, Other Health Violations Cited
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
today fined the largest U.S. copper smelter, Franklin Smelting and Refining
Corp. of Philadelphia, $821,360 for exposing its employees to life-threatening
levels of airborne lead and cadmium, as well as for numerous other health and
safety violations.
"Every American worker has a right to a safe and healthy
workplace and one of my top priorities is to make that right a reality," said
Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman. "We cannot allow employers to continuously
place their employees at risk of death or serious illness or injury by ignoring
good safety and health practices. By its long history of exposing its employees
to the poisonous effects of lead--in some cases almost 60 times the legal
limit--Franklin Smelting brought these penalties on itself."
Franklin Smelting is a secondary copper smelter, with 108
employees. The company receives copper-bearing scrap from a variety of sources
and then processes the scrap into nearly pure bars of copper called "pigs" for
sale. Lead and cadmium are unwanted byproducts of the process.
OSHA issued citations for six instance-by-instance alleged
willful violations at $56,000 per instance, totaling $336,00O in penalties; 10
other alleged willful violations, including violations of the cadmium standard,
with a combined penalty of $416,000; four alleged repeat violations, with a
penalty of $10,160; four alleged serious violations, with a total penalty of
$11,200; and one alleged other-than-serious violation, as well as a
failure-to-abate notification, with a penalty of $48,000.
Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety
and Health Gregory R. Watchman said, "Some of the employee lead exposures found
by OSHA in the latest inspection were almost 60 times the maximum permissible
exposure limit. These overexposures can produce damaging health effects on
workers such as anemia and kidney problems, as well as damage to the central
nervous system."
OSHA's latest inspection was in response to a referral from
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which entered into a final consent
decree in March 1997 with Franklin Smelting concerning violations of the Clean
Air Act. Franklin Smelting spent $3 million to enclose its operations and to
treat the air before it left the plant. Despite OSHA's advice, the company
failed to provide proper ventilation of the enclosure and the net effect was to
increase employees' exposure to air contaminants inside the plant.
At any given time, about 10 percent of the 75 Franklin
employees exposed to lead in their jobs had blood lead levels that required
them to either be medically removed from the lead exposure or that indicated
possible damaging health effects from lead.
Franklin Smelting has had 29 previous OSHA inspections, 18
of them for health and 11 for safety. Employee overexposure to airborne
inorganic lead has been a recurring issue of concern in the previous health
inspections. During those inspections, the levels of lead in the air have
usually been higher than what is now the OSHA permissible exposure limit of 50
micrograms per cubic meter of air. Some exposures found in the latest
inspection were worse than those found in the 1980s, ranging from 91 micrograms
per cubic meter to 2900 micrograms per cubic meter.
Following these previous inspections, the company sent OSHA
abatement information including monitoring results that indicated the
violations were abated. When OSHA conducted follow-up inspections, its
inspectors found that the violations had apparently been abated for a brief
period of time, making it impossible to issue failure-to-abate notices.
Instead, the agency would issue new or repeat citations.
Franklin Smelting has 15 working days to contest the
citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and
Health Review Commission.
(Editor's Note: See attached fact sheet for summary of
citations and proposed penalties)
SUMMARY OF CITATIONS AND PROPOSED PENALTIES
FRANKLIN SMELTING AND REFINING CORP.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Alleged Willful Violations
- Six instances of exposing employees to lead at concentrations greater
than 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air averaged over an 8-hour period,
$56,000 per instance. Total penalty, $336,000
- Failure to provide adequate engineering controls to reduce exposures
to lead, to semi-annually revise a written compliance program, and to make
required measurements of ventilation system used to control exposure to lead.
$32,000
- Failure to provide adequate respiratory protection against lead.
$56,000
- Failure to provide protective clothing against lead and failure to
provide for the cleaning and laundering of such clothing. $44,000
- Removing lead dust from clothing by blowing it into the air and
inadequate removal of lead dust from clothing before employees enter lunch
room. $44,000
- Dry sweeping lead dust from floors. $44,000
- Failure to conduct adequate medical surveillance program for
employees exposed to lead.$32,000
- Failure to provide annual training on lead standard for employees.
$32,000
- Exposing employees to airborne concentration of cadmium in excess of
five micrograms per cubic meter of air as an eight-hour time-weighted average
exposure and failure to provide cadmium engineering controls.$56,000
- Various violations of the cadmium standard such as taking home
clothing with cadmium, removing cadmium dust by air, not removing cadmium dust,
and dry sweeping cadmium dust. $44,000
- Failure to conduct adequate medical surveillance program for
employees exposed to cadmium. $32,000
Total Proposed Penalties for Alleged Willful Violations
$752,000
(Willful violations are those committed with an intentional
disregard of, or plain indifference to, the requirements of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act and regulations.)
Failure to Abate Notification
- Failure to provide cadmium training program.$48,000
(Failure to correct a previous violation can bring a
penalty based on each day the violation continues beyond the prescribed
abatement date.)
Alleged Serious Violations
- Failure to provide point of operation guarding on machinery. $4,000
- Failure to guard rotating shaft on machinery. $1,600
- Exposing employees to copper in concentrations in excess of the
permissible exposure limit and failure to provide engineering controls for
copper. $2,800
- No annual cadmium program review and no measurements of cadmium
ventilation. $2,800
Total Proposed Penalties for Alleged Serious Violations
$11,200
(A serious violation is defined as one in which there is a
substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and
the employer knew or should have known of the hazard.)
Alleged Repeat Violations
- Not recording employee medical removals under the lead standard. $800
- Inadequate access to medical/exposure records. $160
- Surface contaminated by lead. $6,000
- Cadmium contamination on surface and on lunch tables.$3,200
Total Proposed Penalties for Alleged Repeat Violations
$10,160
(A repeat violation is one in which the employer has been
cited previously for a substantially similar condition and the citation has
become a final order.)
GRAND TOTAL OF PROPOSED PENALTIES $821,360
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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