Workers at a Fort Worth, Texas-based plumbing and heating equipment producer exposed to safety hazards

Employer name: PVI Industries LLC

Site: Fort Worth, Texas

Date initiated: The Site Specific Targeted inspections, which are planned inspections at high-hazard workplaces where the highest rates of injuries and illnesses occur, began Aug. 28, 2014.

Investigation findings: OSHA cited the employer for 17 serious safety violations that include failure to:

• ensure spreader bars used for lifting equipment and materials were rated, labeled and inspected;
• certify entry into Permit Required Confined Spaces;
• ensure no more than one day's use of chemicals were stored in a paint booth;
• guard a drill press, bench grinder and other machinery;
• conduct an annual inspection on overhead cranes;
• develop written lockout/tagout procedures to properly shut down and isolate potentially hazardous residual energy on machinery;
• ensure air sampling was conducted prior to and during permit required confined space entry; and
• ensure workers did not eat or drink in areas where hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, is produced from stainless steel welding operations.

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. An other-than-serious violation was cited for failure to conduct eyewash maintenance.

Proposed penalties: $93,700

Quote: "PVI Industries has shown a complete disregard for the safety of their workers, and that needs to change," said Jack Rector, OSHA's area director in Fort Worth. "The absence of air monitoring and proper equipment, the exposure to amputation hazards — all of this contributes to dangerous and unacceptable hazards."

Information: To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Fort Worth Area Office at 817-581-7303.