Workers exposed to physical injury, amputation risks at chemical manufacturing facility

Employer Name: Venture Chemicals Inc.

Location: Seagraves, Texas

Date Inspection Initiated and What Prompted the Inspection: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened the inspection in December 2014 after an employee was fatally caught in a mixer/auger bin.

Investigation Findings: OSHA cited the employer for 18 serious and nine other-than-serious violations. The investigation by OSHA's Lubbock Area Office resulted in citations for build-up of combustible dust; multiple electrical violations that could have started a fire; failing to implement a respiratory program by fit testing, conducting medical evaluations and training workers required to wear respirators; and for not using required protective equipment on two augers — creating the possibility of amputation or other serious injury.

Proposed Penalties: $63,000

View Citations at: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/VentureChemicals_1014804.pdf

Quote: "Venture Chemicals allowed workers to operate dangerous equipment without appropriate protective measures, and a worker died because of it. This death could have been prevented,” said Elizabeth Linda Routh, OSHA's area director in Lubbock.

Information: Venture Chemicals Inc., a specialty chemical manufacturing company, has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, losses of an eye, 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 Lubbock District Office at 806-472-7681.