OSHA finds Alabama plastic manufacturer exposes workers to amputation, fall and electrical hazards

Employer name: HB&G Building Products Inc.

Inspection site: 1015 Brundidge Boulevard, Troy, Alabama 36081

Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to the employer on June 29, 2015. The inspection was initiated in March 2015, as part of the agency's Site Specific Targeting Program.

Inspection findings: OSHA cited the employer for 15 serious safety violations. The violations include exposing workers to fall hazards; exposing workers to moving machine parts that lacked safety guards; improper storage of fuel and oxygen cylinders and exposing workers to electrocution hazards by not covering live wiring. Four other violations involve failing to maintain an unobstructed access area in front of an electrical panel and not ensuring a stairway had a standard railing.

Quote: "This inspection has identified several safety hazards that put workers at risk of amputations from unguarded machinery, electrocution from exposed live wiring and fall hazards," said Joseph Roesler, OSHA's area director in Mobile. "HB&G's management must take action to correct the hazards so it can fulfill their responsibility to protect employees in the workplace."

Proposed penalties: $49,715

The citations can be viewed at: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/OSHA20151268fs.pdf

HB&G manufactures plastic and fiberglass porch columns and employs approximately 229 workers. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA's area director or contest the findings 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 Mobile Area Office at 251-441-6131.