OSHA cites Kansas grain cooperative for exposing workers to fall, grain dust hazards at Quinter location

Employer name: Frontier Ag Inc.

Citations received: Jan. 15, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Wichita Area Office cited the Quinter, Kansas, grain cooperative for two repeated and three serious safety violations. Federal inspectors found the company failed to remove immediately grain dust accumulations greater than 1/8^th of one inch and lacked an effective written housekeeping plan to address the accumulation of grain dust. OSHA also found employees exposed to fall hazards because ladder ways and platforms lacked guard railings.

Quote: “The grain handling industry is a high-hazard industry where workers can be exposed to numerous serious and life-threatening hazards,” said Judy Freeman, OSHA’s area director in Wichita. “Frontier Ag needs to reevaluate its housekeeping plan for grain dust removal and make immediate improvements to protect workers on the job.”

Frontier Ag, Inc. is an agribusiness company in Quinter, Kansas. The cooperative has 32 locations throughout Kansas with its administrative office in Oakley. The company employs about 330 employees, 19 of whom work at the Quinter location. 

Proposed Penalties: $65,000

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To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, 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 Wichita Area Office at 316-269-6644.