OSHA cites cabinet maker for exposing workers to amputation, respiratory, chemical, electrical and other safety hazards

Employer name: BCS Manufacturing LLC

Inspection site: 4215 Tholozan Ave., St. Louis, Missouri

Citations issued: March 11, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited BCS Manufacturing for 23 serious and three other-than-serious safety violations.

Investigators from the agency’s St. Louis area office responded to complaints alleging unsafe working conditions at the cabinet maker.

The agency cited the company for:

• Failing to develop a respiratory protection program.
• Allowing combustible dust to accumulate.
• Failing to train employees about hazardous chemicals in use in the workplace.
• Electrical safety violations including use of damaged equipment.
• Exposing workers to operating machine parts because of inadequate guards.
• Unsanitary conditions.
• Insufficient training.

Quote: “Exposing workers to dust particles and hazardous chemicals can cause long-term respiratory illness and diseases,” said Bill McDonald, OSHA’s area director in St. Louis. “Each year hundreds of manufacturing workers are injured on the job because employers fail to comply with OSHA’s common sense safety standards.”

Proposed Penalties: $53,200

View health and safety citations.

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 St. Louis Area Office at 314-425-4249.