OSHA fines Johns Manville after employee suffers hand amputation

Employer name: Johns Manville

Inspection site: 200 West Industrial Blvd., Cleburne, Texas 76033

Citations issued: June 29, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration began an inspection Feb. 11, 2016, after reports that a machine severed an employee’s hand at the Johns Manville Cleburne manufacturing facility as he tried to clear a jam in a machine. Investigators issued citations for two repeat and three serious violations. The agency issued repeat citations for lacking machine guards on a conveyor to protect workers from in-running nip point hazards and for allowing an unguarded and protruding shaft to project more than one-half its diameter. OSHA cited the company for the same or similar violations at its locations in Ohio and New Jersey. 

Serious violations include:

• Energy-control procedures did not clearly outline steps for shutting down, isolating, blocking and securing machines to control hazardous energy.
• When locking out for energy control, the company’s periodic inspection did not include a review between the inspector and each authorized employee.
• The employer failed to train authorized employees adequately to recognize hazards associated with hazardous energy.

OSHA initiated the investigation under a National Emphasis Program for Amputation.

Proposed Penalties: $49,600

Quote: “Johns Manville’s flawed procedures to control hazardous energy sources and a lack of machine guards ultimately led to an amputation,” said Jack A. Rector, OSHA’s area director in Fort Worth. “The company should have evaluated its lockout/tagout program and provided proper machine guarding. It is simply unacceptable that a 34-year-old father of four young children suffered a gruesome injury, and has had life forever changed by an incident that was preventable.”

Link to the citations: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/JohnsManville_1125065.pdf

Information: A Berkshire Hathaway company, Johns Manville has its headquarters in Denver, Colorado. It manufactures residential and commercial insulation, commercial roofing, mechanical insulation and materials for other manufacturers' products and applications. Approximately 400 employees work at the Cleburne plant. The 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 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.