OSHA cites East Hartford mattress recycler for uncorrected, new and recurring hazards for workers

Employer: Recyc-Mattress Corp., 12 Eastern Park Road
East Hartford, Connecticut, a mattress recycler.

After Recyc-Mattress Corp, a mattress recycling company, failed to provide the Hartford Area Office of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration with information that it had remedied all the hazards cited in a 2015 inspection, OSHA began an inspection on Jan. 12, 2016, to verify correction of the hazards.

Investigation’s findings: OSHA found several instances of uncorrected, recurring and new hazards at the facility. The agency found the company:

• Did not develop and implement a written hazard communication program to inform employees about hazardous chemical and materials in the workplace, such as battery acid. [Uncorrected]
• Failed to provide respirator training to employees. [Uncorrected]
• Allowed mattresses and box springs to obstruct emergency exit access. [Recurring]
• Blocked access to the circuit breaker that provided power to machines in the shop with metal bushings, cardboard and plastic wrap. [Recurring]
• Permitted an emergency exit door to have its handle removed.
• Allowed employees to routinely unjam a shredder without first locking out its power source; the lockout procedures were not clear and specific to the shredder.
• Created electric shock hazards for employees with open junction box.

These conditions led OSHA to cite Recyc-Mattress for failing to abate two hazards and for two repeat and three violations of workplace safety standards.

Proposed penalties: $74,520

QUOTE: “Employers have a responsibility to maintain safe and healthful working conditions for their employees and to promptly and effectively correct hazards so they don’t recur. They should be aware that OSHA can and does follow up to verify corrective action,” said Warren Simpson, OSHA’s area director in Hartford. “In this instance, employees were exposed to the risk of electric shock, being caught in a shredder, chemical hazards and being unable to exit the workplace swiftly in the event of a fire or other emergency. Recyc-Mattress Corp. must correct these hazards immediately.”

Link to citations and failure to abate notice: 

• http://go.usa.gov/xxAtV
• http://go.usa.gov/xxAzk

Recyc-Mattress Corp. has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, meet 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, 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 OSHA's Hartford Area Office at 860-240-3152.