OSHA conducted investigations in Montgomery, Theodore and Dothan as well as in Newnan, Georgia. “Employers are required to conduct regular assessments of their workplaces to identify safety hazards that can put employees at risk for serious or fatal injuries,” said Joseph Roesler, OSHA Mobile Area Office Director.
OSHA cited Sabel Steel for: "failing to use safety procedures to control the release of hazardous energy during machine maintenance or servicing; provide fall protection; [and] conduct medical evaluations to determine an employee’s ability to use a respirator." It was also cited for incorrectly storing oxygen, acetylene cylinders and propane and unmitigated electrical and fire hazards, in addition to exposing the workers to the amputation hazards.
According to OSHA, the company has 15 business days to respond to the allegations. It has a number of option with respect to the citations. As a result of being handed the fine, it can either comply, request an informal meeting with the OSHA area director or can fight the citations in front of an independent review commission.
The citation to the steel manufacturer comes on the heels of a new report from the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing an overall drop in nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses. The report indicated a dip in the total number of cases specific to the manufacturing industry last year. It was one of the only industries to experience a statistically significant change in the year-to-year injury rate, according to BLS.
While the total amount of manufacturing-related workplace injuries and illnesses dropped, the "days away from work" rate held from 2016 to 2017 at 93 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers, the report reads.
Overall, there were nearly 2.8 million nonfatal injuries reported by private industry employers last year. The illnesses and injuries came in at a clip of 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers, according to BLS. "Private industry employers reported nearly 45,800 fewer nonfatal injury and illness cases in 2017 compared to a year earlier," the report reads.
BLS will release a second set of data for the 2017 calendar year in December. More detailed estimates, circumstances, and characteristics of the workers for those requiring time off will be provided. The December report will detail the fatal cases of occupation injuries, according to BLS. That report will rely on "state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries to ensure that counts are as complete and accurate as possible."