W.Va. manufacturer fined for exposing workers to noise, other hazards

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Quality Engineered Steels LLC, doing business as West Virginia Cold Drawn, for a multitude of workplace safety and health violations including noise and respiratory hazards at its Point Pleasant, W.Va., facility. Proposed penalties total $69,250.

OSHA initiated an inspection on Feb. 23 as part of a national emphasis program on amputations. As a result, the steel bar manufacturer was cited for 35 serious violations with a penalty of $67,250, and four other-than-serious violations with a penalty of $2,000.

"Inspectors identified a long list of hazards compromising the company's ability to provide a safe and healthy work environment for its employees, and those issues should be corrected immediately," said Prentice Cline, director of OSHA's Charleston Area Office in West Virginia.

The serious violations address hazards associated with personal protective equipment, powered industrial trucks, cranes and slings, machine guarding, compressed gas cylinders, improper guarding of open-sided floors and stairways, an inadequate respiratory protection program, inadequate control of potentially hazardous energy sources and failure to develop or implement a hazard communication program. An OSHA violation is serious if death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard an employer knew or should have known exists. Other-than-serious citations were issued for recordkeeping deficiencies.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with the OSHA area director in Charleston, or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.