OSHA Inspection: PERFORMANCE CONTRACTORS INC

Issued

Sep 28, 2011

Abate by

Oct 17, 2011

Penalty

Initial $7,000

General-duty citation text

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970:  The
employer did not
furnish to each of his employees a place of employment which was free from
recognized hazards
that were causing or likely to cause death or serious phyical harm to
employees when employees
were exposed to the hazard of a confined space atmosphere enriched with an
asphyxiating
atmosphere.
On or about May 22, 2011, at the 2MRE-201 Hydrogenator in the VCM 2 Unit,
the employer
failed to conduct confined space pre-entry monitoring for the 2MRE-201
prior to employees
entering the confined space. This exposed employees to the hazards of
asphyxiation.
Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable abatement method to
correct this hazard
would be to conduct pre-entry air monitoring prior to permitting entry
into confined spaces as
per American National Standards Institute Z 117.1, Section 4.0
Pursuant to 20 CFR 1903.19, within 10 calendar days of the abatement date,
the employer must
submit documentation describing the actions it is taking to establish,
communicate and implement
written procedures to ensure that it is adhering to pre-entry procedures
prior to entering confined
spaces.