OSHA Inspection: WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY, LLC

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Feb 24, 2012

Penalty

Initial $3,000 · Current $3,000

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(g)(2): The employer required respirator use for protection against chromium (VI); however, the employer did not institute a respiratory protection program in accordance with the Respiratory Protection standard, 29 CFR 1910.134, which covers each employee required to use a respirator:  a.	On or about 8/25/11, an employee was stick welding stainless steel by hard facing alignment keys and was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) at an 8-hour TWA of 31 micrograms per cubic meter of air, approximately 6.1 times the permissible exposure limit (PEL).  Respirator use was mandatory and employee had not been provided medical evaluation.  b.	On or about 8/25/11, an employee was stick welding stainless steel by hard facing alignment keys and was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) at an 8-hour TWA of 32 micrograms per cubic meter of air, approximately 6.3 times the permissible exposure limit (PEL).  Respirator use was mandatory and employee had not been provided medical evaluation.    Note:  The employer may discontinue an employees medical evaluations when the employee is no longer required to use a respirator.

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Mar 30, 2012

Penalty

Initial $5,000 · Current $5,000

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(c): The employer did not ensure that no employee was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) in excess of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air (5 5g/m3), calculated as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA)  a.	Main Fabrication, Bay 2 South - On or about 8/25/11, an employee was stick welding stainless steel by hard facing alignment keys and was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) at an 8-hour TWA of 31 micrograms per cubic meter of air, approximately 6.1 times the permissible exposure limit (PEL).  This limit is established to prevent lung cancer and asthma.  The exposure level was derived from one sample collected over a 434 minute sample period.  Zero exposure was assumed for the 46 minutes not sampled.  b.	Main Fabrication, Bay 2 South - On or about 8/25/11, an employee was stick welding stainless steel by hard facing alignment keys and was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) at an 8-hour TWA of 32 micrograms per cubic meter of air, approximately 6.3 times the permissible exposure limit (PEL).  This limit is established to prevent lung cancer and asthma.  The exposure level was derived from one sample collected over a 434 minute sample period.  Zero exposure was assumed for the 46 minutes not sampled.

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Mar 30, 2012

Penalty

Initial $0 · Current $0

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(f)(1)(i): Feasible engineering controls and work practices were not instituted to reduce and maintain employee exposures to chromium (VI) at or below the permissible exposure limit:  a.	Main Fabrication, Bay 2 South - On or about 8/25/11, an employee was stick welding stainless steel by hard facing alignment keys  and was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) at an 8-hour TWA of 31 micrograms per cubic meter of air, approximately 6.1 times the permissible exposure limit (PEL).  This limit is established to prevent lung cancer and asthma.  The exposure level was derived from one sample collected over a 434 minute sample period.  Zero exposure was assumed for the 46 minutes not sampled.  Hood for local exhaust ventilation was not effectively positioned to capture welding fume.  b.	Main Fabrication, Bay 2 South - On or about 8/25/11, an employee was stick welding stainless steel by hard facing alignment keys and was exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) at an 8-hour TWA of 32 micrograms per cubic meter of air, approximately 6.3 times the permissible exposure limit (PEL).  This limit is established to prevent lung cancer and asthma.  The exposure level was derived from one sample collected over a 434 minute sample period.  Zero exposure was assumed for the 46 minutes not sampled.  Hood for local exhaust ventilation was not effectively positioned to capture welding fume.

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Nov 1, 2012

Penalty

Initial $7,000 · Current $7,000

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(d)(2)(i): The employer using the scheduled monitoring option did not perform initial monitoring to determine the 8-hour time-weighted average exposure to chromium (VI) for each employee on the basis of a sufficient number of personal breathing zone air samples to accurately characterize full shift exposure on each shift, for each job classification, in each work area:  a.	 Main fabrication building & Mareld building  The employer did not perform initial monitoring for each worker performing welding/welding helper tasks involving stainless steel materials containing chromium, in that:  1.  monitoring of employees on all work shifts was not conducted;  2.  monitoring was not conducted for various welding work variables/conditions, such as, welding inside and outside confined spaces, percent chromium in stainless steel  materials, welding with and without ventilation, welding work performed above/below workers head, welding on vertical/horizontal surfaces.  3.  monitoring of plasma cutting (28 minutes) work did not include an 8 hour exposure sample.  (Employee doing plasma cutting could have welded the rest of the day so cannot assume zero exposure for the remainder of the day.)  4.  monitoring of laser cutting work was not performed.  5.  monitoring of maintenance activities such as housekeeping and cleaning dust collectors was not performed.

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Feb 24, 2012

Penalty

Initial $7,000 · Current $7,000

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(j)(2)(ii):  The employer did not ensure that high efficiency particulate air-filtered vacuuming or other methods that minimize the likelihood of exposure to chromium (VI) were tried and found not to be an effective cleaning method before allowing dry shoveling, dry sweeping and/or dry brushing:  a.	Main Fabrication Building - On or about 8/25/11, two employees exposed to chromium (VI) above the permissible exposure limit when stick welding stainless steel were dry sweeping and brushing their work areas.

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Mar 30, 2012

Penalty

Initial $5,000 · Current $2,500 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(k)(1)(i)(A):  The employer did not make medical surveillance available for all employees who were or could be occupationally exposed to chromium (VI) at or above the action level for 30 or more days a year:  a.      Main Fabrication and Mareld Building - Welders and welder helpers were not provided medical surveillance for chromium (VI) when performing welding tasks such as shielded metal arc welding (SMAW).

Issued

Feb 16, 2012

Abate by

Feb 17, 2012

Penalty

Initial $55,000 · Current $7,000 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1026(e)(1):  The employer did not establish a regulated area wherever an employee's exposure to airborne concentrations of chromium (VI) was, or could reasonably be expected to be, in excess of the permissible exposure limit:  a.	Main Fabrication, Bay 2 South - On or about 8/25/11, the employer did not establish a regulated area around two employees who were exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) in excess of the permissible exposure limit