OSHA Inspection: BIOANUE LABORATORIES INC.

Issued

Mar 21, 2013

Abate by

Apr 16, 2013

Penalty

Initial $0 · Current $0

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.134(c):     The employer did not develop and implement a written respiratory protection program with required worksite-specific procedures and elements for required respirator use:    In both the packaging and encapsulating rooms, on or about November 20, 2012 and at times prior to, the employer did not implement a written respiratory protection program for employees who were required to wear respirators while manufacturing and packaging diet supplements, resulting in a respiratory hazard.    Respiratory Hazard.  Employees were required to wear disposable N95 surgical mask type respirators while manufacturing and packaging diet supplements.  The employer offered the option to employees to wear a supplied air hood in place of the N95 respirator.  The air supplying the respirator is delivered by an oil-less, rotary carbon vane pump system (Bullard Model EDP10).  Employees in the encapsulating room and the packaging room are potentially exposed to cesium chloride, citicoline sodium salt, Betaine HCl, Peracetic Acid (35%), and Perasan among other chemicals depending upon the supplement being manufactured.  The manufacturing process generates some dust, particularly in the encapsulating room.  OSHA sampling indicated that the employee airborne exposures to total dust did not exceed the OSHA PEL (See below for measurement details).  Employees worked in the encapsulating/packaging rooms for approximately 8 hours per day, 5 days a week depending upon the type and quantity of the supplement required to be manufactured.    The employer had not developed a written respiratory protection program.  The employees were told to wear the respirators by the employer.  No medical evaluation was provided to determine the employees ability to safely wear the respirator.  The employer had never performed an exposure assessment to determine the employees exposure level to the chemicals in use.  The employer had not implemented a respiratory protection training program in that the employee was not knowledgeable about the elements of a respiratory protection program.  The employer gave the employees the respirators and provided instruction on how to use them.

Issued

Mar 21, 2013

Abate by

Apr 16, 2013

Penalty

Initial $0 · Current $0

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(1):     Employer had not developed or implemented a written hazard communication program included the requirements outlined in 29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(1)(i) and (e)(1)(ii):     (a)  In both the packaging and encapsulating rooms, on November 20, 2012 and at times prior to, the employer did not develop or implement a written hazard communication program for employees who used hazardous chemicals including but not limited to cesium chloride, citicoline sodium salt, Betaine HCl, Peracetic Acid (35%), and Perasan, resulting in a chemical hazard.    Chemical Hazard.  Employees manufactured and packaged diet supplements in the encapsulating room and packaging room.  Both raw materials and finished product were handled by the employees.          The employer did not develop or implement a written program describing the procedures for employee training or the availability of SDSs.  The employer did  have a policy that required container labeling.  The employer did train employees regarding SDSs and their availability.  The employees were instructed regarding the safe use of the products and the use of PPE.  The employer did maintain SDSs for the products that they used.