Recycling machine fatality leads to OSHA citations

Plastics recycling plant

U.S. workplace safety regulators have cited and proposed $195,144 in fines against an Alabama plastics manufacturer after an employee died when she was pulled into a plastics recycling machine.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Helena, Alabama-based ABC Polymer Industries L.L.C. after investigating the plastics manufacturer following the August 2017 fatality, according to an agency statement published Tuesday.

ABC Polymer received one willful citation for failing to provide machine guarding to protect employees from caught-in and amputation hazards, according to the statement. The employer was also cited for repeat, serious and other-than-serious violations, including failing to evaluate all powered industrial trucks every three years, not having specific safety procedures to shut down or isolate stored energy, and failing to install a rail system on both sides of an open platform.

“Employers must comply with required safety and health standards to protect workers from exposure to hazards,” Ramona Morris, OSHA’s Birmingham, Alabama, area office director, said in the statement. “This company’s failure to install machine guarding equipment has resulted in a preventable tragedy.”

A company spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.