U.S. Department of Labor | July 15, 2016 BOS 2016-114
OSHA cites Recyc-Mattress Corp.,, an East Hartford mattress recycler
for uncorrected, new and recurring hazards for workers
Recyc-Mattress Corp. faces $74K in penalties
Employer name: Recyc-Mattress Corp., 12 Eastern Park Road
East Hartford, Connecticut, a mattress recycler.
After Recyc-Mattress Corp, a mattress recycling company, failed to
provide the Hartford Area Office of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration with information that it had remedied all the hazards cited in a 2015 inspection, OSHA began an inspection on Jan. 12, 2016, to verify correction of the hazards.
Investigation's findings: OSHA found several instances of uncorrected, recurring and new hazards at the facility. The agency found the company:
- Did not develop and implement a written hazard communication
program to inform employees about hazardous chemical and materials in
the workplace, such as battery acid. [Uncorrected]
- Failed to provide respirator training to employees. [Uncorrected]
- Allowed mattresses and box springs to obstruct emergency exit access. [Recurring]
- Blocked access to the circuit breaker that provided power to
machines in the shop with metal bushings, cardboard and plastic wrap.
[Recurring]
- Permitted an emergency exit door to have its handle removed.
- Allowed employees to routinely unjam a shredder without first
locking out its power source; the lockout procedures were not clear and
specific to the shredder.
- Created electric shock hazards for employees with open junction box.
These conditions led OSHA to cite Recyc-Mattress for failing to abate two hazards and for two repeat and three violations of workplace safety standards.
Proposed penalties: $74,520
QUOTE: "Employers have a responsibility to maintain
safe and healthful working conditions for their employees and to
promptly and effectively correct hazards so they don't recur. They
should be aware that OSHA can and does follow up to verify corrective
action," said Warren Simpson, OSHA's area director in Hartford. "In this
instance, employees were exposed to the risk of electric shock, being
caught in a shredder, chemical hazards and being unable to exit the
workplace swiftly in the event of a fire or other emergency.
Recyc-Mattress Corp. must correct these hazards immediately."
Link to citations and failure to abate notice: http://go.usa.gov/xxAtV and http://go.usa.gov/xxAzk.
Recyc-Mattress Corp. has 15 business days from receipt of its
citations and penalties to comply, meet with OSHA's area director, or
contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and
Health Review Commission.
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or
report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or
situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call
OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or OSHA's Hartford Area
Office at 860-240-3152.
# # #
Jeremy Birich died in an electrocution in Belleville on July 13. Credit: KMOV 
