The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has
cited A&D Wood Products for twenty seven safety and health violations, comprised of four
willful, four repeat, and nineteen serious violation. These citations come in response to an
inspection in August of 2014 of a facility in Elida, Ohio. The violations focus around employees
found at risk of amputation, explosion, and other life-threatening hazards.. These violations carry
proposed penalties of $133,000.
“A & D Wood Products operates a manufacturing shop that exposes workers to real hazards
daily, creating an environment that forces workers to make a choice between their lives and their
livelihood,” said Kim Nelson, OSHA’s area director in Toledo. “With 27 violations, it’s clear the
safety and health of its workforce is not a priority for them.”
The willful violations relate to these violations, including the combustible dust violations. The
repeat violations relate to lockout tagout and issues with exposed energized wires. The serious
violations relate to issues with hearing protection and audiometric testing, machine guarding,
electrical safety violations, poor hygiene conditions, and unsafe practices relating to forklift
operations.
OSHA inspectors found a host of violations across many facets of the business, not limiting
themselves in their scope during the investigation. In other words, if you have a violation in one
area of your business, it will be found, even if it is unrelated to the reason OSHA is inspecting
your facility. For this reason, it is important to have your policies and procedures constantly up
to code. If you have not recently updated or reviewed your policies and procedures, it is a good
idea to do so. And if you are worried about bringing your facility up to code, please contact a
qualified third party occupational safety and health auditing firm to help you.
If you have any questions about this investigation or about third party occupational safety and
health audits, please contact us. If you have anything to add about the need to keep your policies
and procedures up to date, please leave a comment.
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