The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has

cited American Spincast Inc. for fifty safety and health violations, comprised of thirty two

serious safety violations and eighteen serious health violations. They come in response to an

inspection of a worksite in Belton, Texas in October of 2014 as part of the OSHA’s Site Specific

Targeting Program, due to the high-hazard nature of the workplace. These violations are for

hazards relating to a failure to provide guardrails, forklift safety, machine guarding, arc welding,

Hazard Communication, and hazardous material storage. These violations carry proposed

penalties of $165,200.

“These workers were needlessly exposed to hearing loss, falls and other dangers,” said Casey

Perkins, area director of OSHA’s Austin Area Office. “American Spincast failed to provide the

minimal protective standards required by law. Employers need to implement programs for

finding and fixing these hazards before workers become seriously injured or receive irreversible

health effects.”

The findings ranged a myriad of areas of occupational safety and health, showing that when

OSHA investigates a worksite, they will do a complete, wall-to-wall inspection. This means that

all deficiencies will be found, even in areas which OSHA was not specifically targeting at your

place of business.

As such, it is imperative to ensure your occupational safety and health policies and procedures

are updated and accurate to ensure your employees are safe and you will not be liable for

excessive penalties in the event of an audit. To help ensure compliant policies and procedures, it

might be a good idea to contact a qualified third party occupational safety and health auditing

firm to review them.

If you have any questions about this audit or about updating your occupational safety and health

procedures, please contact us. If you have anything to add about third party occupational safety

and health audits, please leave a comment.