The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has
cited American Air Filter Co. for five safety and health violations, comprised of two willful, two
serious, and one other than serious violations. They come in response to inspections of a facility
in Atlanta, GA in March of 2015. This inspection was initiated as part of the agency’s Severe
Violator Enforcement Program. The citations are for issues relating to a failure to provide proper
machine guarding to protect employees from amputation hazards and not following proper
lockout tagout safety procedures. These violations carry proposed penalties of $119,900.
“This is the second significant enforcement action we’ve conducted at AAF International in the
last six months,” said Bill Fulcher, director of OSHA’s Atlanta-East Area Office. “We found the
same type of hazards during a recent inspection in a different area at the same plant.
Management continues to allow workers to clean equipment without following safety procedures
and without guards being properly installed. This company needs to address all workplace
hazards, not just the ones for which penalties have been proposed.”
This is a clear example of why you need to correct any issues found during an OSHA inspection.
Failure to correct known issues will create hefty fines and give OSHA a reason to continually
reinvestigate your facility. Similarly, you need to ensure any changes made do not create issues
in other areas of your occupational safety and health policies and procedures. To ensure
everything is up to code and accurate, it might be advisable to hire a third party occupational
safety and health auditing firm to assist in making these adjustments.
If you have any questions about this inspection or about occupational safety and health in
general, please contact us. If you have anything to add about this inspection, please leave a
comment.
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