Region 2 News Release: NY 229
Tuesday, December 15, 1998
Contact: Chester J. Fultz (212)337-2319

The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Victor Insulators, Inc., of 280 Maple Avenue, Victor, New York, and proposed penalties of $37,800 against the irm for 20 alleged serious and 9 alleged other-than-serious violations of OSHA standards. company has until January 5 to contest the citations.

According to OSHA area director Diane M. Brayden, the action results from an investigation begun June 16 under an OSHA program to focus on companies whose injury and illness rates are at least two times the national average for their industry. The firm manufactures heavy-duty ceramic electrical insulators.

The alleged serious violations for which the employer was cited included:

• failure to protect employees from overexposure to crystalline silica, a known human carcinogen;

• failure to provide adequate guarding on rotating parts, belts, sprockets, ingoing nip points on machinery;

• failure to have a hearing conservation program, a respiratory protection program, a hazard communication program, and a bloodborne pathogen exposure control plan;

• failure to properly maintain elevators;

• failure to keep workroom floors dry;

• failure to cover live electrical parts, to properly ground equipment, and enclose electrical equipment in wet locations;

• failure to have a hazard communication program to inform workers on the hazardous substances in the workplace;

• failure to maintain forklift trucks and require use of seatbelts on them.

The firm was also cited for other-than-serious violations including failure to have a lockout-tagout program to prevent the accidental startup of machinery during repair or servicing, failure to have a program to control access to hazardous confined spaces, and failure to reduce the pressure of compressed air used for cleaning to less than 30 psi.

A serious violation is defined as a condition which exists where there is a substantial possibility that death or serious physical harm can result. An other-than-serious violation is a hazardous condition that would probably not cause death or serious physical harm but would have a direct and immediate relationship to the safety and health of employees.

The investigation was conducted by OSHA's Syracuse area office, located at 3300 Vickery Road, North Syracuse, New York, telephone (315) 451-0808.

This information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.
Voice phone: (212) 337-2319;
TDD phone: 800-347-8029;
OASAM TDD message referral phone number: 800-326-2577.