Burned Alive at Work: American Workers Dying in Totally Preventable Accidents

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/investigations/155632/burned_alive_at_work%3A_american_workers_dying_in_totally_preventable_accidents/

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Small fires were a part of the job at the Hoeganaes Corp. metal powder plant 30 miles northeast of Nashville. By early 2011, some workers later told investigators, they had become practiced in beating down the flames with gloved hands or a fire extinguisher.

The company’s own product fueled the fires. Scrap metal rolls into therust-colored plant on the town’s industrial periphery and is melted, atomized and dried into a fine iron powder sold to makers of car parts. Sometimes, powder leaked from equipment and coated ledges and rafters. Under the right conditions, it smoldered.

Wiley Sherburne, a 42-year-old plant electrician, sometimes told his wife how this dust piled up everywhere, she recalled. On quieter weekend shifts, he said he could hear the telltale popping sound of dust sparking when it touched live electricity.In the early morning of January 31, 2011, Sherburne was called to check out a malfunctioning bucket elevator that totes dust through the plant. Near his feet, electrical wires lay exposed. When the machine restarted, the jolt knocked dust into the air. A spark — likely from the exposed wires, investigators later concluded — turned the dust cloud into a ball of flame that engulfed Sherburne and a co-worker.

[Ilsa]

1. But RMoney says we don't need pesky

safety regulations! They kill jobs and diminish profits! Just bring another worker in to fill the job!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. Romney isn't president. DoL and OSHA should be on this issue yesterday

[Thor_MN]

4. In the minds of the 1%, industrial accidents create jobs.

Well, not new jobs, but job openings.

[Scuba]

2. But won't the market self-regulate? That's what Mitt told me.

Hey, what's a few charred corpses when there's profits at stake?

[allan01]

5. re:Burned Alive at Work: American Workers Dying in Totally Preventable Accidents

why do workers have to die or get maimed pernamantly to make someone else rich? i do know that there are good bosses out there , but that makes me shake my head.self regulate ? fox in the henhouse . buh.

[chervilant]

10. The Battle of Blair Mountain

was not that long ago. The denizens of Richistan should learn their history, because it IS destined to repeat.

[siligut]

6. Exposed electrical wiring?

What does it take to tape up wiring and sweep/vacuum up dust?

[JHB]

8. An employer willing to devote resources to the expense of proper maintenance...

...rather than to revenue-producing aspects of the operation.

That is, willing or required by enforced regulations.


From the article:

Hindsight in the wake of dust explosions has often revealed missed warning signs. Rarely does a company develop a dust problem overnight.

“It goes along for years with the dust building up, building up, and everything’s fine, nobody’s harmed, nobody thinks anything about it,” said Sandra Bennett, an official at the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which investigated the Hoeganaes accidents. “All of a sudden, one day, boom.”

Standards to address the danger have existed for more than 85 years, but following them is voluntary for many plants. Where they do apply, enforcement is so haphazard that the association that sets the standards believes this policing duty should be placed in OSHA’s hands.

The agency seems to agree. In 2009, OSHA announced it was starting the process of issuing a rule to address combustible dust. Three years later, the process is still stuck in its early stages, and OSHA has given up on making significant progress this year, moving the topic to its list of “long-term actions.” Some experts point to key impediments OSHA faces: the potential cost of the sweeping rule, an anti-regulatory political climate and an increasingly drawn-out rulemaking process.

[Dustlawyer]

7. This is what TORT REFORM sounds like!

These companies cannot be sued by injured employees and when they can sue, there are caps etc that take the sting out of the lawsuits for the companies. On March 23rd 2005, the BP Texas City plant exploded injuring thousands and killing 15 people. After the suit was over the Texas legislature passed a law covering the plant owner under it's contractor's workers comp policies. If it happens again, no lawsuits, only workers comp. There is no threat of a big verdict to get these companies to truly make safety 1st.

[xchrom]

9. +1

[Tsiyu]

11. +1,000,000,000 n/t

[hedgehog]

12. No excuse for this, none!

"The company contested the 10 serious violations OSHA issued for the fire that burned Richardson, and the agency cut the fine from $22,500 to $15,300. Hoeganaes is now contesting the 25 serious violations and $122,900 in fines assessed by the Tennessee regulators after the 2011 accidents in Gallatin."


Why is this plant still open! Why isn't someone in jail for manslaughter!