California OSHA Office Fines Recycler

The California Department of Industrial Relations' (DIR) Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has issued seven citations totaling $111,935 in penalties to EDCO Waste and Recycling Services, Lemon Grove, Calif. The agency says EDCO has a history of safety violations and worker injury.

In a Cal/OSHA release, Christine Baker, DIR’s director, says, "EDCO Waste and Recycling Services Inc. failed to provide vital safety training, leading to dangerous accidents and serious injury. Proper workplace safety training is critical because it reduces severity of harm following accidents and, more importantly, prevents accidents from occurring in the first place."

Cal/OSHA's citations include a serious and willful violation and serious accident-related violations that resulted in a severe injury to a worker at EDCO. Cal/OSHA had previously cited this company for the same problems that led to this recent worker injury.

The new citations resulted from an accident and serious worker injury on Dec. 31, 2011 while workers were connecting a hydraulic cylinder to the packer device in a garbage truck. The hydraulic system was activated to extend the cylinder outward to be connected to a packer truck. The injured worker was standing on a packer unit inside the truck body when the cylinder struck it, causing the worker to fall into an area between the packer and the truck body wall where he sustained crushing injuries.

Cal/OSHA had previously conducted an inspection at the company’s facility in Oct. 2011 following a refuse truck accident resulting in severe injuries to a mechanic. Cal/OSHA found that EDCO had not ensured that control levers were blocked as required, resulting in severe injuries to a mechanic. EDCO appealed Cal/OSHA's findings and citations.

Following the December accident, Cal/OSHA successfully petitioned the California Appeals Board to raise a citation category from serious accident related to willful. In 2003, EDCO also received a serious citation for not having employees use lockable controls on a compacter and failing to have adequate written safety procedures.

Cal/OSHA issued serious accident- related citations to EDCO for their failure to guard the pinch point in the garbage truck, failure to have a hazardous energy control plan and failure to implement procedures to control or lock movement of the equipment while workers are performing maintenance or repairs. Two general citations and one regulatory citation were also issued for not establishing an injury illness prevention program and a heat illness prevention program and for not developing or training to written operating rules for mobile collection/compactions equipment.