OSHA Fines Battery Recycler

A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

OSHA says the violations include failing to protect workers from overexposure to lead and cadmium.

OSHA initiated an inspection of the plant Feb. 1, 2012. as a part of the agency's Site-Specific Targeting Program, which directs enforcement resources to industries with high injury and illness rates. The violations found involve allowing workers to be exposed to lead at up to eight times the permissible exposure limit and to cadmium at more than twice the permissible exposure limit during an eight-hour period, OSHA says.

Other violations OSHA reports finding at the plant include the failure to install engineering controls and to implement work practice controls to maintain workers' exposure at levels below the permissible exposure limits as well as the failure to monitor exposure levels on a periodic basis and repeat monitoring as needed. Toxco also has been cited for failing to evaluate the facility's ventilation system and for not implementing an effective respiratory protection program.

In addition to its plant in Lancaster, the company operates a second Ohio facility in Baltimore as well as recycling facilities in California, Tennessee and British Columbia.