Universal Recycling Technologies LLC, a Janesville, Wisconsin, recycling company, is facing $202,820 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines for two repeat violations, six serious violations, and one other-than-serious violation, the agency announced October 9.

OSHA investigators found that the company has continued to expose employees to unsafe levels of lead and cadmium while they dismantle cathode-ray tubes from older television sets, despite being cited for the same violations in April 2023.

OSHA inspectors found that Universal Recycling Technologies failed to do the following:

• Provide employee biological monitoring every 6 months for overexposure. 
• Collect samples for representative full-shift exposures to both lead and cadmium.
• Ensure workers removed protective clothing contaminated with lead and cadmium at the end of a shift and leave it at the workplace.
• Require workers exposed to lead and cadmium to shower at the end of their shift.
• Establish a regulated area to reduce the spread of contamination when employees were exposed to lead or cadmium over the permissible exposure limit. 
• Train employees about the additive effects of lead and cadmium exposures.

The agency determined that Universal Recycling Technologies failed to establish and implement adequate engineering controls and didn’t keep surfaces free from lead and cadmium accumulations. OSHA has an ongoing National Emphasis Program (NEP) for lead exposures.

“Chronic overexposures to these toxic metals may cause severe damage to blood-forming, nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems,” Chad Greenwood, OSHA’s Madison, Wisconsin, area director, said in an agency statement.

“Universal Recycling Technologies cannot solely rely on personal protective equipment as the primary source of protection,” he continued. “The company must focus on continuous improvement of engineering controls to reduce employee exposures to hazardous air contaminants.”

According to OSHA, Universal Recycling Technologies is based in Janesville and operates facilities in Dover, New Hampshire; Clackamas, Oregon; and Fort Worth, Texas.

Cal/OSHA cites farm labor contractor for heat violations

Ruiz Farm Labor, a Dixon, California, farm labor contractor, faces $17,550 in fines for three serious-category violations of the state’s heat illness prevention standard, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) announced October 7.

The state workplace safety and health agency received reports that the employer allegedly fired farmworkers who left their work shifts early during a heat wave due to inadequate protections. Cal/OSHA determined that the employer failed to protect its workers from heat illness.

The state agency’s investigation found that the employer didn’t:

• Implement high-heat or emergency response procedures.
• Provide effective heat illness prevention training for employees and supervisors.
• Follow the company’s own written heat illness prevention plan for acclimatizing employees during the first 14 days of working in direct sun and in temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

The state labor commissioner’s office is investigating the alleged retaliatory action, according to Cal/OSHA, and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board is investigating Cooley Enterprises, Inc., the company that hired Ruiz Farm Labor, for unfair labor practices.

“Every worker should be treated with dignity and respect, and no one should face retaliation for protecting their health,” Cal/OSHA Chief Debra Lee said in an agency statement.

California is one of a handful of states with a heat illness prevention standard. There’s no corresponding federal standard, but OSHA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on August 30 for a heat illness prevention standard for indoor and outdoor workplaces.