Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: FALLING

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that: Employees were exposed to the hazard of falling into open surface plating tanks, containing hot toxic solutions, by standing precariously on top of the tanks while trying to remove plated parts which inadvertently fall into the tanks during plating operations. Among other methods, some feasible and acceptable methods to correct this hazard is: a) To customize planking to place over the plating tanks to provide stable and secure footing for the employee in cases where access to the top of the plating tanks is absolutely essential. b) Use magnetic poles to fish out ferrous parts that fall into the tanks. c) Non-metallic netting that is submerged in plating tanks and can be raised to remove parts that fall of during operations.