Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: STRUCK BY

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: on and before 2/1/95 employees were exposed to the hazards of asphyxiation, extremely high temperatures, and fire potentials while removing slag from the #3 blast furnace slag pits. These exposures existed while cleaning pits which were hot and contained quantities of molten slag and/or iron which could flow under or around the loader trapping the loader operator in the pit. Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable method for abating this condition is the development of safe slag pit cleaning procedures which include: 1) The establishment of standard methods for the preparation for and performance of slag pit cleaning which include cleaning the entire pit (and elimination of the "split pit" method or any other method relying on a "wall" of solidifed slag), assure adequate cleaning to prevent excessive accumulations in the pits, assure adequate monitoring of pit conditions (including hot spots and loss of iron), assure adequate watering and cooling of the pits prior to cleaning, assure that accurate information on pit conditions is received by the loader operator, assure that only properly operational equipment is utilized for pit cleaning, assure that adequate visibility exists for cleaning to be performed, and which assure that operators are not exposed to being struck by material being cast into the pit. 2) Development of minimum training requirements for all employees assigned to cleaning slag pits, including proper cleaning methods, identification of hazardous conditions, identification of watering problems, proper pit grading techniques, conditions requiring the loader to leave the pit, and minimum acceptable equipment and loader operating condition required for performance of the work.