Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: DUST&FUMES

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 a potential contact and/or inhalation hazard from toxic substances: a.Mail handling areas - 05/22/08 An SDO was observed to contact an unidentified powder which had been found in a tray in Manual Letters and in a bin on the processing equipment. b.Mail handling areas - In the incident on 05/22/08 the area SDO directed two processing clerks in the area of the spill to tie down the cases on either side of the one where the unidentified powder was found. This occurred prior to the arrival of the designated first responders. c.Mail handling areas - In the incident on 05/22/08 two 204B acting managers, and the MDO approached the area to examine the unidentified powder found on the processing equipment. d.Mail handling areas - 06/19/08 A supervisor and a maintenance supervisor were observed to contact an unidentified powder. e.Mail handling areas - In the incident on 06/19/08 the supervisor, prior to notifying the response team, brought a maintenance employee to examine an unidentified powder on the machine. THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE WAS PREVIOUSLY CITED FOR VIOLATION OF THIS OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARD OR ITS EQUIVALENT STANDARD WHICH WAS CONTAINED IN OSHA INSPECTIONS: NUMBER 309551455, CITATION NUMBER 1, ITEM NUMBER 1, WITH A FINAL ORDER DATE OF 7/2/07, WITH RESPECT TO A WORKPLACE LOCATED AT 195 SYKES MOUNTAIN AVENUE, WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT; AND NUMBER 309557577, CITATION NUMBER 1, ITEM NUMBER 1, WITH A FINAL ORDER DATE OF 10/15/07, WITH RESPECT TO A WORKPLACE LOCATED AT 195 SYKES MOUNTAIN AVENUE, WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT. ABATEMENT NOTE: Among others, one means of abatement would be to follow Settlement Agreement for Inspection No. 309551455, Docket No. 06-1919 which states in paragraph (4)(b): "Respondent agrees that a qualified outside specialists or an appropriately trained Postal Inspection Services inspector will handle and clean-up all spills of unknown material; if Respondent cannot determine the contents of a package through contacting the Sender or Addressee, the unknown material will be isolated without exposing untrained personnel until one of the above referenced specialists arrives at the site to conduct clean up.Another useful abatement would be to develop a method to more reliably identify roller dust. Currently rollers are various colors and regularly break down to release dust. Powders initially identified visually as roller dust have been subsequently found to be other materials.