Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 005 Hazard: LIFTING

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) Bagging stations: An employee designated as a bagging operator was exposed to excessive risk of musculoskeletal injuries from lifting tasks in that the employee lifts 50 and 100 lb. bags of core and mold washes without administrative and engineering controls. Abatement normally will be multistep as follows: Step 1: Effective administrative protector such as employee training, physical assessment, job rotation, etc. shall be provided as an interim protective measure until feasible engineering or permanent administrative controls can be implemented which will reduce employee exposure to nominal risk. Step 2: Submit to the Area Director a written, detailed plan of abatement outlining a schedule for the implementation of engineering and/or administrative measures to control employee injury due to manual lifting tasks. Engineering controls to reduce musculoskeletal stresses include, but are not limited to job redesign, reduction of the lifting frequency, or weight and use of mechanical lifting aids. This plan shall include at a minimum, target dates for the following actions which must be consistent with the dates required by this citation. 1) Evaluation of conditions, locations and manual lifting activities that the employees are performing at the onset of musculoskeletal injuries; 2) Evaluation of applicable control measures; and 3) Procurement, instalation and operation of selected control measures. Step 3: Abatement shall have been completed by the implementation of engineering and/or administrative controls upon verification of their effectiveness in reducing the occurence of musculoskeletal injuries. Suggested methods of abatement would include but are not limited to the following: a) Feasible engineering controls would include the use of mechanical lifting aids, i.e. lift tables and/or hoists for lifting the bags or reduce the weight of the bags. b) Mold/Cast Area - Feasible engineering controls would include the use of mechanical lifting aids, and feasible administrative controls would include employee training, job rotaton, and the use of back support for lifting tasks.