Summary: a large box retailer has a trash compactor. Workers were found to enter the trash chute that feeds the compactor. The interlock on the compactor door was defeated, and thus, the compactor would run with the door open. Workers use a 2X4 to push down material inside the compactor. Employees did not lock out the compactor when they entered it or the chute.
OSHA cited the employer under 1910.212 rather than 1910.147.
The store manager told the CSHO that his employees did not need LOTO because they never did any service or maintenance on the compactor; however, at the hearing, he stated that there was a compactor LOTO procedure posted on the side of the compactor and produced photos of such procedure. The OSHRC vacated the guarding citation as OSHA could not prove “exposure to a hazard.”
LESSON TO LEARN…OSHA and the OSHRC are not perfect. On a separate note, I would like for someone to tell me why the store was not cited under the PRCS std. 1910.146.
When you read this decision, you will see where the employee who entered the compactor and chute had to have help exiting from an employee standing outside the compactor. This would mean the space had “limited means of egress.” A compactor meets the other two parts of the confined space definition (e.g., it is not designed for occupancy, is large enough, and is configured for bodily entry). The compactor also meets the criteria for being a Permit Required Confined Space (PRCS) as it contains “other recognized serious safety and health hazards” (e.g., the hydraulic ram). Am I missing something here? I would have used 1910.146(c)(2), 1910.146(d)(3)(iii) to cite for the entry into the compactor without the aid of LOTO and/or entry permit.
As for the compactor, I would have used 1910.217(c)(2)(iv). Is a hydraulic trash compactor outside the scope of the power press standard? It is certainly not excluded in 1910.217(a)(5) exclusions. Go figure, but here we have an employer who has employees entering a trash compactor, which also has a defeated interlock on its door, and the best OSHA could come up with is a $100 fine for not providing the OSHA logs within four (4) hours!!!!!! If we learn anything from cases like these, and there are MANY…we should use OSHA as a building block to world-class safety, but they are JUST ONE BLOCK in a tower or many blocks! Click Here to see this OSHRC decision.
NOTE: if you have a compactor or baler in your workplace, there is help from OSHA…OR-OSHA! Oregon OSHA (a state OSHA plan) has a standard specific to compactors and balers. Even if you are not in Oregon, their standard would be a GREAT starting point to assess the safety of your compactors and/or balers.