Meer Corporation (Meer) was cited on January 9, 1995, for serious and non-serious violations of numerous safety requirements for managing hazards associated with processes using highly hazardous chemicals. The standard prescribing the multiple procedures is referred to as process safety management (PSM). The serious citation also includes an item alleging violation of the machine guarding standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1910.219(c)(3) dealing with vertical shafting. The Secretary proposes that penalties totaling $29,500 be assessed for the serious citation and $1000 for the non-serious. Meer contested the matters.
Meer maintains a facility in North Bergen, New Jersey, where it uses flammable liquids to manufacture and process natural botanical products as ingredients for food and pharmaceutical industries. The PSM standard applies to a process that involves a flammable liquid on site in one location in a quantity of 10,000 pounds or more. §1910.119(a)(1)(ii).
While Meer acknowledges that it stores at its facility flammable liquids in the form of Methanol and Ethanol in a quantity that exceeds 10,000 pounds, it challenges the citations claiming that its usage of the flammable liquids is specifically excluded from coverage by § 1910.11 9(a)(1)(ii)(B), which identifies the exclusion as follows: