Region 6 News Release: 12-2330-DAL
Dec. 10, 2012
Contact: Elizabeth Todd Juan Rodriguez
Phone: 972-850-4710 972-850-4709
Email: todd.elizabeth@dol.gov rodriguez.juan@dol.gov

US Labor Department's OSHA cites Honeywell Electronic Chemicals for
multiple process safety management violations in Mansfield, Texas

MANSFIELD, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Honeywell Electronic Chemicals LLC with 10 serious safety and health violations at the company's facility in Mansfield. Proposed penalties total $53,000.

OSHA's Fort Worth Area Office personnel opened an investigation at the company's facility at U.S. Highway 287 North as a part of the agency's national emphasis program on process safety management, known as PSM, for covered chemical facilities. Employees were found to be exposed to catastrophic releases of highly hazardous chemicals while conducting operations at the plant.

"This company jeopardized the safety of its employees by failing to implement OSHA's process safety management regulations effectively," said Jack Rector, OSHA's area director in Fort Worth, Texas. "OSHA requires employers to provide safe and healthful working conditions to prevent accidents and illnesses."

Six serious violations all relate to PSM, and include failing to ensure process equipment complies with recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices; ensure standard operating procedures were annually certified; conduct an incident investigation within 48 hours and ensure piping and instrumentation diagrams were up-to-date.

Four additional serious violations involve failing to ensure emergency exits were properly marked, confined spaces were identified by signage, the location of fire extinguishers were properly labeled and that hazardous containers were properly labeled. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

Honeywell Electronic Chemicals, a subsidiary of Chandler, Ariz.-based Honeywell International Inc., employs about 30 workers in Mansfield. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's Fort Worth area director or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Fort Worth office at 817-581-7303.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille or CD from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.