The Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped Dale Medical Products Inc. with $58,100 in proposed fines after a worker in its Plainville, Mass., plant lost the tip of a finger in March, Reliable Plant magazine reported.
The U.S. Labor Dept.’s job safety watchdog cited Dale Medical for allegedly willful and serious violations of workplace safety standards, according to the magazine, after a packaging machine’s heat seal bar pinched the employee’s finger. An OSHA inspection found three machines lacking safeguards to prevent the machines from causing lacerations and amputations.
“In this case, three other similar machines were allowed to operate with missing or inadequate safeguards after the accident,” Brenda Gordon, OSHA’s area director for southeastern Massachusetts, said according to the magazine.
The proposed fines include a $56,000 levy for the machines alleged lack of safeguards and $2,100 in fines because Dale Medical allegedly lacked hazard communication and hazardous chemical handling training programs.
Dale Medical executive vice president John Vandegrift told MassDevice that company representatives were at OSHA’s Braintree, Mass., regional headquarters to discuss the incident and declined further comment pending the results of that discussion.