Archive for March 31st, 2011
US Labor Department’s OSHA cites Volvo Aero Connecticut with 17 serious safety violations at Newington plant
Region 1 News Release: 11-427-BOS/BOS 2011-111
March 29, 2011
Contact: Ted Fitzgerald
Phone: 617-565-2074
E-mail: fitzgerald.edmund@dol.gov
US Labor Department’s OSHA cites Volvo Aero Connecticut
with 17 serious safety violations at Newington plant
Airplane engine parts manufacturer faces more than $83,000 in fines
HARTFORD, Conn. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Volvo Aero Connecticut for 17 alleged serious violations of workplace safety standards at its Newington manufacturing plant. The airplane engine parts manufacturer faces a total of $83,400 in proposed fines for a cross section of hazards identified during a comprehensive OSHA inspection.
“Our inspection found employees exposed to a range of hazards that could result in potentially serious or fatal injuries if not promptly and effectively corrected,” said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA’s area director in Hartford. “Workers at this plant face the risks of falls, fires, explosions, electrocution, struck-by injuries, chemical exposure and being caught in unguarded operating machinery. For the safety and health of its workers, the company must address these issues so that they do not occur again.”
Specific violations cited by OSHA included workers being hoisted on the load hook of an overhead crane; an improperly designed combustible dust collection system; a lack of personal protective equipment; uncovered containers of flammable liquids; improper disposal of combustible rags; failure to conduct air monitoring to determine employees’ exposure to hexavalent chromium; unguarded milling machines, belts, pulleys and grinders; and failure to re-evaluate workers’ ability to safely operate fork trucks and provide operators with refresher training.
In addition, the company was cited for several electrical safety violations. These included electrical equipment unapproved for a Class II (combustible dust) location, flexible cords used in lieu of permanent wiring, defective electrical equipment, a lack of an electrical safety-related work practices program and failure to provide such training to maintenance employees.
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.
Volvo Aero Connecticut has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The inspection was conducted by OSHA’s Hartford Area Office; telephone 860-240-3152. To report workplace incidents, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742).
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, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.
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Pickens Encouraged by President Obama’s Call for a More Secure American Energy Future
Pickens Encouraged by President Obama’s Call for a More Secure American Energy Future
Dallas, March 31, 2011 - T. Boone Pickens released the following statement in response to remarks by President Obama at Georgetown University, where he outlined his plan for America’s energy security:
“Today (March 30) the President articulated the national security and economic threats associated with our escalating dependence on foreign oil. With the increasing price of gasoline, natural gas is an important domestic fuel at our disposal that can replace foreign oil to power heavy-duty fleet vehicles. Converting heavy-duty trucks and high-fuel use commercial fleet vehicles to natural gas can reduce our OPEC dependence now while we wait for technology to power the vehicles of tomorrow. It is clear President Obama is committed to weaning America off Middle Eastern oil, securing our own energy future and recognizes the role natural gas can play as a domestic transportation fuel. Recent unrest in the Middle East underscores the need to take action now and I’m encouraged by the President’s promise to secure America’s energy future and national security by reducing our dependence on OPEC oil.”
The Pickens Plan to encourage more heavy duty fleet vehicles to run on domestic resources is included in the NAT GAS Act, which is being prepared for introduction next week in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman John Sullivan (R-OK), Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK), Congressman John Larson (D-CT) and Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX). The pending legislation enjoys broad bipartisan support.
About the Pickens Plan
Unveiled on July 8, 2008 by T. Boone Pickens, the Pickens Plan is a detailed solution for ending the United States’ growing dependence on foreign oil. That year, when oil prices reached $140/barrel, America was spending about $700 billion for foreign oil, equaling the greatest transfer of wealth in history. That figure has decreased some while oil prices have retreated, but the U.S. is still dependent on foreign nations for nearly 70 percent of its oil, representing a continuing national security and national economic threat. The plan calls for expanding the use of domestic renewable resources, such as wind and solar, in power generation and using our abundant supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel alternative to OPEC oil. In President Obama’s acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, he stated, “In ten years we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”
More than 1.6 million people have joined the Pickens Army through the website www.pickensplan.com, which has had over 20 million hits. For more information on the Pickens Plan please visit our website www.pickensplan.com. Boone can be followed on Twitter @boonepickens .
For More Information Contact
Jay Rosser
For T. Boone Pickens
214-265-4165
Jay@bpcap.net
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Monroe Americana Tracks Reusable Containers
The Argentinean drug wholesaler is using passive EPC Gen 2 RFID tags to identify and count any reusable plastic containers that are returned, as well as the customer that returned them.
Mar. 30, 2011—By employing an RFID system with tags applied to its reusable containers, Argentinean medicine wholesaler Monroe Americana has increased its efficiency and reduced the number of containers that end up missing. The system, provided by RFID solutions company BDEV provides the firm with visibility into the number of empty containers that are returned from each pharmacy, and also frees up employees who previously had spent hours each day counting containers unloaded from trucks.
Monroe Americana, Argentina’s second largest pharmaceutical wholesaler, delivers drugs and personal-care products to 5,000 pharmacies nationwide, as well as 1,500 in the Buenos Aires area alone, with a fleet of approximately 50 trucks. The vehicles transport products in two daily deliveries, six days per week.
To meet high-volume demand, the company utilizes an automatic picking system, says Jorge Zambrano, Monroe Americana’s head of logistics and distribution. Products are placed in plastic returnable containers known as pharmaboxes, which are transported throughout the warehouse on conveyor belts, while dispensing modules fill the containers with the products needed for a particular order. The plastic pharmaboxes are available in two form factors: the chico, which measures 10 centimeters by 43 centimeters by 25 centimeters (3.9 inches by 16.9 inches by 9.8 inches), and the grande, measuring 20 centimeters by 42 centimeters by 24 centimeters (7.9 inches by 16.5 inches by 9.4 inches). The use of pharmaboxes traveling on conveyors makes the automated process possible, while without them, the staff would need to manually fill plastic bags with product.
The challenge for Monroe Americana was that pharmaboxes did not always return after being shipped out of the warehouse with an order. “The recovery rate was far below the expected level,” says Santiago Spector Mentasti, BDEV’s general manager. “The primary goal was to detect the ones that had been returned, and by whom, in order to establish returning behaviors of the customers and the transportists [truck drivers].”
Upon returning from deliveries, the trucks bring empty pharmaboxes to the warehouse—typically, 90 boxes per delivery. In the event that pharmaboxes were missing, the company had to purchase replacements, averaging US$7 apiece.
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