Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Amazing Vitamins, LLC
Reconsideration denied and late contests dismissed
OSHA issued Amazing Vitamins numerous citations arising from inspections of its nutritional-supplement manufacturing facility, including later failure-to-abate and repeat items. The company filed notices of contest long after the 15-working-day deadlines and argued that settlement discussions, mail…
Benise-Dowling, Inc.
Fire-suppression and eyewash violations affirmed
OSHA cited conditions at Benise-Dowling's powder-coating facility during a follow-up inspection. The judge affirmed a serious violation because a new electrostatic spray booth lacked automatic fire suppression, rejecting the company's claim that an earlier OSHA discussion deprived it of fair…
Dierzen-Kewanee Heavy Industries, LTD
Unabated hazards resulted in $133,100 in penalties
Dierzen-Kewanee manufactured dump-truck bodies at a former boiler factory in Illinois. After settling earlier OSHA citations, the company paid only the first penalty installment, did not provide requested abatement information, and left many cited conditions uncorrected for a follow-up inspection…
McWane, Inc., d/b/a Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company
Repeat protective-clothing violation results in $10,000 penalty
An employee cleaned hot iron and calcium oxide from a foundry pit without heat- and chemical-resistant coveralls, exposing unprotected skin to thermal and chemical burns. McWane conceded the violation but disputed whether it was repeat. The judge found it substantially similar to a 2003 violation…
Environmental Enterprises, Inc.
Settlement motion prompted remand for employee comment
Environmental Enterprises treated hazardous wastewater at its Cincinnati facility, where mixing sodium sulfide and an acid generated hydrogen sulfide that rendered an employee unconscious. The judge affirmed three serious violations involving excessive exposure, engineering or administrative…
Gunite Corporation
Willful silica and respirator violations affirmed
Gunite operated a truck-parts foundry where employees were exposed to respirable silica from large quantities of sand used in the casting process. The Commission vacated four air-contaminant items because respirators provided adequate protection for four cited employees and the Secretary did not…
Sturm Ruger & Co., Pine Tree Castings Division
Targeted inspection and settlements affirmed
OSHA used injury and illness data from Pine Tree Castings to select the handgun-casting facility for a programmed inspection under a nationwide targeting plan. Sturm Ruger challenged the data survey, inspection warrant, discovery rulings, evidence, and subpoenas. The Commission held that OSHA had…
Coastal Paving, Inc.
Twenty-three items affirmed after contest withdrawal
OSHA issued Coastal Paving three citations containing 23 serious, willful, and other-than-serious items against its asphalt manufacturing operation. Before the hearing, Coastal withdrew its contest and stated that it was no longer in business, had no employees, and could not refute the Secretary's…
Belden Brick Co.
OSHA silica exposure calculation upheld
OSHA sampled six employees at Belden Brick's Ohio manufacturing facility and found exposure to respirable dust containing crystalline silica above the permissible limits. Belden argued that each calculated silica limit should be compared only with the pure silica portion of the dust sample, rather…
Ohio Cast Products, Inc.
Silica dust calculation and $8,000 penalty affirmed
Ohio Cast Products sampled an employee performing work with silica-containing sand and disputed OSHA's method for deciding whether his exposure exceeded the permissible limit. The company argued that the calculated limit should be compared only with the pure silica portion of the sample. The…
G & C Foundry Company
Commission affirms silica engineering-control and formaldehyde-sampling citations against an iron foundry
G & C Foundry makes iron castings at a plant in Sandusky, Ohio, using induction furnaces that must be relined with silica every two weeks. OSHA measured workers relining the furnaces at up to 24 times the permissible silica dust limit and cited the company for failing to use feasible administrative…
Niemand Industries, Inc.
Talc items vacated after court rejected sampling method
OSHA cited Niemand for excessive talc exposure, unapproved dust masks, and failure to use feasible engineering or administrative controls. The Commission initially affirmed those items based on gravimetric sampling. The Eleventh Circuit held that OSHA could not prove a Table Z-3 violation with a…
EBAA Iron, Inc.
Silica overexposure and control citations vacated
EBAA Iron operated a foundry in Cordele, Georgia, where OSHA sampled the breathing zone of an inner-diameter grinder operator and calculated exposure above the limit for respirable crystalline silica. EBAA showed that the grinding wheel contained 40 percent zirconium oxide and that OSHA's own…
Niemand Industries, Inc.
Talc citations and $2,800 penalty vacated after court remand
OSHA cited Niemand Industries for employee talc exposure, use of unapproved dust masks, and failure to use feasible controls. The Eleventh Circuit reversed the Commission's earlier finding because OSHA had measured talc exposure with a technique not provided in Table Z-3. The Commission concluded…
Bay State Refining Company
Lead and copper citations affirmed
Bay State manufactured brass and bronze ingots from scrap metal at its Chicopee, Massachusetts foundry. OSHA found employees overexposed to copper dust and lead and cited deficiencies in engineering controls, respirator selection and fit testing, contaminated-clothing practices, medical…
Central Brass Manufacturing Co.
EAJA award adjusted to $13,520
Central Brass sought attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing on several noise, lead, and silica citation items. An ALJ awarded $13,250, and the Secretary challenged the method used to allocate fees and expenses. The Commission held that it reviews its…
General Dynamics Land Systems Division, Inc.
Freon confined-space case remanded for fact-finding
General Dynamics employees entered confined spaces where trichlorotrifluoroethane, known as freon, could cause poisoning or asphyxiation. An earlier decision vacated the general duty clause citation because an exposure-limit standard addressed the chemical. The D.C. Circuit held that the standard…
Bunge Corporation
Grain-dust citations vacated
OSHA cited three Bunge grain-handling facilities under the mineral-dust provisions of 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1000. The Commission held that Table Z-3 applies only to mineral dusts and did not cover organic soybean or grain dust under its inert-or-nuisance-dust listing. It also rejected the alternative…
Smith Steel Casting Co.
Evidence from invalid warrant admitted
OSHA inspected Smith Steel’s foundry under an ex parte warrant and cited silica, copper-fume, noise, and respirator-program conditions. The Fifth Circuit later held that the warrant was invalid under the inspection regulation then in effect and returned the case for the Commission to decide whether…
Vak-Pak, Inc.
Citations vacated for failure to prove commerce coverage
Vak-Pak manufactured swimming-pool filtration equipment with eleven employees in Florida. The company denied that its business affected interstate commerce, a prerequisite for coverage under the OSH Act. The Secretary relied on uncertain testimony about possible California chemical suppliers…
N.L. Industries, Inc.
Discovery sanctions and $536,000 decision set aside
OSHA alleged that N.L. Industries failed to abate excessive lead exposure and committed additional respiratory, sanitation, chelation, and lead-exposure violations at a secondary lead smelter. After N.L. Industries resisted broad discovery requests, the judge struck its defenses, entered default on…
Ohio-Sealy Mattress Manufacturing Company
Cotton-dust citation remanded for a merits hearing
OSHA cited Ohio-Sealy Mattress Manufacturing Company for excessive raw cotton dust, inadequate controls, and an inadequate respiratory-protection program. The company argued that an older cotton-dust standard had been superseded by a newer standard or that it lacked fair notice the older rule…
ITT Grinnell Corp.
Abatement extension granted and failure-to-correct notice vacated
ITT Grinnell requested more time to install controls for silica dust at two foundry areas, while the Secretary demanded additional medical surveillance during the extended period. The Commission held that an employer seeking more time can be required to use appropriate interim protections even when…
Seaboard Foundry, Inc.
Silica and respirator violations affirmed, control issue remanded
OSHA measurements showed five foundry employees exposed to silica dust at three to 15 times the permissible limit while ventilation and wheelabrator controls were not working properly. The Commission held that one day of valid measurements established overexposure and that Seaboard did not rebut…
Pennsylvania Electric Company
Coal-dust case remanded after late contest transmittal
OSHA issued Pennsylvania Electric Company a separate coal-dust citation after earlier safety citations, but the area office failed to transmit the company's notice of contest to the Commission for almost seven months. The judge treated the coal-dust citation as an invalid amendment of the earlier…
J.L. Manta Plant Services Company
Coke-oven citations vacated and late amendment denied
J.L. Manta, a construction and maintenance contractor at a steel plant, was cited under the coke-oven emissions standard. The judge vacated the citations because that standard could not validly be applied to a non-coke-oven employer under the governing court decision. On review, the Secretary…
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Welding-ventilation violation reduced to nonserious
Bethlehem Steel welders at its Sparrows Point shipyard worked in a small ship bulkhead where ventilation did not prevent a visible welding haze. OSHA sampling showed one welder was exposed to fluorides at more than twice the referenced safe level, and the negative-pressure respirator provided did…
Lone Star Steel Company
Toxic-exposure citations remain vacated without review
The judge vacated citations alleging excessive coal tar pitch volatile exposure and storage or consumption of food in areas exposed to toxic materials. Neither party sought Commission review, so the majority affirmed the judge's decision without reviewing it and gave it only the precedential value…
Todd Shipyards Corporation
Incorrect respirator item reinstated
Employees performing carbon-arc gouging inside a ship were exposed to roughly twice the permissible concentration of iron oxide fumes. The ventilation arrangement was ineffective, and the dust-and-mist respirators they wore were not approved for fumes. The judge affirmed the overexposure and…
Federated Metals, Inc.
Citation dismissals set aside for obstructed discovery
Federated Metals contested citations involving employee exposure to lead, copper, and noise, along with related respiratory protection and lead-control requirements. The judge dismissed the cases when the Secretary declined to present evidence at the scheduled hearing. The Commission found that…
West Point Pepperell, Inc.
Employee medical records ordered produced with privacy safeguards
West Point Pepperell contested serious respiratory and cotton-dust citations at its textile mill. During discovery, the Secretary sought employee medical surveillance records and mill-level profit and loss statements. The Commission found the medical records relevant to respiratory protection…
GAF Corporation
Excessive silver exposure classified as serious
GAF employees producing silver compounds were exposed to airborne silver at roughly two to 37 times the permissible limit. Their respirators were not approved for silver, and the plant's ventilation system was not operating. Medical examinations found permanent silver-related discoloration of the…
Babcock & Wilcox Co.
Silica settlement approved subject to service on the union
OSHA cited excess respirable silica exposure for two foundry shakeout employees. The settlement reclassified the violations as other than serious, eliminated the $480 penalty, extended abatement to July 1, 1979, and required engineering controls, monitoring, reports, and respiratory protection. A…
PPG Industries (Caribe a Corporation)
Mixed mercury and respirator ruling left unreviewed
The judge vacated two citation items involving mercury exposure limits and feasible controls. He found a respirator fit-and-seal violation but classified it as de minimis. The Secretary did not wish to pursue review, while PPG sought to preserve the vacated items and eliminate the de minimis…
Texaco, Inc.
Even split leaves benzene ruling in place
The judge affirmed three nonserious citations involving excessive benzene vapor exposure at Texaco's Port Arthur marine terminal. He declined to require the Secretary's proposed engineering controls because their economic feasibility was not established. The employee union sought review of…
Harshaw Chemical Company
Citation withdrawal remanded for union participation
OSHA cited Harshaw Chemical for serious respiratory-protection and contaminant-exposure violations, then moved to vacate the citation after concluding that testing samples had been improperly counted. The International Chemical Workers Union elected party status while that motion was pending. The…
Witco Chemical Corporation
TDI violations reclassified and penalty reduced
Witco Chemical Corporation manufactured components for foam systems at its New Castle, Delaware plant. OSHA cited the company after monitoring showed two employees were exposed to toluene diisocyanate above the permissible ceiling while filling drums, without respirators and with potentially…
Gardinier, Inc. & International Chemical Workers
Settlement approved after union participation
OSHA issued Gardinier two citations containing multiple serious and nonserious items and proposed $900 in total penalties. Gardinier contested most of the items, and the company and Secretary later reached a settlement. International Chemical Workers Union Local 439 had requested participation and…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.