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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Seward Ship’s Drydock, Inc.
Respirator assessment item vacated
Seward Ship’s Drydock employees welded inside enclosed voids on a deck barge, using rods that could release carbon monoxide and iron oxide fumes. OSHA alleged that the company failed to identify and evaluate respiratory hazards under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.134(d)(1)(iii). The Commission held that this…
Cranesville Block Company, Inc. / Clark Division
Respirator violations affirmed and drowning item vacated
Cranesville manufactured ready mix concrete at its Teall Avenue plant in Syracuse, New York. An employee chipping hardened concrete from a mixer drum was exposed to silica at four times the permissible limit while wearing an organic-vapor cartridge instead of the appropriate particulate filter. The…
Jalco, Inc.
Confined-space rescue failures result in $11,800 penalty
A subcontractor employee lost consciousness after entering a 15-foot sewer manhole without atmospheric monitoring, effective ventilation, or rescue equipment. Jalco's foreman entered without a harness, lifeline, or respirator and became dizzy before climbing out. The judge found that the foreman's…
Building Contractors, Inc.
Respiratory-program citation vacated
Building Contractors dry-cut masonry brick at a shopping-mall construction site, generating dust that a bulk sample showed contained 50 percent silica quartz. OSHA cited the company for lacking a respiratory protection program, and the judge held that the general-industry respiratory standard…
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…
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
Surgical-mask TB citation vacated because the hospital lacked fair notice that only NIOSH respirators would do
OSHA inspected Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in June 1992, during a period when a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak had struck hospitals in the New York and New Jersey area. The hospital workers' union, Local 1199, took part as the authorized employee representative. The parties settled…
Pride Petroleum Services
Review defaulted, $2,000 monitoring item became final
Pride Petroleum filed for Commission review after a judge decided respiratory-protection items arising from work at a Texas oil well. Commission rules required Pride to file a brief or a written notice relying on its petition within 40 days, but it did neither, did not answer the Secretary's…
Pride Oil Well Service
Respirator and tank-warning violations affirmed
Pride Oil Well Service employees monitored fluids entering a mobile storage tank while nitrogen used in the well displaced oxygen in the tank. One employee lost consciousness and fell into the tank, and another entered in an attempted rescue; both died from asphyxia due to drowning in the tank…
Power Fuels, Inc.
Serious hydrogen-sulfide and respirator violation affirmed
A Power Fuels truck driver was fatally overcome by hydrogen sulfide while working alone at an oil-field salt-water tank in North Dakota without a respirator. The Commission found that the evidence established exposure above the maximum peak concentration allowed by 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1000(b)(2). It…
Kaspar Wire Works, Inc.
Power-press case remanded for unresolved defenses
Kaspar Wire Works challenged citations arising from an OSHA inspection of its manufacturing plant. The judge affirmed a serious item alleging that a mechanical power press was operated without using its point-of-operation protection and assessed $160. He also affirmed, without a penalty, an item…
D.A. & S. Oil Well Servicing, Inc.
Respirator violation became final after review brief was missed
D.A. & S. serviced an oil and gas well in an area where highly toxic hydrogen sulfide could be encountered, but it had no emergency respirators at the site. The judge found that engineering controls could fail and affirmed a serious respiratory-protection violation with a $280 penalty. He vacated…
City Oil Well Service Co.
Respirator violations affirmed after hydrogen sulfide exposure
Two City Oil Well Service employees died during swabbing work at an oil well where later testing found hydrogen sulfide at 225 parts per million. City relied on well operators to identify hydrogen-sulfide hazards and provide respirators, and it had no respiratory-protection program of its own. The…
Kastalon, Inc. and Conap, Inc.
MOCA exposure citations vacated
Kastalon and Conap used MOCA, a chemical shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals, to manufacture polyurethane products. OSHA alleged general-duty violations at both companies and personal-protective-equipment and respirator violations at Conap. The Commission held that OSHA had to prove a…
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…
City Oil Well Service Co.
Respirator citations left vacated after Commission impasse
Two City Oil Well Service employees died during swabbing work at an oil well where later testing found hydrogen sulfide at 225 parts per million. City relied on well operators to identify hydrogen-sulfide hazards and supply respirators, and it made no inquiry or respiratory-protection plan of its…
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…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Hazardous-material emergency settlement approved
OSHA cited Consolidated Rail Corporation over protective clothing and respirators for hazardous-material emergencies at its Edgemoor railyard. Under the settlement, the Secretary withdrew the protective-clothing citation. The respirator item was amended to a serious violation with a $500 penalty…
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…
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…
Snyder Well Servicing, Inc.
Respirator item affirmed and other well-site items vacated
Snyder used a mobile service rig to swab a newly drilled Texas oil well, removing material from the well bore. The Commission held that swabbing had not been shown to be construction work, so construction standards did not apply. It nevertheless affirmed a serious general-industry respiratory…
Mahone Grain Corporation
Respirator-program violation reclassified as serious
Employees cleaning a long-unused grain elevator worked in thick dust with too few respirators, shared and improperly maintained equipment, and no respiratory protection program. Five employees later became ill, several requiring hospitalization, and the Commission concluded they had contracted…
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…
Crane Company
Lead and silica exposure items affirmed
Crane Company manufactured valves and plumbing fixtures at a Tennessee foundry. Sampling showed employees were exposed to lead and silica dust above permissible limits, and the judge found that feasible industry technology existed to control those exposures. The company also lacked written…
North American Rockwell Corporation
Asbestos citation vacated for lack of employer knowledge
North American Rockwell manufactured asbestos-containing brake linings at its Ohio plant. OSHA sampling found that a grinder operator was exposed above the asbestos limits, but the company had previously commissioned three tests near the same machine that found no contamination problem. OSHA…
Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co.
Forty-six citation items vacated as untimely
OSHA cited 46 alleged safety, health, recordkeeping, and posting violations at Illinois Central Gulf Railroad's locomotive repair facility in Paducah, Kentucky. The inspection was coordinated with the Federal Railroad Administration, and the proposed citation moved through regional and national…
Koppers Co., Inc.
Coke-oven citation dispute remanded for a hearing
OSHA cited Koppers Co., Inc. over employee exposure to coal tar pitch volatiles during coke-oven operations and over respirator protection. The alleged serious violation concerned the absence of feasible engineering or administrative controls and protective measures for a shift foreman and pusher…
Sunpruf Aluminum Products, Inc.
Eight safety items affirmed without penalties
Sunpruf manufactured aluminum storm windows and doors at a Nashville plant with about 30 employees. OSHA cited conditions involving electrical boxes, compressed air, respiratory and welding protection, personal protective equipment, first aid, housekeeping, and aisle marking. The Secretary withdrew…
Custom Painting Company
Respiratory violations affirmed without penalties
Custom Painting Company performed painting work at a sewage treatment plant in Alaska. An employee was asphyxiated while using paint containing perchlorethylene in an atmosphere with a high concentration of that toxic substance. OSHA cited the company for failing to provide suitable respirators…
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.