{"id":20482,"date":"2023-07-21T16:29:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T16:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=731672"},"modified":"2023-07-21T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T16:29:26","slug":"missouri-chemical-plant-fined-393k-for-safety-and-health-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2023\/07\/21\/missouri-chemical-plant-fined-393k-for-safety-and-health-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Chemical Plant Fined $393K for Safety and Health Violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2023\/07\/21\/731672.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2023\/07\/21\/731672.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>Less than two years after an investigation found dozens of serious safety and health violations at a Verona, Missouri chemical plant, workplace safety inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor identified 16 violations, including those that put employees at risk of exposure to toxic substances such as ethylene oxide.<\/p>\n<p>After its January 2023 follow-up inspection, the department\u2019s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued four repeat and nine serious safety and health violations, and proposed $393,798 in penalties to BCP Ingredients Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Balchem Corp. The agency also issued a hazard alert letter for inadequate medical evaluation procedures for workers exposed to ethylene oxide. In October 2021, OSHA cited the same facility for 24 serious safety and health violations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"chemicals,pollution\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cEthylene oxide is a colorless and flammable gas and unsafe exposure can cause cancer and other serious health issues,\u201d said OSHA Area Director Karena Lorek in Kansas City, Missouri. \u201cThe company\u2019s failure to address its previous violations and follow OSHA regulations is troubling. BCP needs to bring its monitoring procedures into compliance immediately and re-evaluate its engineering processes to make sure its employees are kept safe and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Investigators cited multiple OSHA violations, including the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Inadequate process safety management procedures and monitoring.<\/li>\n<li>Failing to develop an emergency evacuation plan.<\/li>\n<li>Failing to train workers on actions to take in the event of a chemical release.<\/li>\n<li>Exposing respirators to ethylene oxide while in storage.<\/li>\n<li>Allowing electrical safety hazards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Part of Balchem\u2019s Animal Nutrition and Health Division, BCP Ingredients Inc. produces choline, nutrient encapsulation, chelated minerals and functional ingredients for feed and animal supplements. The Verona facility also produces food ingredients primarily for the baking industry. Based in Montvale, New Jersey, Balchem Corp. is a leading global producer of nutrition and health products for animal and human consumption, and employs more than 1,400 people worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: OSHA<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/pollution\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Pollution<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/missouri\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Missouri<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/chemicals\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Chemicals<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"731672\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>Interested in <em>Chemicals<\/em>?<\/h4>\n<p>Get automatic alerts for this topic.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments Less than two years after an investigation found dozens of serious safety and health violations at a Verona, Missouri chemical plant, workplace safety inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor identified&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[115,13,1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}