Muncie, Indiana - An asbestos consultant working for Muncie Community Schools faces a penalty of up to $1,500 for alleged violations of the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The consultant company is ACM & Environmental Services, Indianapolis. The company faces accusations of eight violations of the OSHA Act during renovations of Muncie’s Central High School that were carried out last year. Include in the list of alleged violations of the act are the following:

1. Training records were not made available for employees who performed work involving asbestos. The work included clean-up of asbestos-containing materials, including those such as spray-on fireproofing material.
2. Employees carried out spot abatement procedures on asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing material without using respirators.
3. Employees carried out spot abatement procedures without first establishing an isolated area that could be safely controlled and regulated.
4. There was no written respiratory protection program for the project.
5. An incident in which asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing fell onto the floor was not dealt with according to regulations. The required sampling and analysis procedures were not carried out according to approved OSHA methodology.
6. Employees did not spread plastic drop cloths on the floor before scraping asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing material from the ceiling.
7. Employees that had not been trained to work with asbestos were allowed to scrape small spots of asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing off the ceiling.
8. Employees who voluntarily wore respirators were not provided with basic information about the equipment they were using.

Indiana Department of Labor spokesperson Sean Keefer said that ACM & Environmental Services were expected to sign an Expedited Informal Settlement Agreement for the incident. The EISA calls for the penalty to be reduced from $1,500 to $975.

The mechanical-electrical contractor for the project, Sater Electrical, had already signed an EISA to revolve eight violations it had been accused of. These included failing to reduce dust emissions, failing to provide employees with respirators, protective clothing, and safety glasses, and disturbing asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing without using drop cloths or isolating the work area.

Sater Electrical agreed to pay a fine of $796.25 and also said the company was no longer working in designated asbestos-containing areas until an exposure assessment had been conducted.

According to School Superintendent Marlin Creasy, it is unlikely that students were exposed to asbestos.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos Litigation, Indiana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.