Document e5expvNxMGr0w77waZRQMyoYm

4 lit?' INTEllNAL CORIIESPONDEIVCE UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION CHEMICALS AND PLASTICS To (Name) Company Location A. L B. F R. C R. A L. T Barefoot Brown 6 lock Ream, 511 W indel--'^' Copy to Mario Gutierrez Heddy Butler P. 0. BOX 3370, BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS 78520 PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT Date August 22, 1979 Originating Dept. Answering letter date Subject OSHA Inspection - Brownsville, Brown & Root, Contractor Attached is a summary by Mario Gutierrez, I.H. Technician, of the recent OSHA inspection of our contractor. Brown & Root, No citations were given and the inspector seemed favorably impressed with the methods and procedures being used. KGTrmfw Attachment K. Gran Townsend BRF 0260 INTERNAL CORRESPONDENCE UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION CHEMICALS AND PLASTICS P. o. box 3370, BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS 78520 To (Name) Company Location K. G. Townsend Brownsville Plant Copy to Data August 16, 1979 Originating Dept. Answering letter date Subject OSHA Inspection of August 15, 1979 At 1300 hours on August 15, OSHA Inspector Caroline Burton showed up at the Brownsville Plant. She introduced herself and showed her credentials which were in order. She said she came on a complaint from an employee and that the inspection involved Brown & Root only. I asked her if she would have any objections if I accompanied her and she said that as long as Brown & Root had no objections she would not have any. I next talked to Bob Glock who d^digAd that it would probably be all right for me to accompany them. As Don Hockaday was out of the plant, the Brown & Root representatives were: George Bushor and Melvin Ketchum. The opening conference took place in the main office conference room where she gave us copies of the complaint, and she also enumerated the procedure that would be followed. 1. Opening Conference 2. She would need to see the Injury and Illness record 3. She would need to see OSHA notices posted on bulletin boards 4. A walk-through to investigate the items enumerated in the complaint and finally the closing conference. During the opening conference each item was gone over one at a time and explanations were given as to location and perhaps extenuating circumstances that may have been happening at the time. After the opening conference we then proceeded with the walk-through. The first place visited was the safety issue room where Phil Jones showed her the files on the respirator cleaning.maintenance and upkeep and she was satisfied that everything was done properly. She then inquired as to the existence of the respirator program in a book. We then proceeded to the office of Brown & Root where the S&P Manual was shown her that contained the respirator program. BRF 0261 Mr. Townsend -3- August 16, 1979 available at the time and with the use of gloves, all they had to do was remove one glove and clean the dust or whatever it was from the respirator. She also inter viewed an employee that worked in the sump at the time, and she was satisfied that this allegation was false. Item #3 reads thus: No working light on grinder, not sufficient lights. She explained that since OSHA has no lighting standard, there wasn't much she could do about this. However, she was taken to the machine shop and shown the grinders and there were lights on all the grinders, additional lights that work when the grinders are on, and she saw nothing wrong. Item #4 reads thus: Drinking water makes me sick! She said that as long as we provide portable water, there is nothing she can do about it, and since this is Brownsville water and it is approved by the Health Department, there is not much we can do about It either. We do attempt to filter it by using the carbon filters. Nevertheless, it does seem to taste bad every now and then. Item #5 reads thus: In booster area temperature exceeds 135F. Employees required to work 8 hours a day plus overtime installing floors and walla and closing in bottle racks. This occurred 6 months back. However, this operation was planned again in the future. Employees are exposed to heat stroke and heat exhaustion. We proceeded to the booster area where we parked the car across from the boosters but not in the road where traffic is prohibited, and she was able to see the boos ter#3 - 2 machinists working on the booster, and Melvin and.George proceeded to explain to her that at no time is anyone allowed to work on the boosters while they are operating. But that because of the arrangement of the wall to prevait explosions and fires, when a booster is not operating and when people are working on it, just the ambient temperature alone is what causes the area to be hot, but that on this particular day fans were, being used to move the air somewhat, but that the day was so hot that it was not doing any good. Nevertheless, my question is, how did this man determine that it was over 130F? At any rate, I don't know of anyone that has had heat exhaustion or heat stroke, and Melvin Ketchum explained to her that all the foremen have been instructed to be very careful with this working in hot areas, and all the personnel under them are instructed that if they feel hot, take it easy, go get a cool drink of water or salt tablet and rest a little bit, and then go back to work. No one is forced to keep on working in spite of the heat. She mentioned that this item #5 may be re-investigated by an OSHA Industrial Hygienist. However, I could not find any reference in the OSHA Manual to a standard on heat stress. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists does have a recommended permissible heat exposure TLV, but we do not have any values for this particular part of the plant. I have no idea what the temperatures would be like. Item #6 reads thus: Employee told to install contaminated ball valve in breathing air line without proper cleaning. Upon examination, Melvin Ketchum explained to her that initially ball valves were going to be installed in the system but that they were the wrong type of valve and they were dirty, and they were not installed at all, and she was shown that the system actually has gate valves in there and an explanation was given to her as to how the system is cleaned once it is installed. BRF 0262