Indiana Bromine Poisoning

OSHA NEWS: Bromine Poisoning in Indiana

Great Lakes Chemical Corp has been cited by OSHA with 18 serious health and safety violations after their December 2011 inspection of their El Dorado Facility. After discovering that the company had exposed workers to bromine, more than $120k worth of penalties were proposed.

Bromine, a naturally occurring element, was formerly used as a sedative, but that pharmaceutical use has long fallen out of favor. Today bromine is usually found in products intended for agriculture and sanitation, as well as in fire retardants. Because bromine is highly reactive, accidental overexposure to bromine always has serious health and safety repercussions.

Recently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued 18 serious safety violations with proposed penalties totaling $122,000 against Great Lakes Chemical Corp., a chemical-manufacturing company based in West Lafayette, Indiana. Following its December 2011 inspection of the company's El Dorado facility, OSHA discovered that Great Lakes Chemical had exposed its workers to the unexpected release of bromine.

OSHA safety training such as OSHA 10 hour training and OSHA 30 hour training is now required by many employers as hiring requisite. Unfortunately, many workers are still needlessly exposed to worksite hazards because of employer or management negligence, ignorance, or plain disregard of legislated safety protocols.

The inspection—initiated under the agency's Process Safety Management Covered Chemical Facilities National Emphasis Program, which endeavors to mitigate workplace hazards that can lead to the catastrophic release of highly hazardous chemicals—turned up several process safety management standard violations.

On the company’s laundry list of violations were: failure to institute procedures to keep levels are correctly established for pressure vessels and piping; failure to correctly direct its process hazard analysis to deal with hazards involved with valves being closed or blocked; and failure to make sure that the compliance audit effectively dealt with procedures to assess the mechanical integrity of pressure vessels and piping.

"By failing to ensure that safeguards are in place, Great Lakes Chemical puts its workers at risk of exposure to bromine, a highly hazardous chemical that can cause severe burns to the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory system," pointed out Carlos Reynolds, OSHA area director in Little Rock.