Cleaning Company Fined for Worker's Death

OSHA fined an Illinois industrial cleaning company after a worker was killed falling from his ladder.

  • May 14, 2013

Phoenix Industrial Cleaning in Wheeling, Ill., has been cited for 28 serious violations after a worker was killed in a fall from a ladder after being overcome by methylene chloride vapors while cleaning a chemical manufacturing facility in November 2012. The citations are accompanied by proposed fines of $77,200.

"No job should cost a person's life because of an employer's failure to properly protect and train workers," said Diane Turek, OSHA's area director for the Chicago North Area Office in Des Plaines, in an OSHA statement. "Phoenix Industrial Cleaning failed in its responsibility to evaluate working conditions and provide proper respiratory and personal protective equipment to workers cleaning storage tanks containing hazardous chemicals."

Confined space requirements were the cause of the majority of the serious violations. The company allegedly failed to develop a confined space entry plan for workers cleaning chemical storage tanks and testing for atmospheric hazards was not provided, in addition to multiple other alleged safety hazards.

The violations in their entirety can be found on the OSHA website.

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