OSHA Fines Carbide $1.3 Million : Violations Show ‘Willful Disregard’ for Safety--Brock

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in its largest enforcement action ever, today fined Union Carbide Corp. more than $1.3 million for 221 alleged safety and health violations at its Institute, W.Va., chemical plant.

The citations were issued this morning at the plant, where a chemical leak last August hospitalized six workers and sent 129 area residents to emergency rooms.

The company has 15 days to contest the fines, which totaled $1,377,300.

If it does, the case would be adjudicated first before an administrative law judge and then before the three-member Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Agreed to $4,400 Fine

Union Carbide last month agreed to pay OSHA fines totaling $4,400 to settle alleged violations in connection with the Aug. 11 accident. That fine had been reduced from an initial $30,000 after the company promised to improve monitoring systems at the plant.

OSHA said the alleged violations stem from a six-month investigation by a 15-member team and that some involve record-keeping problems over several years.

OSHA officials in Washington said the new fines were levied after inspectors completed the first phase of a wall-to-wall inspection of the plant launched after the accident.

Labor Secretary William E. Brock called the proposed fines “a necessary and appropriate response to . . . what we believe to be a willful disregard for health and safety.”

While Brock acknowledged that the Reagan Administration has sought what he called a “balanced approach” with employers, he sharply criticized Union Carbide’s performance.

‘Absence of Motivation’

He blamed Union Carbide’s problems on an “absence of motivation.” Asked to rate the worst problem, he said, “the general atmosphere, the attitude.”

Among the violations listed as willful by OSHA was a failure to provide respirators to employees exposed to phosgene, an extremely deadly gas. The agency said the workers “were required to sniff to determine the presence of this deadly gas.”

OSHA said Union Carbide had repeatedly failed to record instances of injuries requiring medical treatment or resulting in restricted activity or lost work days, and also failed to provide what it called critical supplemental medical information on asbestosis cases.

Just before the August leak, OSHA inspectors reviewed $5 million in safety equipment installed at the Institute plant’s methyl isocyanate unit. MIC is the same gas that killed more than 2,000 people when it leaked from Union Carbide’s Bhopal, India, plant on Dec. 3, 1984.