OSHA Tells 631,000 Plants to Install Machinery Locks

The government today gave 631,000 factories and plants two months to install locks to guarantee that power to machinery is cut off during maintenance and repairs, a step the Labor Department said would save 120 lives a year.

The department said the new rule will affect 39 million American workers, most of them in manufacturing and service industries, and estimated it would also prevent 60,000 injuries a year, 28,000 of them serious injuries such as loss of limbs or crushed bones.

It will cost the affected establishments $214 million in the next year for the necessary equipment and training and $135 million in subsequent years, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said. Those costs will range from $120 for small establishments--such as a small print shop--to $28,000 for large plants with scores of machines, OSHA said.

The regulation, 10 years in the making, is tougher in its final form than when it was proposed. At first, the government proposed requiring that employers either install locks to prevent accidental activation of equipment during repairs or place warning tags on the power source to alert workers that the machinery was being worked on and was not to be activated.

But the final rule released today places a far greater emphasis on locks, allowing tags only when an employer can prove that equipment cannot be “locked” off a power supply or that its tag program is as effective as using locks.

“We have so many fatalities, loss of fingers, crushed bones and other serious injuries because these precautions are not taken,” said Alan McMillan, acting chief of OSHA, in an interview this morning. “This will have a major effect on workplace safety.”