Wisconsin-based URT was cited for employees being exposed to heavy metals during CRT dismantling, and the company president emphasized that the company has been working with OSHA for a year on the issues. | Drazah/Shutterstock
Federal regulators have fined URT more than $200,000 for multiple instances of workers exposed to elevated lead and cadmium levels during cathode ray tube device dismantling at the company’s Wisconsin location.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, on Oct. 9 announced that an inspection at the Janesville, Wisconsin, plant revealed two “repeat” violations, six “serious” violations and one non-serious violation of workplace safety regulations.
Overall, OSHA found URT “failed to implement adequate engineering controls and did not keep surfaces as free as practicable from lead and cadmium accumulations.” OSHA proposed $202,820 in fines for the violations.
OSHA noted that the violations came after URT was cited for many of the same issues in April 2023, leading to the “repeat” label on multiple violations.
In an Oct. 14 statement shared with E-Scrap News, URT stated that company President Ken Thomas “expressed surprise at the citation and fine, emphasizing that the company has been working proactively with OSHA on this issue for the past year.”
“We have been in active collaboration with OSHA to address any concerns,” Thomas said in the statement. “Over the past year, URT has invested more than $150,000 to enhance the facility’s engineering controls and improve overall air quality.”
The OSHA regulatory process allows penalized companies to either comply with the requirements, request an informal conference with an OSHA area director to discuss the citation or formally contest the findings.
URT indicated in its statement that the company scheduled meetings with OSHA representatives for this week, to discuss the findings.
URT processes CRTs by disassembling the devices to remove various components for commodity recovery and sending the glass through a proprietary system that separates it into funnel and panel glass streams.
Exposure comes during CRT dismantling process
Regulators identified the violations during inspections of the Wisconsin facility in April and June, according to the final citation and notice of penalty issued on Sept. 26. Numerous separate incidents were grouped together to form the nine violations in the citation.
The two citations that describe “repeat” violations make up the bulk of the fines, at $63,000 each.
The first came after workers in URT’s “Seiler D-Man station,” where devices are disassembled, were found to be exposed to unsafe levels of lead and cadmium, during testing on April 19, 2024. The citation describes two employees who were monitored for exposure during an eight-hour shift dismantling CRT devices. Air sampling determined one worker’s lead and cadmium exposure was 1.3 times and 2.0 the permissible limit, respectively. Another worker’s lead and cadmium exposure was 2.1 and 0.7 times the permissible limit, respectively.
OSHA noted the company was previously cited for the same violation in May 2023 at the same facility.
The second “repeat” citation came from an inspection on April 18, 2024, when URT “did not ensure that the surfaces inside of employee lockers used to store personal items were maintained as free as practicable of the accumulation of lead.”
The other six “serious” violations described problems with URT’s lead and cadmium monitoring and blood testing practices, protective measures required of employees and training protocols. These were observed between April and July 2024, according to OSHA.
In a statement, OSHA Area Director Chad Greenwood said URT “cannot solely rely on personal protective equipment as the primary source of protection. The company must focus on continuous improvement of engineering controls to reduce employee exposures to hazardous air contaminants.”
But URT maintains its safety measures do indeed go beyond PPE. In its statement, URT said recent investments include “engineering controls, such as barriers between employees and exposure areas as well as enclosing all transition points to significantly reduce airborne contaminants.” Additionally, John Kendall, URT’s environmental health and safety director, said the company routinely monitors air quality levels and adjusts environmental controls “to ensure we are operating within safe limits.”
Besides its Janesville plant, URT operates processing facilities in New Hampshire, Oregon and Texas.
URT was previously fined in 2016 for hazardous waste violations at its New Hampshire facility.