E-scrap processor URT will pay reduced but still hefty fines totaling $129,000 for failing to protect workers from lead and cadmium exposures during cathode ray tube device processing at the company’s facility in Janesville, Wisconsin.
The changes came after an Oct. 22 informal settlement meeting between URT leaders and Occupational Safety & Health Administration representatives. That meeting resulted in some citations being removed and others being reclassified as less consequential than they initially were.
OSHA, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, first announced the violations on Oct. 9, alleging 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, which included two “repeat” violations, six “serious” violations and one non-serious violation of workplace safety regulations. Those violations covered 16 individual citations, which came during an inspection in April.
The exposures occurred while workers were dismantling CRTs, which the company handles by removing certain components for commodity recovery and sending the lead-bearing glass through a proprietary separation system.
The OSHA case file indicates that after the settlement meeting, regulators dropped two citations altogether: One was a “repeat” citation for alleged lead and cadmium exposure issues that were previously observed by inspectors in 2023, and the other was a “serious” citation for airborne cadmium exposure. Together, dropping those citations lowered the penalty by $76,000.
Additionally, OSHA reclassified a separate “repeat” citation as just “serious,” significantly reducing its fine, and it slightly increased the fines for several of the existing “serious” citations. The final fine total came to $129,000, according to OSHA.
In a statement to E-Scrap News, URT President Ken Thomas said the adjustments reflect “both URT’s commitment to resolving this matter cooperatively and the significant safety improvements we’ve already made.”
“We remain focused on ensuring the safest possible working environment for our employees, and we are grateful for the opportunity to work productively with OSHA toward a positive resolution,” Thomas added.
The fines are due in December and January.
