West Monroe, LA – Bancroft Bags Inc., has been fined $84,000 and cited for 16 serious violations by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for loto failures – failing to guard machinery and implement appropriate shut down precautions.
These procedures are known as lockout/tagout and are required by OSHA. Lockout procedures provide detailed instruction on how to isolate and lock each energy source for a given piece of equipment, helping to prevent the unexpected energization or startup of machinery and equipment, or the release of hazardous energy during service or maintenance activities.
OSHA initiated an inspection after receiving notification from th
e employer that a printing press operator had his hand pulled into the gears and his index finger amputated while trying to remove a gear from its shaft.
“The cost of implementing safety procedures is so low, and the cost of ignoring them is so high,” said Dorinda Folse, OSHA’s area director in Baton Rouge. “If Bancroft had implemented procedures to keep the press from starting up, this man would still have all 10 fingers.”
Bancroft Bags employs about 400 workers at its West Monroe packaging plant and is a leading manufacturer of bags for pet food, fertilizers, and chemical product companies.
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