Kaman Air Vehicles, an aircraft parts manufacturer in Connecticut, faces a possible $308,168 fine for allegedly failing to protect employees from toxic substance exposures.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration says Kaman did not take required steps to identify potential exposures and protect employees from hexavalent chromium and cadmium – both known carcinogens – at its Bloomfield facility.
FinishingAndCoating.com reached out to Kaman officials for comment on the charges, but has not received a reply.
OSHA inspectors claim Kaman employees faced exposure and possible overexposure to the toxic substances while electroplating, mixing and preparing, and painting and removing paint on small aircraft parts. OSHA says it conducted the inspection under its National Emphasis Program on Hexavalent Chromium.
OSHA cited Kaman for two willful, four serious, and two other-than-serious violations and proposed $308,168 in penalties. Specifically, OSHA inspectors say the company failed to:
- Determine employees’ exposure to hexavalent chromium.
- Assess employees’ overexposure to cadmium during plating operations.
- Implement controls and work practices to reduce employees’ overexposure to chromium.
- Provide employees with appropriate personal protective equipment, including chemical-resistant gloves and impervious aprons, and ensure their use.
- Ensure exposed employees used effective respiratory protection.
- Periodically examine nostrils of exposed employees.
- Provide employees with appropriate information and training on chromium hazards.
- Label tanks containing hazardous substances with information on the hazards associated with their contents.
“Our inspection found Kaman Air Vehicles failed to protect employees as required from potentially serious health conditions,” says OSHA Acting Area Director Christine George in Hartford, Connecticut. “This employer must ensure a safe, healthful work environment by monitoring worker exposure, implementing controls to reduce and minimize exposure levels and provide employees with information about the toxic substances with which they work.”
OSHA says Kaman has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Kaman was founded in 1945 by aviation pioneer Charles Kaman and is headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut. It conducts business in the aerospace and defense, industrial and medical markets.
Kaman says it produces and markets proprietary aircraft bearings and components; super precision, miniature ball bearings; proprietary spring energized seals, springs, and contacts; complex metallic and composite aerostructures for commercial, military, and general aviation fixed and rotary wing aircraft; safe and arming solutions for missile and bomb systems for the U.S. and allied militaries; subcontract helicopter work; restoration, modification and support of its SH-2G Super Seasprite maritime helicopters; as well as manufacture and support of their K-MAX manned and unmanned medium-to-heavy lift helicopters.
