Dept. of Industrial Relations logo
Cal/OSHA

Citations for 2012 and 2013

Posted below are Cal/OSHA inspections that resulted in citations issued with penalties of $100,000 or more, or those inspections of significant interest to media and the public.

See the Citation Archives for citations issued before 2012.

Date Issued Establishment Establishment Location Cal/OSHA Office Violations Description and
Proposed Penalty		 Documents by Inspection # Appeal Documentation by Docket #
5/10/2013 Sutter East Bay Hospitals
dba ABSMC		 Oakland Oakland District Office
Willful / Serious – 2
Regulatory – 1
General – 2
Total
Violations - 5
Proposed penalties:  $142,970
Citations were issued to the Alta Bates Sutter Medical Center in Oakland as a result of a complaint investigation. The citations included willful serious violations relating to failures to implement the Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD) standard. The Willful serious violations included the failure to establish and maintain a negative pressure isolation room for ATD cases in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit and the failure to place suspect tuberculosis cases in isolation rooms. 		315320242 :

N/A
5/8/2013 The Walt Disney Co. dba Disneyland Resort Anaheim Santa Ana District Office
Willful / Serious – 1
Serious – 1
Repeat General – 1
General – 2
Total
Violations - 5
Proposed penalties:  $82,025
Citations originally issued on April 12, 2013 were amended on May 8, 2013 by Cal/OSHA.
The investigation was launched as the result of a serious injury to an employee of HSG Professional Window Cleaners, Inc. that took place on November 21, 2012 when the worker was performing maintenance on the exterior of the Space Mountain attraction. 		315531715 :

N/A
4/17/2013 HSG Professional Window Cleaners, Inc. Anaheim Santa Ana District Office
Serious / Accident Related – 1
Serious – 3
Regulatory – 1
General – 1
Total
Violations - 6
Proposed penalties:  $60,995
Citations were posted by the DOSH Santa Ana district office to HSG, Professional Window Cleaners, Inc., upon completion of an accident investigation. An employee suffered serious injuries on November 21, 2012 when the shackle attached to his working line separated from the unapproved anchorage point on the Space Mountain building, causing him to fall approximately 45 feet down the exterior and into a small parapet wall. 		315531707 :
2013-R3D1-1303/1307 :
3/22/2013 The Walt Disney Co. dba Disneyland Resort Anaheim Santa Ana District Office
Serious – 2
Total
Violations - 2
Proposed penalties:  $30,150
Citations were issued as the result of a serious injury to a Disneyland employee on October 3, 2012. The injured employee, one of two maintenance machinists performing maintenance on a Space Mountain vehicle, suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries when the vehicle struck him. 		315531277 :
2013-R3D1-1131 :
1/30/2013 Chevron USA Richmond Contra Costa Process Safety Management Unit
Willful Serious – 11
Serious – 12
General – 2
Total
Violations - 25
Proposed penalties:  $963,200
On August 6, 2012, a fire broke out at the Chevron Richmond refinery when a corroded pipe in Chevron's #4 Crude Unit began leaking. Cal/OSHA immediately launched an investigation into the fire and the leak repair procedures throughout the refinery, and found that Chevron did not follow the recommendations of its own inspectors and metallurgical scientists to replace the corroded pipe that ultimately ruptured and caused the fire. They also found that Chevron did not follow its own emergency shutdown procedures when the leak was identified, and did not protect its employees and employees of Brand Scaffolding who were working at the leak site. There were also violations in Chevron's overall implementation of its own "process safety management" (PSM) procedures, required by Cal/OSHA of all refineries. 		314331877 :
314332370 : 		Docket Number to be determined :
1/30/2013 Brand Energy Services of California Richmond Oakland District Office
General - 3
Total
Violations - 3
Proposed penalties:  $2,060
Brand Scaffolding was onsite at the Chevron Richmond refinery on August 6, 2012, and its employees were exposed to hazards when Chevron's #4 Crude Unit began leaking. 		314332321 :
N/A
7/2/2012 Maplegrove Gluten Free Foods, Inc. Fontana High Hazard Unit
(Santa Ana)
Repeat
Serious - 2
Serious - 1
Total
Violations - 3
Proposed penalties:  $39,690
The Santa Ana High High Hazard Unit issued citations to Maplegrove Gluten Free Foods, Inc., from three accident investigations These investigations have a combined total of $39,690 in proposed penalties and include: 2 repeat serious and 1 serious. 		314758889 :
N/A
6/29/2012 EDCO Waste & Recycling Services Lemon Grove San Diego District Office
Regulatory - 1
General - 2
Serious - 1
Serious / Willful - 1
Serious / Accident Related - 2
Total
Violations - 7
Proposed penalties:  $111,935
The San Diego District Office issued seven citations totaling $111,935 in penalties to Southern California-based EDCO Waste and Recycling Services, Inc., a collection and recycling company with a history of safety violations and worker injury. Citations include a Serious and Willful violation and Serious Accident-Related violations that resulted in a severe injury to a worker at EDCO. Cal/OSHA had previously cited this company for the same problems that led to this recent worker injury. These new citations resulted from an acident and serious worker injury on December 31, 2011 while workers were connecting a hydraulic cylinder to the packer device in a garbage truck. The hydraulic system was activated to extend the cylinder outward to be connected to the packer, which compacts the trash that has been dumped into the truck. The injured worker was standing on the packer unit inside the truck body when the cylinder struck it, causing him to fall onto an area between the packer and the truck body wall where he sustained crushing injuries. 		315343236 : 2012-R3D2-2043 :
6/22/2012 Maplegrove Gluten Free Foods, Inc Fontana San Diego
Regulatory - 2
General - 4
General: Failure to Abate - 2
Serious - 12
Repeat
Regulatory - 1
Repeat
General - 2
Repeat
Serious - 3
Total
Violations - 26
Proposed penalties:  $280,750
Citations were issued by Cal/OSHA Fresno district office after the fatality of two brothers working at Community Recycling who died due to inhalation of hydrogen sulfide gas while cleaning an underground storm drain system at the facility. Employees at the Community Recycling facility were extricated from a water drain pipeline by the Kern County Fire Department and transported to Kern Medical Center. DOSH/Fresno established jurisdiction and investigated the site for their confined space entry program, air-testing procedures, oxygen levels, methane levels and more to determine why the employees were overcome. This was a multi-employer investigation because one of the workers killed was identified as an employee of A & B Harvesting. 		314758715 :
N/A
6/4/2012 Orange County Metal Processing Fullerton Santa Ana District Office
Serious - 8
General - 14
Regulatory - 4
Willful / General - 3
Willful / Serious - 1
Total
Violations - 30
Proposed penalties:  $163,220
The DOSH Santa Ana district office initiated this investigation on a referral from the Orange County District Attorney's Office's "Strike Force," a collaboration of local, county and state agencies that focus on employers who are in violation of multiple environmental, labor, and health and safety laws. The investigation resulted in the issuance of 30 citations, including four Willful cites and $163,220 in penalties to the Orange County Metal Processing plating shop Fullerton in this complaint referral investigation. Three Willful General citations related to lack of an Injury Illness Prevention, Hazard Communications and Respiratory Protection programs because the 30-year old business has been issued 15 citations by DOSH in 1996, and had received extensive information from a health and safety consultant related to these requirements. A Willful Serious citation was issued for the lack of secondary containment between vats of zinc cyanide and hydrochloric acid in December 2011 because the employer had failed to act on orders from the Fullerton Fire Department in April, May and June 2011 to prevent generation of hydrogen cyanide gas in the event of a tank rupture. 		315526970 :
N/A
5/10/2012 Vista Paint Corporation Fullerton Santa Ana District Office
Serious - 12
General - 2
Regulatory - 1
Total
Violations - 15
Proposed penalties:  $159,040
Citations issued in this fatality investigation. An employee was cleaning a 3000-gallon mixing tank when he lost consciousness. Another employee, walking by and who assumed the first employee was sleeping, entered the tank to wake him up in the event he would be disciplined by a supervisor. When a third employee observed employees 1 and 2 sitting/lying down, a fourth employee was called over to check on them, at which point the Plant Manager was summoned. He then called 911. Employee 1 was pronounced dead at the scene, and employee 2 was resuscitated and taken to UC Irvine Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for 4 days and treated for chemical asphyxiation. DOSH/Santa Ana established jurisdiction and investigated the site for their confined space entry program, air-testing procedures, oxygen levels, carcinogen levels and more to determine why the employees were overcome." 		315526707 :
N/A
3/21/2012 Community Recycling & Resource Recovery and A & B Harvesting Lamont Fresno district office
General - 5
Serious - 7
Serious accident related - 5
Total
Violations - 17
Proposed penalties:  $168,015
Citations were issued by Cal/OSHA Fresno district office after the fatality of two brothers working at Community Recycling who died due to inhalation of hydrogen sulfide gas while cleaning an underground storm drain system at the facility. Employees at the Community Recycling facility were extricated from a water drain pipeline by the Kern County Fire Department and transported to Kern Medical Center. DOSH/Fresno established jurisdiction and investigated the site for their confined space entry program, air-testing procedures, oxygen levels, methane levels and more to determine why the employees were overcome. This was a multi-employer investigation because one of the workers killed was identified as an employee of A & B Harvesting. 		315072637 :
315072645 :
N/A
2/16/2012 American Apparel (USA) LLC Los Angeles Santa Ana District Office
General - 7
Serious - 1
Willful / Serious - 1
Total
Violations - 9
Proposed penalties:  $100,285
Citations were issued by the DOSH Santa Ana district office after an employee was seriously injured while attempting to remove a roll of completed fabric from the circular weaving machine. This injury was a result of the machine suddenly energizing while the employee was inside of the cage. There were problems with one of the start buttons on the machine, so the employee contacted the facility maintenance person to fix the issue. While the machine was being repaired, the maintenance person stepped away to obtain a tool, when he returned he found the operator crushed and unconscious inside the circular weaving machine. The local fire department removed the employee from the machine and transported him to West Anaheim Medical located in Anaheim, CA, where the employee expired moments after arriving. 		315525634 :
N/A
2/14/2012 International Dioxide, Inc. Woodland Sacramento district office
Serious - 1
Total
Violations - 1
Proposed penalties:  $18,000
Citations were issued by Cal/OSHA Sacramento district office after investigating the August 2011 incident in which forty seven employees were sent to hospitals for treatment of respiratory irritation after being exposed to chlorine dioxide released inside a tomato processing plant. The release was due to equipment falure; failure by plant and sub-contractor personnel to follow shutdown and restart protocols; and, failure to use engineering controls to detect and alert personnel of the harmful exposurs in the plant. International Dioxide, Inc., the creating employer at the Pacific Coast Producers multi-employer worksite failed to maintain the Unpeeled Flume System at the processing plant in a safe operating condition. 		314570177 : 2012-R2D1-0739 :
2/14/2012 Pacific Coast Producers Woodland Sacramento district office
Serious - 2
Total
Violations - 2
Proposed penalties:  $45,000
Citations were issued by Cal/OSHA Sacramento district office after investigating the August 2011 incident in which forty seven employees were sent to hospitals for treatment of respiratory irritation after being exposed to chlorine dioxide released inside a tomato processing plant. The release was due to equipment falure; failure by plant and sub-contractor personnel to follow shutdown and restart protocols; and, failure to use engineering controls to detect and alert personnel of the harmful exposurs in the plant. 		314570169 :
N/A
2/13/2012 Festival Fun Parks, LLC dba Raging Waters of Sacramento Sacramento Sacramento district office
Regulatory/General - 1
Serious - 4
Total
Violations - 5
Proposed penalties:  $45,440
Cal/OSHA's Sacramento district office issued citations to Festival Fun Parks, dba Raging Waters of Sacramento after two employees and 17 guests at Raging Waters located at 1600 Exposition Blvd., Sacramento were transported to various area hospitals. Subjects were treated and released within hours. The injured workers and guests experienced respiratory problems while using the Breaker Beach Wave Pool resulting from potential chlorine overexposure. The accident was reported to DOSH by Sac. Fire Dept. at 1810 hrs. The accident occured when the filtering motor stopped circulating the water (due to a broken motor shaft) in the wave pool and the pool cleaning chemicals accumulated in the system. Upon discovering the pump failure, a second filtering pump was brought on-line resulting in excessive release of sodium hypochlorite and hydrochloric acid into the wave pool. 		314572256 :
N/A
2/12/2012 Titan Propane, LLC dba Northern Energy Lincoln Sacramento district office
General - 1
Serious - 4
Total
Violations - 5
Proposed penalties:  $42,975
Cal/OSHA's Sacramento district office issued citations upon completion of an investigation after receiving a call from the HR manager for Heritage/Titan Propane LLC (DBA Northern Energy) to file an accident report. The accident at Titan Propane was at 980 - 9th Street, Lincoln, CA. Northern Energy is a commercial liquid propane gas (LPG) supplier. A propane rail car exploded while workers were taking measurements and running checks on the extremely flammable iquid propane inside the rail car tank, when some LPG being released flashed causing a fire. 		314572660 : 2012-R2D1-0632, 2012-R2D1-0633, 2012-R2D1-0634, 2012-R2D1-0635, 2012-R2D1-0636 :
2/7/2012 Rainbow of Hope AKA Rainbow of Hope Foundation, Realm Catalyst Inc. and Strategic Sciences Inc. Sylmar Van Nuys District Office
Serious accident-related - 2
Willful Serious - 24
Serious - 18
General - 3
Total
Violations - 47
Proposed penalties:  $540,890
Cal/OSHA's Van Nuys District Office issued citations to Rainbow of Hope aka Rainbow of Hope Foundation, Strategic Sciences Inc. and Realm Catalyst Inc. as the result of an investigation into an explosion that occurred at an alternate fuel development and experiment facility.The explosion occurred when a pressure vessel containing compressed oxygen/hydrogen gas exploded. Three employees were injured as a result of the blast, two critically. One worker lost his left arm below the elbow, the second critically injured employee lost his right arm below the elbow and his right leg below the knee. Another worker was treated and released for minor injuries. Citations issued included a violaiton for maintaining non-insulated copper pipes on the output side of a generator used in the production of TyLar gas, failur to properly identify the components of the TyLar gas and its associated physical and chemical hazards as required, and for contining to store compressed oxygen and hydrogen gases (known incompatible gases) in pressurized vessels prior to use for the production of TyLar gas. The employer previously knew that hydrogen gas is incompatible with oxidizers, yet continued to manufacture and store the two gases in mixture together. 		314825910, 314827940, 314827890 :
314825910 :
314827940 :
314827890 : 		2012-R4D3-0651
1/13/2012 National Distribution Centers & Tri-State Staffing Chino Santa Ana High Hazard Office
General - 31
Serious accident-related - 2
Serious - 29
Regulatory - 2
Total
Violations - 64
Proposed penalties:  $256,445
Cal/OSHA's High Hazard Unit issued citations on Friday Jan 13, with total penalties of $256,445 in nine inspections against a Chino, CA, warehouse (National Distribution Center) and its temporary help staffing contractor (Tri State Staffing) that resulted in 31 General, 29 Serious, two Serious/Accident-Related and two Regulatory citations. The investigations, which took place at four warehouse locations in Chino, included complaint-initiated inspections opened on August 2nd and 8th, and a reported indoor heat illness case opened on September 1. The General cites issued related to unsafe electrical, lack of personal protective equipment, ineffective injury and illness prevention programs and lack of a heat illness prevention program. The Serious citations related to fall protection systems for high-rise pickers, unstable storage stacking, unguarded machinery, unlocked bailer and compactor controls, lack of forklift speed limits or their enforcement, and problems with emergency eye washes. Three of the four locations inspected were dual employer locations - at the fourth location National Distribution Center was the sole employer. 		31475618 :
314757600 :
314757055 :
314757063 :
314757121 :
314757139 :
314757147 :
314757154 :
314757162 :
2012-R6D2-0391 :