Clean Harbors faces potential penalty for Ohio fatality

A United States Department of Labor investigation has found that Norwell, Massachusetts-based Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc. failed to properly ventilate a confined space, leading to the fatality of a worker in northern Ohio earlier this year.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) focused on the death of 35-year-old Dalion Ambler this January in a railroad tanker car on the premises of Emerald Transformer in Twinsburg, Ohio.

A report describing the incident says Ambler was a Clean Harbors employee who was conducting an air quality test in the railroad tanker car.

OSHA says the railcar contained “organic chemical residue” and the January report from WKYC-TV says environmental services and hazardous waste management firm Clean Harbors was hired by Emerald to conduct testing and cleaning of rail tanker cars it used.

In its recently released statement, OSHA says it determined Clean Harbors “failed to implement legally mandated permit-required space entry requirements” before and during the incident.

Specifically, the agency found the company failed to ventilate, test the environment and use nonentry rescue equipment, including a tripod, mechanical winch and full-body retrieval harness.

OSHA has cited Clean Harbors for violations that include three labeled as “willful” and has proposed more than $600,000 in penalties.

Information about confined space entry safety requirements is available on the OSHA website.