Federal OSHA’s newsroom has been close to silent on construction since July 30. It broke that stretch on Aug. 26 with a silica case at the supply end of the chain.
OSHA’s Philadelphia regional office issued release 26-1308-PHI citing General Shale Brick Inc., doing business as Watsontown Brick Company, for three willful, four serious, one repeat and one other-than-serious violation, with proposed penalties of $496,528.
How the inspection started
It opened Feb. 12 under OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting plan combined with its national emphasis program on respirable crystalline silica, and included a review of the company’s injury and illness records. That pairing is a live targeting pattern, and any masonry, cut-stone or precast operation should assume it applies to them.
OSHA alleges workers in Plant 3, where molded brick is made, were breathing respirable crystalline silica above the permissible exposure limit, and that the company knew about the exposure and neither corrected it nor required respirators. Knowledge plus inaction is what turns a serious citation into a willful one.
The supporting findings read like a missing program
- No annual respirator fit testing
- No regulated areas established where employees were exposed
- No exposure assessment covering all jobs involving silica
- No medical exams for workers exposed more than 30 days a year
The repeat citation comes from a prior missing-fit-test violation at the company’s Augusta, Georgia site. Fit testing is the cheapest item on that list and the one that upgraded the penalty.
Why field crews should read a plant citation
General Shale is a mainstream supplier and its brick lands on jobsites nationwide. The exposure math OSHA is applying at the plant under 29 CFR 1910.1053 is the same math that applies to crews cutting and grinding that product in the field under 1926.1153. Silica doesn’t distinguish between a molding line and a chop saw on a scaffold, and the control hierarchy is identical: assess, engineer it out, regulate the area, then respirators with fit testing.
Demolition and heavy renovation carry the same exposure. Deep-intervention heritage work such as the Pergamonmuseum refurbishment in Berlin involves extensive masonry and stone removal, which is exactly the task profile the silica standard was written around.
Everything here is alleged and the penalties are proposed. The citations are contestable, and OSHA’s own page carries the standard notice that classifications and amounts may change. The company has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with the area director, or contest before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. General Shale is headquartered in Johnson City, Tennessee, and has been a subsidiary of Austria’s Wienerberger AG since 1999.