OSHA investigators arrived in Hayward, CA on Friday, May 25th 2012 and began an accident investigation which had occured previously at Tournesol Siteworks, Llc. A employee had been injured when the worker sustained infection after glass fiber penetrated skin
Accident Date2012-05-14
Accident DegreeHospitalized injury
NarrativeAt approximately 2:00 p.m. on May 14, 2012, an employee was working for Tournesol Siteworks, LLC, a manufacturer of landscaping products. Their main product was large planter boxes. Some of these boxes were shipped to the facility for repair. Other boxes were manufactured onsite using various techniques. These techniques included manual fiberglass layup, sprayed fiberglass using a chopper gun, and poured cement. Tournesol employed 31 employees and had one manufacturing site. The employee had worked for Tournesol since May 2, 2011. He was handling a fiberglass planter box that had been made with the use of a fiberglass chopper gun. The chopper gun cut up the fiberglass, added a resin, and sprayed the combined material into a mold. The mold then had to be moved while the fiberglass and resin mixture set. The employee was turning over the mold, when a rogue fiber pierced his ungloved hand. The piece of fiberglass, hardened by resin, was embedded in his hand. The hand became infected, necessitating hospitalization. The inspection resulted in 3 Regulatory, 19 General, and 5 Serious citations.