Forensic agency hazards, grime bring fine, appeal
By Becky Pallack
Arizona Daily Star
December 5, 2006
Workers breathing in cancer-causing chemicals.
A morgue cooler that "never" gets cleaned.
Blood drippings on an X-ray machine.
These and other "egregious" workplace health and safety violations led the state worker-safety commission to issue $29,500 in fines to the Pima County Forensic Science Center, 2825 E. District St. That is the agency responsible for autopsies and other cause-of-death investigations for most of Southern Arizona.
Pima County is contesting the fines, according to a memo in an Arizona
Division of Occupational Safety and Health file. The center's manager,
Patti Nelson, declined to comment for this article. County Administrator
Chuck Huckelberry said most of the hazards already have been corrected.
State safety inspectors started looking at the Forensic Science Center
in June, when someone submitted a complaint complete with photographs.
As Nelson was showing inspectors around the facilities, she grabbed hanging straps designed to keep cold air inside a cooler for bodies. Escorting the inspectors inside, she told them "not to touch the straps because you will never get the stink out of your hair," according to an inspector's reports. "When I asked her if they get cleaned, she stated that occasionally the strips get cleaned when there is noticeable blood but otherwise they are not cleaned."
Photographs from the inspections show two trickles of dried blood on an X-ray machine. Employees told inspectors some items, including gurneys and the cooler, are "never cleaned," according to the state safety reports.
Overexposure to formaldehyde
Inspectors who tested the air quality found workers were being overexposed
to formaldehyde, a chemical that's used as a preservative, an embalming
fluid and a sterilizer. Formaldehyde may cause cancer, according
to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
On the day of the test, formaldehyde levels were measured at up to
three times the OSHA-accepted standard for exposure in a 15-minute
period, according to the state safety reports.
The center should have had a designated area for high concentrations
of formaldehyde with posted signs, where only workers trained about
the hazards of the chemical could enter, according to the reports.
The center had been testing the air for formaldehyde levels every few months "in response to an overexposure found during an ADOSH consultation visit" a few years ago but stopped testing during a building renovation and didn't start up again, according to the reports.
The center stopped offering training on the safety hazards associated with blood-borne pathogens during the renovation, too, Nelson told a state inspector.
"She stated that safety training was not mandatory, thus it was only done when she felt like doing it," according to the inspector's reports.
But dissecting bodies could potentially expose workers to diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis, to name a few, if workers don't take the correct precautions, according to the state safety reports. Workers who pick up bodies from crime scenes also can be exposed to chemicals, such as gasoline.
No respiratory-protection program was in place, and although Nelson was designated by the county to implement such a program, she told state inspectors she wasn't qualified to run the program. One worker who requested a new breathing unit after she noticed a leak was at first denied by Nelson and didn't receive a different unit until a month after her request.
On-the-job accidents
The inspectors also heard about a few accidents at the center:
● In January, a worker was cut with a contaminated scalpel. Workers told safety inspectors that most of the workers have had such a cut.
● In May, a worker was accidentally shocked. Center officials said the electric shock was from a faulty bone saw. Inspectors reported many outlets exposed to water didn't have ground fault circuit interrupters that could prevent shocks.
● When a forklift battery blew up, Nelson told a worker to clean
it up. When the worker said he didn't know how, "she said to do
it anyway," according to the state safety reports. He ended up
calling the Fire Department's hazardous-materials unit to clean up
the battery acid. Workers weren't trained to use the forklifts.
In a memo to the state safety agency, David Parker, Pima County risk
management director, said, "Pima County takes its responsibility
for a safe working environment very seriously." Training was conducted
in July after the state inspection, and safety hazards were corrected,
he wrote. The previous training was conducted in October 2004.
Although the county is contesting the fines, the state safety commission placed the fines at maximum levels in some cases.
"I am concerned that this employer will not abate the apparent violations found," one inspector wrote. "It was clear that safety was not a priority."
The Medical Examiner's Office has faced other problems in recent years, including an increasing workload due to a higher number of border-crosser deaths and a county investigation in 2000 that found the center's administrators failed to stop repeated sexual harassment in the workplace.
● Contact reporter Becky Pallack at 573-4224 or at bpallack@azstarnet.com.