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Williamsburg’s Cooper Tank Recycling is a transfer station on Maspeth Ave.
A Williamsburg industrial recycling facility got hit with a $ 40,500 fine by the federal government after a worker collapsed and died of heat-related causes last July.
Cooper Tank Recycling, a transfer station on Maspeth Ave., was cited for eight “serious health and safety” violations, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said on Thursday.
OSHA launched an investigation after Aldero Cosme, 64, collapsed from heat illness and died on the job on July 19, 2013 after working several hours on a conveyor line, sorting and recycling solid waste, the agency said.
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“This was a needless and preventable loss of life,” said Kay Gee, OSHA’s area director for Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. “This employer failed to train workers and implement safeguards that could have protected them from excessive heat conditions.”
The agency found that workers at the facility near Vandervoort Ave. were exposed to extreme heat that stemmed from environmental sources, on top of the heat generated by the company’s recycling machinery.
The temperature in the city the day Cosme died was in excess of 90 degrees, with a heat index in excess of 100 degrees, and the city was under a National Weather Service heat advisory, an agency spokesman said, but he couldn’t say how hot it was inside the plant when the accident occured.
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The probe revealed that the company — which processes 400,000 tons of material per year, according to its website — failed to train workers on the prevention and treatment of heat-related illness and did not provide temperature controls in the workplace, the agency said.
OSHA agents also discovered that workers were exposed to falls of 20 to 40 feet due to wall openings and missing guardrails.
Workers were also exposed to electrocution hazards “from an ungrounded electrical outlet and power cord” and “lacerations and amputations from unguarded grinders.”
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Representatives of Cooper Tank Recycling did not return phone calls and emails requesting comment.
“[Cooper Tank Recycling] is very conscious of its responsibility towards the community it shares,” the 27-year-old company says on its website. “And (it) strives to operate its activities in an efficient, clean, and caring manner.”
The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, meet with OSHA’s director or contest the charges.
With Reuven Blau
nmusumeci@nydailynews.com
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