York Harley-Davidson Plant Re-Opens after Benzene Scare
A wide range of manufacturing plants that contain paint operation centers must constantly check working conditions to ensure the safety of employees. It is also just as important for regulations to be enforced when workers are helping to create a product to make sure that the product does not contain any flaws or defects that could cause a consumer harm, illness or injury.
According to a recent InYork story, the Harley-Davidson plant in York, Pennsylvania (as well as in Kansas City, Missouri) shut down for multiple days as a benzene-exposure precaution. Apparently, the company had learned about a possible issue with benzene emission within its paint operations department. Although benzene is a common solvent that the chemical industry utilizes and is found in gasoline fumes, vehicle emissions, gasoline, and tobacco; benzene is carcinogenic (can cause cancer).
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces regulations to monitor benzene exposure in the workplace. Contact with benzene can lead to very serious health complications like leukemia, lymphoma, and blood disease. What makes benzene all the more threatening is that a person can be exposed to benzene simply through inhalation when breathing, or through touch when benzene comes in contact with one’s skin. Even benzene exposure that is as minimal as one part per million (ppm) can be dangerous enough to cause harm to an individual’s health.
Fortunately for workers at the York-based motorcycle plant, after the company tested benzene levels, it was found that the solvent was within limits and paint operations began shortly thereafter along with full production at the plant. At this time, there have been no reported incidents of illness from benzene exposure at the plant. However, when a worker has been exposed to benzene due to his or her employer’s negligence or a manufacturing flaw in a plant’s machine, a York benzene-poisoning attorney with experience in Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law may be able to help an injured worker obtain funds for covering medical bills, loss of wages, and other damages.
