Steelscape, Inc. is a national supplier of metallic-coated and pre-painted steel. Their three facilities, located in Washington, California, and Alabama, all focus on providing top quality and reliable products. Steelscape handles processes including skin passing, oiling, chemical treatment, resin coatings and more. The Steelscape facility in Kalama, WA recently contacted SlipNOT® with concerns regarding the safety of their facility.
The design of the Kalama facility in Washington incorporates fixed ladders with smooth and narrow rungs. Throughout their facility, these rungs put employees at risk for slip and fall accidents. Steelscape’s primary concern was a ladder leading to a re-circulation tank in their Skin Pass Mill (SPM). Employees use the fixed ladder in the SPM one to two times every 12 hours to access the basement. According to the Process Engineer at this facility, the nature of the SPM leads to grease depositing on the floor of the basement. The grease is then tracked onto the ladder by employee foot traffic, and because of this, workers say that ladder has always been slick and felt precarious.
Another fixed ladder in Steelscape’s plant presented a risk for slipping and falling. The second ladder of concern was in their quench section, which is also on the galvanizing line. The ladder is only used approximately once per week, but presents a huge risk for Steelscape because it is continually sprayed with a light mist of water. The Process Engineer said “climbing a wet ladder is never safe; the chances of slipping and falling are greatly increased.” Due to the continuous mist of water on the narrow rungs, the ladders are always slippery.
