SOUTHERN OHIO FOAM, INC.

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, SOUTHERN OHIO FOAM, INC. — a industry sector 00 facility located at 139 HARMONY AVE., LEBANON, OH 45036 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 21 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $23,900.00. The inspection case was opened on 1991-11-25.

The volume of citations issued during this inspection suggests systematic compliance deficiencies rather than isolated incidents. Facilities with 10 or more citations typically face comprehensive abatement requirements and may be subject to follow-up inspections.

State Context: Within OH, this facility's penalty places it at the 98th percentile among 91,405 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $3,818.37.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 21 citations spanning 9 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 11 serious — A workplace hazard that could cause death or serious physical harm exists, and the employer knew or should have known about the condition. 4 other-than-serious — The violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning December 10, 1991 with the latest abatement deadline set for January 23, 1992. Of the 21 total citations, 15 (71%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, suggesting partial progress toward required corrective actions.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $23,900.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $1,138.10 falls within the standard penalty range.

The enforcement record for Southern Ohio Foam, Inc. reveals a profound systemic breakdown in fundamental safety management systems, characterized by high-gravity citations across multiple high-risk domains. The concentration of "Serious" violations within the 1910.147 (Lockout/Tagout) and 1910.212 (Machine Guarding) standards indicates that employees were exposed to severe amputation and crushing hazards. Specifically, the assessment of maximum gravity for training failures and point-of-operation guarding suggests that workers were routinely operating or servicing equipment without the most basic physical or procedural protections in place. The penalty total of $23,900, while appearing modest by modern adjusted standards, represented a significant enforcement action for a mid-sized manufacturing entity in the early 1990s, signaling that OSHA identified more than mere technical oversights. The breadth of the citations—ranging from hazardous electrical wiring (1910.305) and fire emergency plans (1910.038) to unsafe forklift operations (1910.178)—points toward a pervasive "culture of non-compliance" rather than isolated mechanical failures. The lack of an established Lockout/Tagout program combined with inadequate machine guarding creates a lethal synergy; it demonstrates that the employer failed to address the most predictable causes of industrial fatalities. This profile suggests a reactive safety posture where fundamental life-safety protocols were neglected in favor of production continuity, necessitating a comprehensive overhaul of the facility’s safety infrastructure to mitigate future liability.