Our industrial/workplace safety group includes engineers, occupational safety specialists, toxicologists and certified industrial hygienists. We are well versed in federal OSHA regulations and state OSHA plan requirements, and industry consensus standards, guidelines and best practices affecting workplace safety. Common Casework Involves:
- Machine/equipment guarding
- Facility layout and building maintenance
- Personal protective equipment
- Confined spaces
- Electrical safety
- Fire protection
- Flammable and combustible liquids
- Materials handling and storage
- Hoisting and conveying equipment
- Ropes, chains and slings
- Powered industrial trucks
- Hand and portable power tools
- Woodworking machinery
- Cold and hot forming operations on metals
- Adequacy of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), warnings, training and instruction
- Chemical hazards, hazard communication, and Process Safety Management/community exposures
- Physical hazards (noise, radiation, thermal stress, ergonomics, biological hazards, lasers)
- Air sampling methods, protocols and data interpretation
- Control methods, including process ventilation
Please contact our Workplace Safety practice group leader, Ron Schaible, CIH, CSP, to discuss your case and determine which of our experts has the most appropriate skill set for your case.
- Personal Protective Equipment - Expert Introduction to PPE
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is designed to protect workers from serious
workplace injuries or illnesses resulting from contact with chemical, radiological,
physical, electrical, mechanical, or other workplace hazards. Besides face shields,
safety glasses, hard hats, and safety shoes, protective equipment includes a variety of
devices and garments such as goggles, coveralls, gloves, vests, earplugs, and respirators. View Full Article HERE
- Municipal Facility Trip - Expert Investigates Trip Injury Involving Rigging Equipment
A contractor undertook reconstruction work on a water treatment plant. The treatment plant
remained in operation during the duration of construction, and treatment plant employees
continued their usual duties, including inspections at all times of the day and night. Rigging
used to lower demolished concrete by crane during the day was left in a walkway used by
plant employees during their nighttime inspections. One of the employees tripped over the
rigging and sustained serious injuries.
William E. J. Martin, AIA, NCARB, who is also a licensed general contractor, was retained to
determine whether the rigging created a dangerous condition which caused the plant
employee’s injuries. View Full Case HERE
- Table Saw Injury – Expert Investigates Finger Tip Amputation
A worker suffered the partial amputation of a finger while moving the sliding bed of a large table saw used to cut foam panels for mattresses. The plaintiff’s finger became caught between the bottom surface of the sliding table bed and one of the stationary rails on which the bed of the table saw moved. The trapped finger tip was pinched and sheared off due to the sliding motion within the small space where the finger was caught. Robson Forensic was retained to determine if the sale, installation and arrangement of the machine created a dangerous or defective condition that was a cause of plaintiff’s injury. View Full Case HERE
- Furnace Maintenence - Expert Investigates Workplace Burn: $1.5 Million Settlement
A 57-year-old diabetic journeyman pipefitter, was hired to work on the overhaul of an industrial furnace. On the day of his injury, the victim worked approximately 10 hours, spending the better part of the day standing on and off the throat of the furnace in order to replace burners in the refiner. The inside temperature in the throat that day was raised to approximately 2000 degrees. When he went home after work and removed his work boots, he discovered that the soles of his feet had been seriously burned. Industrial Hygienist, Ron Schaible, was retained to determine if the manufacturer created a dangerous condition that contributed to the plaintiff’s injuries. View Full Verdicts \ Settlement HERE
- Conveyor Belt - Expert Investigates Conveyor Belt Injury
A five year old boy was injured by a carousel conveyor in a retail store. He was at the store with his parents when he placed one of his toys on top of a moving conveyor display. His toy fell from the moving conveyor to the floor. The boy bent down to pick up the toy and as he stood up, he raised his hand and it become entrapped and injured within the unguarded moving parts of the conveyor. View Full Case HERE
- Machine Interlock – Expert Opinion Integral in $510,000 Settlement
A butcher was seriously injured at work. The victim was standing between filling and canning machines, loading stacks of lids, when his supervisor asked him to hand over a tool; when the butcher reached over and between the two machines his jacket got caught on the rotating power take-off shaft, resulting in multiple fractures to his right arm.
Robson Forensic expert, Bart Eckhardt, P.E., opined that the machine manufacturer failed to provide an interlock for the power take-off shaft guard and that the manufacturer failed to ensure the power take-off shaft guard was with the machine when the equipment was resold to the plaintiff’s employer. The absence of a shaft guard exposed the plaintiff to an unreasonable hazard and was a cause of his injury.
The case settled for $510,000 in mediation. View Full Verdicts \ Settlement HERE
- Mercury Poisoning - Expert Investigates Exposure at Manufacturing Facility
Workers in a fluorescent lighting manufacturing facility were exposed to mercury from recycling operations and were injured. Numerous plaintiffs were diagnosed with mercury poisoning. Robson Forensic expert, Ron Schaible, was retained by plaintiffs’ counsel to investigate this incident. View Full Our Work HERE
- Indoor Air Quality - Expert Presentation on Sick Buildings
Ronald D. Schaible, CIH, CSP covered the subject of indoor air quality (including mold) and the various causes, manifestations, health effects, evaluation methods, and selected control measures associated with “sick buildings,” including workplaces. How these issues apply to litigation of personal injury, property damage and worker’s compensation claims, as well as the identification of potentially responsible parties. View Full Speaking Engagement HERE
- Epoxy Resin - Expert Investigates Chemical Exposure at Industrial Facility
Plaintiff worked with various epoxy compounds while building aircraft components. Epoxy compounds are known potential sensitizing agents. Plaintiff worked without proper personal protective equipment (gloves) which caused skin irritation and sensitization over a nine month period. Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and other product information from the chemical product manufacturer provided safety information but specific glove selection criteria was not provided. Plaintiff’s exposure to the epoxy materials caused severe skin irritation and sensitization.
RFI was retained by the plaintiff to determine whether the chemical product was defective in a manner that caused plaintiff’s injury, whether the chemical supplier violated applicable standards of care in a manner that caused plaintiff’s injury, and if the employer created a specific unsafe working condition that violated state or federal safety statutes, rules, or regulations in the industry and which created a high risk of serious injury.
RFI analyzed the safety issues of the epoxy chemicals, the adequacy of the safety information provided by the chemical manufacturer, and the actions of plaintiff’s employer regarding the standard of care required for the known specific hazard. The case settled favorably in mediation. View Full Our Work HERE
- High Pressure Sprayer - Expert Investigates Finger Loss from Paint Sprayer
Robson Forensic was retained by plaintiff counsel on a case involving the partial loss of a finger due to high pressure injection of paint/solvent at an employer’s premises. Ron Schaible addressed multiple issues in this matter, including worker training & instruction, lack of use of guards for paint gun nozzles, and warnings. View Full Verdicts \ Settlement HERE
- Worker Trapped in Machine Sustains Crush Injuries, Receives Settlement of 2.2 million
A worker was trapped and suffered crush injuries to his abdomen and internal organs, when attempting to clear a jam in a copper coil stacker. View Full Verdicts \ Settlement HERE
- DuPont Found Grossly Negligent in 2004 Spill
On Monday, July 13, 2009, the jury hearing the 2004 DuPont Litigation returned a verdict in excess of $1.25 million for plaintiffs, who are but six of the 179 individuals suing E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company for injuries they sustained as a result of DuPont's October 11, 2004 release of clouds of toxic fuming sulfuric acid from its Wurtland plant over large portions of Greenup County, Kentucky. The remaining 173 plaintiffs' cases will be tried, under the streamlined trial plan developed by the Honorable David L. Bunning, as soon as Octover 2009. View Full Verdicts \ Settlement HERE
- Bromine Exposure - Expert Investigates Chemical Release from Brominator
While at work, a building maintenance contract employee was adding bromine tablets to a brominator when there was a severe chemical reaction. The brominator was part of a water treatment system, which had changes made to its piping system. It was located in the chemical feed injection area of a generator room. The contents of the brominator violently released chemicals when a reaction occurred due to the presence of an incompatible substance in the brominator. The chemicals splashed into the man’s eyes and all over his body. The man, blinded and burned by the chemicals, attempted to make his way to an emergency shower which was in an adjacent building. He stumbled and fell over several obstacles before he finally reached the shower.
Robson Forensic was asked to determine if the sole emergency shower and eyewash was improperly located in a manner that contributed to the severity of the man’s injuries. We were also asked to determine if the actions of the chemical supplier were reasonable. View Full Verdicts \ Settlement HERE
- Machine Guarding The Second Alternative
It is often the tendency in industry to look at a dangerous situation and try to decide what the appropriate machine guarding technique or device should be employed. This practice may produce satisfactory results but it overlooks the first step in the safety hierarchy. View Full Article HERE
- Perception of Risk - Expert Article
This paper presents an overview of what risk is, its relationship to hazards, how it can be assessed and used to make intelligent business decisions, and how risk may be perceived by employers, workers, and those that help decide matters involving litigation – jurors. View Full Article HERE
- Chemical Safety - Expert Investigates Exposure in Chemical Process
“If anything can go wrong, it will do so at the worst possible moment and in the worst possible ways”. Ron Schaible investigated an incident involving a runaway chemical process that was improperly engineered. Coupled with workers who were not properly trained in the hazards of the chemicals and who were not provided with proper engineering controls and proper personal protective equipment, injury was sure to result. This case settled before Ron Schaible was scheduled to be deposed. View Full Our Work HERE
- Robson Forensic Brochure
Robson Forensic has been providing high quality and professional forensic engineering, architectural, scientific and
investigative services throughout the United States since 1987. Robson Forensic provides expertise in a broad range of forensic and technical disciplines. View Full Mailer HERE
Eckhardt, Bartley J. P.E.Ehrlich, Harold Faherty, Arthur Heiberg, Eric C. P.E.Klein, Michael D. P.E., CHMMLykins, Matthew D. AP, IA, DMEO'Donel, Brian Orosz, James M. P.E.Schaible, Ronald D. CIH, CSPWinter, Les P.E.Preview All
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