Action Paper & Chemical Co., Inc.

Decision paragraph 1On August 14, 2003, the Office of the Chief Counsel issued an Order to Action Paper & Chemical Co., Inc. (Respondent) finding that the Respondent had knowingly committed the following two violations of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) and assessing a penalty in the amount of $4,900: Violation No. 1 - Allowing employees to perform functions subject to the HMR, when Respondent failed to: (1) provide some of its employees with initial or recurrent general awareness, function-specific and safety training; (2) test its employees subsequent to training; (3) certify that it had trained its hazmat employees who had undergone training; and (4) create and maintain records of training. Violation No. 2 - Offering for transportation and transporting in commerce various hazardous materials, when Respondent: (1) executed shipping papers that contained improper shipping descriptions, incorrect identification numbers that changed the response information, incorrect packing groups, addition unauthorized information in the description, incorrect shipping names, and technical names that were not distinguished with parentheses; and (2) executed shipping papers that failed to contain units of measure and that were comprised of multiple pages without bearing a notation of total pages upon the first page.#

Decision paragraph 2The Chief Counsel determined that, although there was not sufficient information to warrant dismissal of this case, that further mitigation of the civil penalty was warranted.#

Decision paragraph 3The order assessed a civil penalty of $4,350 in light of the nature and circumstance of the violations, their extent and gravity, Respondent's culpability, the date of Respondent's prior offenses, Respondent's ability to pay, the effect of a civil penalty on Respondent's ability to continue in business, and all other relevant factors. Appeal granted, in part.#