Twenty years later, however, there have been signs which the progress has begun to slip.N.C. OSHA inspections as well as citations have dropped sharply. Total citations sank to about 10,400 last fiscal year - the lowest number in 17 years. Inspections have been during their lowest level given 2001.And given the mid-1990s, the agency's staffing has unsuccessful to keep pace with the growth in the state's workforce.Workplace safety advocate Tom O'Connor, who heads the National Council for Occupational Safety as well as Health, said North Carolina's OSHA module is stronger than prior to the fire. "It was the big wake-up call," he said. "But I think the lot of the promises of really overhauling the module as well as making it the truly effective deterrent have just not come about."N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry as well as other Labor Department leaders declined to be interviewed for this story. But in written answers to the Observer's questions, Berry said North Carolina is recognized for having the single of the nation's top OSHA programs."When you look during the big picture in North Carolina, there is no disputing the state has made significant progress," she wrote. "I can tell you workplaces have been safer now."Berry, the Republican who was first elected to her position in 2000, points to North Carolina's steadily declining workplace injury as well as illness rates as evidence which the state's approach is working. North Carolina's rates have been during an all-time low as well as have been below those in most other states.But the 2008 Charlotte Observer investigation showed which the injury numbers aren't always accurate. Regulators rely on companies to report all serious workplace injuries, but it's an honor system. In North Carolina as well as elsewhere, regulators rarely crack down on companies which fail to do so, the newspaper found.Other safety trends have been mixed. After reaching the low in 2009, workplace deaths in North Carolina climbed more than 40 percent last year. There were 48 dea! ths in 2 010 - up from 34 the previous year.Safety advocates contend which workers have been endangered by the pro-business approach during the N.C. Department of Labor.State regulators rarely use their toughest enforcement tools. Violations deemed to be "willful" can lead to stiff penalties as well as can cost companies lucrative contracts. But in North Carolina, fewer than the single of every 1,000 OSHA violations have been deemed willful over the past decade.Last year, financial penalties rose to $5.9 million - the highest in years. But regulators still typically impose smaller fines than most of their counterparts nationally.In fiscal year 2010, the average penalty for serious violations in North Carolina was $884 - about 9 percent less than the national average, according to an AFL-CIO report.Berry offered the single reason fines have been lower: Inspectors in North Carolina investigate more small businesses than those in many other states - as well as the rules provide the reduction in penalties for small employers.As work secretary, Berry is responsible for ensuring which companies follow workplace safety rules. A former co-owner of the company which makes spark plug wires, she has adopted the cooperative approach with employers. She says she sees no evidence which high fines make job sites safe.O'Connor, the safety advocate, said which although North Carolina often works with companies to help them improve workplace conditions, it's "reluctant to use which big stick when necessary.""Anytime you have the lot of workplaces as well as few inspectors ... as well as penalties have been weak, you certainly have the potential for another tragedy like Hamlet," he said.'Everyone was hollering'It was shortly prior to 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, 1991, when chaos erupted inside the windowless brick building about 100 miles southwest of Raleigh. A ruptured hydraulic line sprayed flammable fluid onto the deep fat fryer during the Imperial Food Products plant, setting off the fireball as well as filling the plant with smoke.C! onester Williams, who was operative on the line which day, remembers the balls of glow which shot across the plant floor. She as well as her co-workers ran to the door but found it locked. By the time it was opened, two of her close friends had already died."We couldn't open the door," she said. "One boy beat the hole in the wall. Everyone was hollering for help. It did no good."Jerry Scannell, who headed the federal OSHA during the time, remembers traveling to Hamlet which day as well as speaking with the worker who managed to break through the locked door as smoke in jeopardy to suffocate him as well as his co-workers.The employee broke his arm but saved 25 workers in the process, Scannell said. "But for him, there would have been 50 who died," Scannell told the Observer in 2007.State OSHA inspectors found more than 80 safety violations.But some of the toughest criticism was directed during the regulators themselves.The Hamlet plant, which made chicken nuggets as well as marinated chicken breasts sold during fast-food restaurants as well as grocery stores, had never been inspected by the state Labor Department during its 11 years of operation.After the fire, the federal government faulted the state's occupational safety program, saying it had too few inspectors as well as wasn't finding enough serious violations. The U.S. work secretary in jeopardy to take over the module if the state didn't hire more staff, conduct more inspections as well as re-evaluate how it classifies violations.From 1990 to 1993, the state more than doubled the number of workplace safety inspectors, bringing the total to 115. That transformed the state's occupational safety module into the single of the nation's largest.North Carolina continues to have more OSHA inspectors than all but the few states. Georgia, the state with the slightly larger population, has less than the third as many inspectors, the N.C. Labor Department notes.A diminished focusBut other data suggest North Carolina's safety push has waned: The number of workplace saf! ety insp ectors has remained flat given 1993, despite 19 percent growth in the state's workforce. North Carolina has 114 inspectors - the single fewer than it had in 1993, the year the state completed its expansion of OSHA.While North Carolina is better staffed than most other states, it still falls well short of benchmarks set by the International Labour Organization, the United Nations agency which seeks globally recognized work rights. That group recommends the single inspector for every 10,000 workers. North Carolina has about the single inspector for every 34,000 workers.Berry said she's concerned which federal cutbacks may cause the state to lose positions, as well as which she expects no significant increases in government funding anytime soon. "We can't be in every workplace, just like policemen can't be on every street corner," she wrote. N.C. OSHA conducted 4,500 inspections in fiscal year 2010, the lowest number given 2001.Berry acknowledged which inspections have been down but said inspectors have been still visiting more work sites than they did during the eight years of her predecessor's tenure, when Democrat Harry Payne was work commissioner. In Berry's tenure, the average number of annual citations - about 13,000 - is almost identical to which for the previous administration, she said. An audit by the U.S. Labor Department last year found which North Carolina downplayed serious safety problems, issued weak fines to violators as well as unsuccessful to properly handle whistle-blower complaints.The state Labor Department said in response which it would "make adjustments which have been in the best seductiveness of North Carolina."The federal findings echoed many of the conclusions in the Observer's 2008 stories.State Sen. Dan Blue, who was House speaker in the early 1990s, led an effort to reform workplace safety efforts after the Hamlet fire.Told of the Observer's latest findings, Blue said he found the decline in inspections "troubling." He said companies should not be overly regulated, but he fav! ors revi ewing the state OSHA module to ensure which workplaces have been properly inspected as well as appropriately penalized when violations occur."You need to have the inspections to ensure there is the enlightenment of compliance," Blue said. "You hope which they do not turn up violations, but it's the way of reinforcing the importance of the enlightenment of workplace safety for all of the employees."Department officials have said they target dangerous plants as well as industries for inspections.Records show department officials have increased their scrutiny of the poultry industry, where the Observer's 2008 investigation found widespread safety problems. The number of inspections during the state's chicken as well as turkey plants rose from six in 2007 to 22 last year.Cause for concernBut major accidents still happen.In January, an ammonia leak forced the evacuation of about 800 residents living near the Hoke County turkey processing plant run by House of Raeford, the company with the history of chemical safety violations. One worker was hospitalized after the mechanical failure sent about 6,000 pounds of the toxic chemical into the air.N.C. OSHA cited the company for 43 serious violations after which collision as well as has proposed fines of $139,500. House of Raeford is contesting the citations.Ammonia - used as the refrigerant in meat-packing plants - can cause serious respiratory problems as well as even death.On Aug. 16, another ammonia leak during the Pilgrim's Pride poultry plant near Marshville forced the evacuation of 550 employees as well as 25 families nearby. OSHA is investigating.Williams, the Hamlet survivor, said she worries about the trends.She remembers struggling to breathe as well as talk because of all the smoke she inhaled. She hopes another disaster isn't on the horizon."I do not think people have been paying close attention like they should," she said, her voice still hoarse. "I do not think they'll ever do that." Staff researcher Maria David contributed.
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