Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - OSHA confirms it is investigating U.S. Battery. A wife of employee there says she called OSHA after her husband's blood work came back showing dangerous high levels of lead in it. Our I-Team found this isn't' the first time OSHA has investigated the local battery maker over complaints of lead exposure.

Every time her phone rings, Lakecia Demmons hopes the person on the other line can answer her call for help. "Do you know how my husband was exposed to lead? The reason I am asking is because now me and my kids have to be tested," Demmons says to the investigator on the phone. The OSHA investigator tells her she is working to find the answer. The investigator can't talk to her husband herself so right now there are more questions than answers. Timothy Demmons is currently in prison. Up until a week ago, he was in the work release program at Augusta Transitional Center.

"There is a big bowl and my husband lifts this bowl up and stacks them on top of each other. He is lifting lead all day," his wife explained. U.S. Battery manufactures lead acid batteries. Somehow, she says, her husband was exposed.

OSHA requires any worker with a blood lead level at sixty or higher to to be removed from all lead exposure until the level of lead in his blood goes down. Demmons said her husband's blood level was just that, sixty. Lead exposure can cause things like high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, miscarriages, and even death. It's also the reason OSHA enforces strict standards on the industries that use lead.

The I-Team found OSHA fined U.S. Battery more than $20,000 for not following lead standards, four years ago. One of the violations included violating the respiratory protection standard. OSHA requires workers handling lead to wear protective equipment because "contaminated work clothing or equipment could expose your family." "My husband lead level may have been transferred over to me," Demmons said. She says her husband was occasionally able to come home on a pass. She now worries she and her children were exposed.

Demmons also worries about her husband. Last week, her husband was transferred back to prison before getting treatment. She is unsure why Augusta Transitional Center removed him but Georgia law does allow the local authority of a work release program to revoke work release for any reason. "He deserves to be treated he deserves to get well like anybody else that would get contaminated with lead." Demmons is trying to get his lead test results to the prison so he can receive treatment there. "To know that you love somebody so much and you can't help them," she cried.

The president of U.S. Battery did talk to Liz Owens. He told her he didn't want make any official statements until OSHA finishes it's investigation. Our I-Team also reached out to The Georgia Department of Corrections to find out why Demmons was transferred out of the transitional center. A spokesperson said they would look into it. We have not yet heard back.