Category: Injuries and Illness

Modern safety management goes beyond covering traditional workplace accidents to now being equally concerned with illnesses caused on and even off the job. This section will explain what you need to know to avoid both injuries and illnesses, and to track your progress in reaching this goal.

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Wisconsin Sawmill Fined $284K in Follow-Up Inspection

Wisconsin sawmill Tigerton Lumber Co. faces $283,608 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties after a follow-up inspection, the agency announced January 9. The company was added to OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program (SVEP) in 2019 after an agency investigation into how an employee suffered fatal injuries in 2018. Employers in the SVEP are subject to […]

OSHA Enforcement Roundup Q4 2023

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) continues to carry out inspections and issue citations to employers that expose workers to hazardous conditions. We’ve summarized some of the key enforcement cases from the past few months for a look at where OSHA is focusing its efforts. Corn milling company fined $1.8 million OSHA entered into […]

Nebraska Beef Ltd. Facing $274K OSHA Fine in Amputation Injury

Nebraska Beef Ltd. of Omaha, Nebraska, faces $274,569 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties following the agency’s investigation into an amputation injury, OSHA announced January 5. The agency cited Nebraska Beef with two willful and 11 serious safety and health violations.  OSHA investigators determined that a worker’s fingertip got caught in a forklift attachment […]

Pepsi Bottler Agrees to Pay $132K in OSHA Fines

Pepsi Guam Bottling agreed to pay $132,591 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties to settle safety and health citations for exposing employees to amputation and other serious injuries, the agency announced January 3. Last year, OSHA cited Pepsi Guam Bottling with one willful, one repeat, and six serious violations of machine safety procedures after […]

CSB Says OSHA Should Regulate Oil Well Drilling, Servicing

In a final investigation report into a fatal well blowout, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to include onshore well drilling and well servicing operations in the agency’s process safety management (PSM) standard or develop a separate federal standard to address such operations. […]

EHS On Tap: Best of 2023

As we near the end of the year, we’re taking a look back at some of our highlights from 2023. Here are some of the EHS On Tap episodes that stand out from the past 12 months. E147: Overcoming Generational Differences to Improve Workplace Safety On episode 147 of EHS On Tap, Jill James, Chief […]

Wisconsin Sawmill Facing $1.4 Million OSHA Fine

A Florence, Wisconsin, sawmill faces $1.4 million in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties following a 16-year-old worker’s fatal injuries, the agency announced December 19. OSHA cited Florence Hardwoods LLC for eight willful, six repeat, 29 serious, and four other-than-serious safety and health violations. The agency categorized five of the willful violations as egregious, […]

BLS: Worker Fatalities Increased 5.7% in 2022

Fatal work-related injuries increased by 5.7% in 2022, according to the latest figures released December 19 by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Fatal work injuries increased from 5,190 in 2021 to 5,486 in 2022. The national fatal work injury rate was 3.7 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers—up from 3.6 per […]

California Issues Emergency Silica Standard

On December 14, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) approved an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for respirable crystalline silica to protect workers from silicosis, the state Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) announced. The ETS goes into effect on December 29. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) proposed the ETS […]

2023 in Review: OSHA Enforcement

While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has six economically significant rulemakings in the pre-rule or proposed-rule stages, the agency appeared to shy away from major rulemaking after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay in 2022 of the agency’s COVID-19 “vaccinate-or-test” emergency temporary standard (ETS). This year, OSHA’s regulatory activity has been overshadowed […]