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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, […]
Manufacturer 3M Company faces $312,518 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines after an employee at the company’s Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, facility became caught in a machine’s rotating rollers and suffered fatal injuries, OSHA announced November 7. The agency cited the company with two willful safety violations. The incident followed the company’s assessment […]
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Wage and Hour Division (WHD) are investigating workplace safety and child labor violations at a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, poultry plant following the death of a 16-year-old worker, the DOL announced September 11. “As federal investigators continue to try to understand how a 16-year-old died […]
Rex Lumber LLC faces $184,385 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines after a 20-year-old worker trying to clear a jammed roller in its Troy, Alabama, sawmill was crushed and killed after stored energy caused the infeed unit to close on him, the agency announced July 5. OSHA issued a willful citation for allowing […]
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released a final report on a hydrogen chloride (HCl) release at the Wacker Polysilicon North American facility in Charleston, Tennessee. A worker was fatally injured in the incident. The CSB found that at the time of the incident in November 2020, there were multiple contract workers […]
Despite concerted efforts to reduce both serious injury and death on the job, workplace fatality rates in the United States have remained largely unchanged over the past three decades. To help reverse this devastating development and assist organizations on their safety journeys, the National Safety Council (NSC) recently released a white paper through its Work to […]
The Billerud Paper Mill in Escanaba, Michigan, has closed for cleaning following an outbreak of blastomycosis fungal infections, Billerud North America announced. The outbreak included a fatality, according to local public health officials. “As a precautionary measure, we will temporarily idle the Escanaba Mill for up to three weeks to facilitate additional proper cleaning based […]
Two of the nation’s largest professional safety organizations—the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) and the National Safety Council (NSC)—reacted to a December 16 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that fatal workplace injuries increased in 2021. There were 5,190 fatal work injuries in the United States in 2021—an 8.9% increase from 4,764 […]
On September 27, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced $1,191,292 in penalties after a heavy equipment operator performing demolition died when a partially demolished floor collapsed and the 11,000-pound excavator and its operator fell 80 feet. It was the employee’s first day on the job, according to OSHA. The agency cited JDC Demolition […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it is seeking proposed penalties totaling $374,603 following the death of a worker who fell about 60 feet from a roof during demolition of a Brooklyn building. OSHA cited Richmond Construction Inc. of Jamaica, New York, for two willful, one repeat, and six serious violations of workplace […]