When two Lone Star Management LLC employees were directed to use a gas-powered forklift to move pallets of fireworks and cardboard out of an explosives storage facility, the gas ignited, causing an explosion and fire.
While operating an industrial machine, a worker at MCM Precision Castings Inc. was exposed to noise levels that averaged 97 decibels, equal to the noise of a jackhammer, over his eight-hour shift. Employees of the Weston, Ohio-based company were also exposed to dangerously high noise levels and crystalline silica dust, a cause of chronic lung disease, OSHA has found.
Employers face more than $110K in fines for failing to provide fall protection
January 21, 2015
Workers doing renovation at the former Dye Works in Easthampton faced potentially fatal falls of up to 40 feet because their employers failed to provide proper protection, OSHA has found. Agency inspectors visited the work site on July 11, 2014, in response to a complaint about fall hazards there.
Clyde Nettles Jr. was in an unprotected trench reconnecting drainpipes at Fort Bragg on July 24, 2014, when, without warning, the walls collapsed around him and another worker. The other worker was able to escape uninjured, but 22-year-old Nettles was not.
Three employees were exposed to dangerous levels of lead, arsenic, iron oxide and copper particles and fumes while torch-cutting steel at a scrapyard operated by OmniSource St. Marys.
A teenaged worker at an outdoor amusement park was burned after collapsing near a food stand fryer from excessive heat on June 9, 2014. An OSHA investigation into the incident found that seasonally-employed workers, mostly teen employees, hired as outdoor and food stand staff at Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pa. were exposed to heat hazards during their summer employment.
Dangerous fumes kill two workers at Agridyne in Pekin, Illinois
January 14, 2015
A 37-year-old worker at Agridyne's Pekin facility climbed down into a rail car to clean out corn steep residue and was overcome by dangerous hydrogen sulfide gas. A 29-year-old tank inspector, who attempted to rescue the first worker, succumbed to the gas exposure as well. Neither worker made it out of the car alive.
A 25-year-old working on a six-story residential project at Florida State University died after being struck and crushed by a material/personnel elevator carriage not enclosed on all four sides. After an investigation of the July 28, 2014 fatality, OSHA found that Miller's Plumbing and Mechanical Inc. allowed a window-frame opening in a building under construction to be uncovered, thus exposing workers to the hazard of being struck and crushed by the elevator carriage as it passed within inches of the opening.
After a Graphic Packaging International Inc. employee suffered a severe injury in June 2014 when the worker's hand was caught in a moving printing press, OSHA cited the West Monroe, Louisiana company for 28 safety violations. Proposed penalties total $129,000.
During the past two years, two prisoners on a work-release program suffered permanent lung damage while other employees at the Fiberdome Inc.’s Lake Mills fiberglass manufacturing plant in Lake Mills, WI, plant were exposed to harmful levels of chemicals, dust and noise, according to reports released by OSHA.