Facility Safety

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A second explosion in four months at the Indianhead Biomass Services plant in St. Augustine, Florida has left two laborers severely burned. An OSHA inspection found that two men in their 50s attempted to shut down a sawdust dryer to unclog an outlet vent. This created an explosive environment when smoldering embers ignited the sawdust inside the dryer.

A worker at WKW Erbsloeh North America Inc.'s Alabama facility was helping with tank maintenance when he slipped, fell backwards, and became submerged himself in a tank filled with highly corrosive phosphoric and sulfuric acid.

Tangled extension cords, overloaded power outlets in wet locations, blocked exits, faulty forklifts, machines without safety guards and damaged floors were all in a hazardous day at work for employees at Xpedited Services LLC's warehouse in Jersey City, OSHA investigators found.

With New England coping with blizzard-level snow, the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) is warning people about electrical hazards that can come with blizzards, such as downed power lines, power outages, and coastal flooding.

A 24-year-old newly hired worker suffered multiple fractures when his leg and foot became entangled in a running mechanical auger while in a grain storage bin at Grainco FS Inc. in Newark. OSHA investigated the July 16, 2014, incident and found the company allowed hazards to exist in the grain bin.

Today the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released a safety bulletin intended to inform industries that utilize anhydrous ammonia in bulk refrigeration operations on how to avoid a hazard referred to as hydraulic shock.

The flash fire that burned seven workers, one seriously, at a U.S. Ink plant in New Jersey in 2012 resulted from the accumulation of combustible dust inside a poorly designed dust collection system that had been put into operation only four days before the accident, an investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has found.

The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has received American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval for ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2014, American National Standard-Minimum Requirements for Workplace First Aid Kits and Supplies.

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.