The termination of two employees who participated in an OSHA investigation into a workplace injury has resulted in a federal judge ordering their former employee to pay them $1,047,399 in lost wages and punitive damages. The case began with a workplace incident in which one of the employees' co-workers suffered the amputation of three fingers.

A Missouri barrel maker is facing $413,370 in penalties after an employee suffered a life-changing injury on the job. The incident at Missouri Cooperage Company LLC, a subsidiary of Independent Stave Company, occurred in February 2019, when a worker suffered a finger amputation after her hand was caught between the belt and pulley system. This was the fifth amputation injury the company reported in a 14-month period.

In the study, “Suicide and drug‐related mortality following occupational injury,” published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, researchers found that workplace injury significantly raises a person’s risk of suicide or overdose death. Earlier studies have shown that injured workers have elevated rates opioid use and depression.

OSHA has cited U.S. Nonwovens Corp. – a home and personal care fabric product manufacturer – for repeat and serious safety violations after an employee suffered a fractured hand at the plant in Hauppauge, New York. The company faces $287,212 in penalties. Investigators determined the employee’s injury occurred when his hand became caught in a fabric-softener sheet-cutting machine.

Last October, Erick Solis, a 19-year-old temp worker at a Los Angeles food company, lost two fingers when his hand got caught in an unguarded dough-rolling machine. Cal/OSHA, the state job safety agency, cited the company, JSL Foods Inc., for willful violations because an almost identical accident had happened before.

A construction worker was trapped for at least 90 minutes after a 10-foot-deep hole opened up outside Disney's Animal Kingdom on Tuesday, according to Orange County Fire Rescue. Firefighters responded just before 2 p.m. to a construction area next to the rideshare pickup and drop-off area in the parking lot.

Are you a worker who is experiencing low back pain? You aren’t alone! A recently published article from NIOSH reports that more than 1 in 4 (26%) working adults experience low back pain. Some groups of workers have more pain than others. For example, workers in construction occupations are more likely to experience low back pain than those in other occupations. And, workers 45-64 years old have more pain than younger workers.

Two employees of New York City Transit (NYCT) were struck by a subway train – one fatally - because the Rail Control Center failed to let the train dispatcher and tower operator know that flaggers were on the track. That’s the conclusion of a just-released National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on the incident, which occurred on November 3, 2016 in a tunnel between the Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Avenue stations.

OSHA inspected the company in December 2018 after an employee was electrocuted while using a damaged portable lamp when cleaning the inside of a metal tank. A second employee suffered electrical shock injuries in an attempt to assist the injured co-worker. Inspectors determined that the lamp's cord had exposed bare conductors, and the lamp was unsuitable for use in wet locations. They also found a damaged extension cord used to connect the lamp to power.

An Iowa tire recycling company has been cited by the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Association (Iowa OSHA) after one of its employees suffered a partial amputation of his arm while on the job. News sources say the incident at Liberty Tire Recycling in Des Moines occurred on May 9, while workers were performing maintenance on the conveyor system of a tire grinding machine.