A cautionary tale about pharmaceutical research, women in the safety profession and firefighters who face a danger from within were among the stories featured this week on ISHN.com.

Following the regulations and staying in compliance are important, but we know you want to go beyond minimum requirements to keep your employees safe. Some regulations have numerous training and employee information requirements, while others have none. Are you covering everything? And what does it take to go above what’s required?

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company and BWC Industrial Services are contesting over $63K in combined fines issued by OSHA following a feed storage facility fire and explosion at an grain silo in Iowa. OSHA’s inspection of the ADM facility in Clinton, Iowa followed a feed bin fire and an explosion in January that killed one responding firefighter and injured another.

A young temp worker suffers a life-altering injury, outdoor workers at risk from venomous snakes and nurses suffer from sleep deprivation. These were among the occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The loss of four fingers apparently wasn’t enough to cause a New Jersey pet food manufacturer to correct workplace safety and health hazards identified in two different OSHA investigation. After a follow up inspection to those earlier inspections - surrounding the finger amputations an employee suffered when a batch mixer activated while being cleaned - OSHA cited Hamiltime Herb Co. LLC for failing to:

Although U.S. OSHA updated its occupational silica standard in 2016 for the first time in 45 years, relatively few countries have followed suit. Aside from a handful of European countries, some Canadian Provinces and Mexico, most other countries do not have as stringent of a standard as the current U.S. Permissible Exposure Limit of 0.05 mg/m^3.

A government audit gives OSHA’s fatality and severe injury reporting regulation a failing grade; small construction companies get a new safety assessment tool and a survey uncovers shocking workplace violence levels in hospital emergency departments. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

Here’s a look at recent OSHA and state-level OSHA enforcement activities across the U.S., from Hawaii to Connecticut, in construction, manufacturing, food processing and other industries.

A Sauganash, Ill. city water department worker dies after an underground trench collapses around him during a routine project. A man dies after he was trapped in dirt up to his waist while working at a home construction site in Washington State. A Smithton, Pa. teenager dies when the walls of a 10-foot-deep trench collapse on him as he helps install a septic system.