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.
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.
Although the injury and illness rate for poultry workers remains higher than for all private industry workers, new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that the rate is trending downward.
The BLS reported that there were approximately 230,000 poultry processing workers in 2016. That year, there was an incident rate of 4.2 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time equivalent workers; higher than the rate for all private industry workers, which was 2.9 per 100.
Multiple hazards at Ohio workplace: OSHA issued 23 citations and $183,738 in penalties to Ohio Gratings, Inc., for inadequate machine guarding and recordkeeping, failing to ensure that workers used personal protective equipment, and exposing workers to struck-by hazards and flammable liquids.
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.
OSHA has cited the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida for an incident earlier this year in which a zookeeper was seriously injured by a rhinoceros.
News reports say Archie, a 50-year-old male Southern white rhinoceros, struck the zookeeper with his horn. She was treated for her injuries at a local hospital and released after several days.
A CBS policy change angers safety advocates; the final frontier is the target of government regulations and a mining safety rule change gets reversed in court. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
A California solar panel installation company has been fined $193,905 by the state’s workplace safety watchdog agency, after one of its employees was seriously injured in a fall.
Cal/OSHA cited Anaheim-based Nexus Energy Systems, Inc. for failing to provide required fall protection for its workers.
Employees at a psychiatric hospital in Colorado were exposed to workplace violence and bloodborne pathogens, according to OSHA investigators, who fined their employer $32,392.
OSHA inspected Centennial Peaks Hospital in Louisville, an acute psychiatric treatment facility owned by UHS of Centennial Peaks LLC, after a complaint of workplace violence was lodged with the agency in December 2018.
The Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Division issued 14 citations and $270,723 in penalties to Trident Seafood Corporation after two workers were seriously injured by unguarded machinery. Inspectors found that the company failed to provide machine guarding on augers, conveyors, sprocket wheels, and chains.