A Wisconsin pallet manufacturer has again been cited by OSHA after a follow-up inspection found employees continued to be exposed to wood dust. Avid Pallet Services LLC faces penalties of $188,302 for repeated, serious, and other-than-serious safety and health violations. Inspectors determined that the Beloit, Wisconsin, pallet manufacturer failed to implement sufficient engineering controls to limit dust exposure, as well as train employees on the health hazards of wood dust.

Complex and ever-changing regulations continue to drive attendance to the complimentary educational events hosted by J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc. across the country. These events focus on specific areas of safety and compliance, including DOT, OSHA and EPA regulations.

OSHA has cited C.W. Hendrix Farms Inc. for failing to protect workers from recognized hazards after lightning struck and killed an employee at the Parkland, Florida, agricultural operation. OSHA inspectors determined that Hendrix Farms exposed employees to lightning strikes as they picked vegetables in inclement weather. The company faces a penalty of $12,934, the maximum amount allowed.

Leaders of a House committee have called on the acting head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Ann Marie Buerkle, to disclose her contacts with business groups, citing a “disturbing” report by FairWarning that “suggests you are prioritizing the interests of industry over the safety of consumers.”

Despite a drop in enforcement and staffing under the Trump administration, OSHA has issued some massive fines in recent violations cases. Dowa THT America Inc., a metal heat treatment company based in Bowling Green, Ohio faces $1,326,367 in penalties for exposing its employees to atmospheric, thermal, electrical, and mechanical hazards as they performed maintenance inside heat-treating furnaces.

Cal/OSHA has cited a Bay Area contractor for serious safety violations after a worker was fatally crushed at a San Rafael construction site on September 18, 2018. Investigators determined that West Coast Land and Development, Inc. did not follow regulations when it stacked plywood vertically without securing it. The accident occurred when two employees of the Concord company were framing and installing a shear wall on the third floor of a house under construction.

A recent survey of 30 metropolitan areas showed a 30% increase from 2014 to 2017 in the average wait time for a new patient to be seen by a doctor. Did the subset of workers seeking treatment for workers comp (WC) injuries experience the same delays? A recent study by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) yielded some surprising results. The NCCI research was designed to answer the question: “Did the Affordable Care Act (ACA) stress the healthcare delivery system and make it more difficult for workers compensation claimants to get medical care?”

Employees of a Georgia contractor who were installing water and sewer lines had no safe means to enter and exit the excavation in which they were working, nor did the trench have a protective cave-in system. Those were among the excavation hazards OSHA investigators found at a Corley Contractors, Inc. worksite in Acworth, Georgia. The Dallas, Georgia-based company faces $106,078 in penalties.