Program allows pork plants to work faster
- The U.S. Agriculture Dept. has extended a trial program that allows six U.S. pork plants to operate faster processing-line speeds while collecting data on how the speeds affect workers for up to 90 days.
- Companies were eligible to participate in the trial because they had sped up processing speeds under a previous rule that removed speed limits for hog-slaughtering facilities.
- Plants in the trial were also assigned to collect data on how line speeds affect workers and share it with fed-OSHA.
- Activist groups like Food & Water Watch had opposed the program as a risk to food safety.
Read more
Possible OSHA investigation after man dies in wood chipper
- OSHA officials have been contacted after a Virginia man died in an accident involving a wood chipper.
- The man was killed when he was pulled head-first into a wood chipper.
- The man, who remains unidentified, was working with a tree-trimming crew at the time of the incident.
- The incident has been ruled accidental, although police did not reveal the circumstances of how he ended up in the woodchipper.
Read more
Explosion injures employee at Arkansas plant
- One person was severely burned and two people were injured after an explosion at Hoffinger Industries in West Helena, Arkansas.
- The explosion started at the manufacturer of Doughboy above-ground swimming pools when an employee was filling up a propane tank.
- The employee was then airlifted to the hospital in critical condition.
- Firefighters quickly contained the propane fire and paramedics treated the victims while the investigation began into what caused the explosion, which closed the I-40 bridge into Memphis.
Read more
New York man charged for obstructing OSHA investigation
- Richard Zagger, of Blue Point, New York, was indicted by a federal jury for conspiracy and obstruction of official proceedings relating to an investigation into a fatal construction accident.
- Zagger was overseeing employees constructing a metal shed on the Northridge property. During the construction, one of the employees fell from the improperly secured shed roof and died.
- Fed-OSHA investigated the employee’s death and violations of worker safety standards.
- The maximum penalty for the conspiracy count and each obstruction count is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the economic gain to the defendant or loss suffered by the victim because of the crime.
Read more