Wisconsin firm faces $277, 472 in penalties

• The operator of a north central Wisconsin meat and sausage manufacturing plant might have spared two employees from suffering serious hand injuries by following required machine safety standards
• OSHA investigated how a turning auger on a meat processing machine at Abbyland Foods Inc. amputated the top of a 37-year-old worker’s finger in December 2022.
• The agency received a second report worker’s injury at the plant a month later when a sliding guard on a trash compactor crushed a 23-year-old worker’s hand.
• The two investigations led to citations for a repeat violation and 17 serious violations and OSHA proposed $277,472 in penalties.
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OSHA lauds a pair of Utah companies for safety

• OSHA recognized two Utah companies  — Morton Salt in Grantsville and Phillips 66 in Salt Lake City — for recording zero injury or illness incidents in 2022.
• Both firms are members of the OSHA Region VIII Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association and are among 35 “Zeroes Heroes” companies in the region of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
• Morton Salt and Phillips 66 achieved OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program status and demonstrate that developing comprehensive safety and health programs remains the most effective way for businesses to prevent injuries and illness on the job.
• To understand the significance of the Zeroes Heroes status consider that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that private industries reported 2.6 million injuries and 5,190 fatalities in 2021.
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Worker dies at logging company

• A logging company in Watauga County, North Carolina, was fined $11,151 for safety violations found during an inspection after one of its employees died in a logging accident in northeastern Iredell County.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Division of the N.C. Department of Labor issued a citation and notification of penalty against Jerry Jordan, doing business as Jordan Enterprises, on June 7.
• This resulted from safety violations OSH reported finding at a logging site on Cane Mill Lane after Clarence Andrew Russell Jr., 44, of Taylorsville, died in a logging accident nearby on Dec. 27, 2022.
• Russell was felling a tree with a chainsaw when the tree made contact with a large limb on another tree, causing the limb to break off, hit and fatally injure the employee.
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Report: Covid-19 could have been contained if not for coverup

• State Department officials said the COVID-19 outbreak could have been contained had Chinese Communist Party officials acted to prevent the viral spread rather than trying to conceal its existence.
• The information appears to have been sourced through the American Institute in Taiwan, which functions as a de facto U.S. embassy.
• The report found that Chinese officials waited six days after they confirmed a highly contagious, potentially lethal coronavirus had originated in the country to warn the public.
• The newly released information indicates that CCP leaders, rather than local officials, led the effort to censor information about the viral outbreak.
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