WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor encourages the nation’s employers to commit to workplace safety and health and join its Occupational Safety and Health Administration in observing Safe + Sound Week, Aug. 9-15, 2023.

A nationwide event that recognizes the successes of workplace safety and health programs, Safe + Sound Week also offers information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.

TAVARES, FL – In the early afternoon of March 2, 2023, a 44-year-old electrical technician at an Orlando work site climbed down into a trench to splice electrical wires to power streetlights. Not long after, the worker made contact with live wires and suffered fatal electrocution, a death the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators deemed avoidable had the employer taken required safety measures.  

LAKEWOOD, NJ – A Central New Jersey medical facility and temporary staffing agency failed to ensure the safety and health of nurses giving flu shots and testing potentially infectious patients for the coronavirus earlier this year, a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation has found.

DALLAS ‒ Un trabajador que limpiaba el interior de un remolque tanque en Pasadena en diciembre de 2019 fue víctima de vapores peligrosos, al igual que el compañero que intentó rescatarlo. Meses más tarde, en agosto de 2020, dos limpiadores que entraron en una cisterna de gas natural de un vagón de ferrocarril en Hugo, Oklahoma, también fueron víctimas de los vapores.

CHICAGO ‒ An Ohio worker tasked with cleaning a chemical tanker trailer collapsed upon entering the tank. Answering the employee’s call for help, a nearby truck driver entered the tank. Both workers succumbed to fatal toxic fumes.

DALLAS ‒ A worker cleaning the inside of a tank trailer in Pasadena in December 2019 fell victim to hazardous vapors, as did a co-worker who attempted rescue. Months later, in April 2020, two cleaning workers entered a natural gas tanker on a railcar in Hugo, Oklahoma and fell victim to its vapors. Four lives were lost in the tank cleaning industry in less than a year – and part of a troubling trend of preventable workplace deaths in the region.

MEDINA, OH – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Millersburg contractor – with a history of not cooperating with federal safety inspectors – for exposing workers to deadly fall hazards for the sixth time in three years– while fall protection equipment remained unused at a Medina residential work site.

GREENVILLE, GA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has again cited a Greenville recycling company, where a 44-year-old welder employed by a contractor in the facility suffered fatal injuries in 2019 amid safety violations.

SEATTLE – More than 40 reported large fires in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington have consumed tens of thousands of acres and released significant amounts of smoke in the atmosphere, leading the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to remind employers to protect employees working in areas where wildfires could spark or where smoke may be a concern.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has published a Request for Information seeking information and public input as the agency considers updates to its mechanical power presses standard.

TRENTON, FL – On just his third week working for a Trenton manufacturer, a 21-year-old machine operator’s life changed forever. On Feb. 1, 2023, the operator suffered a partial hand amputation because the company allowed protective guards to be removed from a machine that cuts sheet metal for the roofing industry.

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Shipbuilders Council of America and its associate members have signed a two-year alliance to protect shipbuilding workers in the Mid-Atlantic region from workplace safety and health hazards. 

The alliance will:

EAU CLAIRE, WI – The success of the partnership between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Chippewa Valley Technical College has led OSHA to reaffirm its commitment to training employers and workers on workplace safety, and in recognizing the college by elevating CVTC to Ambassador Alliance status.

GAINESVILLE, GA –En el 28 de enero de 2023, seis trabajadores fueron a trabajar a una planta de procesamiento de aves de Gainesville sin saber que no regresarían a casa. Justo después de que comenzara su turno, un congelador de la planta funcionó mal, liberando nitrógeno líquido sin color e olor en el aire de la planta, desplazando el oxígeno en la habitación.

GAINESVILLE, GA – On Jan. 28, 2023, six workers went to work at a Gainesville poultry processing facility unaware that they would not return home. Just after their shift began, a freezer at the plant malfunctioned, releasing colorless, odorless liquid nitrogen into the plant’s air, displacing the oxygen in the room.

MOBILE, AL – On Jan. 27, a 22-year-old apprentice atop a crane bridge 30 feet in the air suffered fatal injuries when he became caught in a crane trolley’s drive shaft, a tragedy that federal inspectors say could have been prevented.                      

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, NJ – A Bergen County contractor who agreed to make safety improvements after federal safety inspections in 2019 identified nine violations with proposed penalties of $121,687 has instead violated its settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor. Following inspections in 2020 and 2023, the company now faces $600,741 in penalties for 10 more violations.

MONETT, MO – Three employers at a Missouri residential nursing facility exposed workers and residents to asbestos hazards and failed to ensure safe removal of the known carcinogen during a flooring replacement project, a federal workplace safety inspection alleges.

EL PASO, TX – An El Paso metal stamping manufacturer with a history of workplace safety violations failed again to protect its workers from the dangers of moving machine parts. As a result, a worker suffered the amputation of two fingers inside a 500-ton hydraulic press.  

NORTHBROOK, IL – A federal court has approved the settlement of a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration whistleblower investigation that determined a Northbrook waste management company violated federal law when it retaliated against a former truck driver who reported a workplace injury and raised concerns to the company that an unrepaired truck was unsafe to operate.