Dive Brief:
- An employee of cookie and cracker maker Hearthside Food Solutions LLC was severely injured when a machine got hold of her hairnet, causing severe scalp wounds and lacerations that landed her in the hospital for four days.
- "This is the third serious injury involving machine hazards reported this year" by the company, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) said.
- OSHA "issued Hearthside one repeated, three serious and one other-than-serious safety violation on Nov. 17 for failing to protect workers from machinery operating parts. OSHA has proposed penalties of $47,000 for the July 2015 injury," according to a news release.
Dive Insight:
OSHA cited Hearthside for two other injuries in April, which the company settled, and September, which the company has contested. In those incidents, workers' fingertips were accidentally amputated at the plant.
A rule that took effect in January 2015 requires that employers report amputations and workplace hospitalizations to the agency within 24 hours. Under this rule, Hearthside reported these three injurious incidents to OSHA.
"It is hard to imagine how frightened this worker must have been as the machine pulled her in by her hair. Three times this year, an employee of Hearthside Food Solutions suffered life-altering injuries because the company continues to fail to protect its workers," Kim Nelson, OSHA’s area director in Toledo, said in a statement. "It is disheartening to cite an employer repeatedly for the same hazards."