Employer name: Jasper Contractors Inc.

Inspection site: 3524 Waverly Dock Road, Jacksonville, Florida 32223

NEW ORLEANS – An air quality test and harnesses properly tethered to a lifeline for rescue might have prevented tragedy for three workers overcome by a lack of oxygen inside a rail tanker on Oct. 8, 2015 in New Orleans, federal workplace safety and health investigators have determined.

Employer name: MTD Consumer Group

Inspection site: 979 South Conwell Ave., Willard, Ohio

Citations issued: March 23, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Toledo Area Office cited MTD Consumer Group for one willful, one serious and one other-than-serious violation.

Employer name: Plank Construction Co. Inc., a construction general contractor in Schenectady, NewYork

Inspection site: Wards Lane, Dutch Village, Menands, New York

Investigation findings: Plank Construction Co. Inc. employees were installing a storm sewer system as part of the construction of new buildings at Dutch Village. On Oct. 3, 2015, the 8-foot deep trench in which they were working collapsed onto one of the employees. He was extricated and hospitalized.

ATHENS, Ga. – The life of a 39-year-old HVAC installer who fell through a roof skylight ended suddenly because his employer failed to put proper workplace protections in place, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

Employer name: The Western Sugar Cooperative, a sugar beets grower’s cooperative in Denver

Inspection site: 3020 State Ave., Billings, Montana

Citations issued: Five serious and four repeat.

Employer name: Land O Lakes Purina Feed LLC, doing business as Purina Animal Nutrition
414 E. 18^th St., Wichita, Kansas

Citations issued: March 31, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Wichita Area Office cited Land O Lakes Purina Feed LLC for three serious, one repeat serious, and one repeat other than serious violations. The citations are the result of an October 2015 OSHA investigation.

IOLA, Kan. ‒ As alarms sounded, hundreds of workers evacuated a candy manufacturing plant when an air-conditioning unit pipe failed and released about 22 pounds of anhydrous ammonia into the air throughout the Iola facility. No workers were injured in the incident which closed the plant for more than two hours.

Employer name: U.S. Postal Service, 116 Oak St., Moorhead, Iowa

Citations issued: March 24, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Des Moines Area Office cited the postal facility for one repeated and four serious safety violations.

WACO, Texas – Federal inspectors found that the nation’s largest chicken producer failed to use proper safety procedures that allowed a release of 79 pounds of anhydrous ammonia and endangered workers at its Waco facility on Sept. 28, 2015. Anhydrous ammonia is a dangerous chemical that can be fatal when inhaled and cause serious burns to the skin.

Employer name: Quality Christmas Tree Ltd., doing business as Houston Garden Center

Location: 1700 West Loop North, Houston, Texas 77008

Citations issued: March 28, 2016

SYRCAUSE, N.Y. – Even vinegar can be hazardous under certain circumstances.

An employee at the Rob Salamida Co. food manufacturing plant in Johnson City was instructed to enter and clean the insides of a 3,000-gallon tank containing vinegar on Sept. 28, 2015. Once inside, he was overcome by acetic acid vapors created by the vinegar in the tank. He was rescued but was hospitalized for five days. 

Date of action: Jan. 11, 2016

Type of action: Stipulated Settlement

Names of defendants: Anheuser-Busch Sales of New Jersey LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA/NV.

BEAVER, Pa. – Twenty-one-year-old Jacob Casher was still a “new guy” employed by a Beaver-based plumbing company when he left home for work in September 2015. He probably never imagined that, as he worked to install a sewer line 11-feet underground in Butler, it was to be the last day of his life.

Employer name: Eastern Wire Products Inc.

Investigation site: 5301 West Fifth St., Jacksonville, Florida 32254

KENNETT, Mo. ‒ A machine that sizes and cuts rubber hose severed a 52-year-old woman’s right arm just nine days after she starting a new job in Kennett as a machine operator at Parker Hannifin Corporation, a global manufacturer in the mobile, industrial and aerospace markets. After an investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the machine lacked adequate safety guards to prevent the horrific injury.

Employers name: Landfried Paving Inc., 172 Crestview Drive, Greenville, Pennsylvania

Inspection site: 200 Mulberry St., Meadville, Pennsylvania  

Citations issued: On March 22, 2016, the  U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations for one willful violation and two serious violations. 

NIAGARA, Wis. – For the sixth time since 2011, federal inspectors found a Wisconsin wood pallet manufacturer failed to comply with safety and health standards – putting its employees in jeopardy of suffering amputation, burns and other life-threatening injuries.