OSHA finds absence of proper safety guards led two workers to suffer amputation injuries at Piedmont food manufacturer

PIEDMONT, Mo. ‒ Twice in less than a month, two workers at an Ajinomoto Windsor Inc. facility suffered amputation injuries because their employer failed to install adequate safety guards to keep operator’s hands out of machine danger zones, inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found. The agency cited the food manufacturer for similar machine hazards at the Piedmont facility in 2013.

Inspectors responded after the Dec. 22, 2015, and Jan. 23, 2016, injuries occurred at the plant. On June 15, the agency cited the company for two repeated, eight serious and three other-than-serious safety violations and proposed $140,000 in penalties.

OSHA inspection found:

• On Dec. 22, 2015, a 54-year-old sanitation worker lost more than half of his right index finger and severed another finger while clearing debris from a breading machine. A third finger was damaged and later medically amputated.
• On Jan. 23, 2016, a reciprocating blade severed the tip of a 30-year-old production worker’s left middle finger as he attempted to unjam a bagging machine without adequate safe guards.

“It’s hard to imagine the agony and pain these workers suffered when their fingers were amputated. Machine safe guards would have prevented their hands coming in contact with the operating parts of the machine,” said Bill McDonald, OSHA’s area director in St. Louis. “Such hazards are inexcusable in light of the OSHA intervention that ensued at the plant following a machine guarding inspection in 2013. Ajinomoto Windsor needs to make fundamental changes inside of its workplace to protect workers on the job and to comply with federal safety standards.”

Since Jan. 1, 2015, OSHA requires all employers to report any severe work-related injury – defined as a hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye – within 24 hours. The requirement that an employer report a workplace fatality within eight hours remains in force. In the first full year of the program, Missouri employers reported 88 amputations. Amputation hazards remain among the most frequently cited OSHA violations.

View current citations for December and January injuries.

Based in Ontario, California, Ajinomoto Windsor markets specialty frozen foods for consumers, commercial restaurants, and foodservice operators from 10 plants in eight states. Among their consumer brands are Tai Pei, Jose Ole, Ling Ling and Bernardi.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s St. Louis office at 314-425-4249.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.