ARCADIA, Wis. — In a three-and-a-half year period, 4,500 employees at Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., in Arcadia, experienced more than 1,000 work-related injuries. One worker became another terrible statistic when he lost three fingers in July 2014 while operating a dangerous woodworking machine without required safety mechanisms in place. Of the injuries recorded, more than 100 were caused by similar machinery.

ARCADIA, Wis. — In a three-and-a-half year period, 4,500 employees at Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., in Arcadia, experienced more than 1,000 work-related injuries. One worker became another terrible statistic when he lost three fingers in July 2014 while operating a dangerous woodworking machine without required safety mechanisms in place. Of the injuries recorded, more than 100 were caused by similar machinery.

NEW YORK — About a year ago, New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center in Northern Manhattan replaced linen laundry bags with thin plastic bags that broke and needlessly exposed workers to laundry contaminated with blood, bodily fluids and other infectious materials.

Clothing, sheets, towels and other soiled laundry spewed onto the floor of the basement when bags broke or failed to stay closed as they came down laundry chutes. Employees were further exposed as they gathered and repacked the laundry.

TARRYTOWN, New York — Employees of a Brooklyn-based commercial and residential roofing contractor faced the threat of deadly or disabling falls as they replaced the 20,000-square-foot roof of Westchester County's Bedford Hills Elementary School, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A second explosion in four months at the Indianhead Biomass Services plant in St. Augustine has left two laborers severely burned. An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that two men in their 50s attempted to shut down a sawdust dryer to unclog an outlet vent. This created an explosive environment when smoldering embers ignited the sawdust inside the dryer.

Employer name: Plastic Molding Technology Inc.

Site: El Paso, Texas

Date initiated: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated the November 2014 inspection under the National Emphasis Program on Amputations. The NEP is designed to identify and reduce workplace hazards that cause or are likely to cause amputations.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Tangled extension cords, overloaded power outlets in wet locations, blocked exits, faulty forklifts, machines without safety guards and damaged floors — all in a hazardous day at work for employees at Xpedited Services LLC's warehouse in Jersey City, an inspection by U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators found.

PELL CITY, Ala. — Imagine being on the job and suddenly you are horrifically injured. Adding to your pain, you learn later company management knew of the hazards that injured you and did nothing to stop this from happening. This situation became all-too-real for a maintenance worker at WKW Erbsloeh North America Inc.'s Alabama facility. The worker was standing above the tanks, while helping with tank maintenance, when he slipped, fell backwards, and submerged himself into a tank filled with highly corrosive phosphoric and sulfuric acid.

BOISE, Idaho — Ernesto Paramo never knew his shift on August 4 would be his last, leaving his family and friends to grieve his untimely death. The 30-year-old welder clocked in as he had many times before and then went to work at Superior Steel Products Inc. Paramo was in an unsecured basket raised improperly on a forklift about nine feet off the floor when the basket fell off a forklift onto the concrete floor below. Sadly, Paramo is not alone; in the past year, nearly one-in-four Idaho workplace fatalities were a result of improper forklift use.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Twice in two years, employees at P & W Painting Contractors were found in danger of falling as they worked on top of machines and elevated platforms more than 14 feet off the ground. After a complaint was filed, U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors identified one repeated and eight serious safety violations, including lack of fall protection and forklift hazards at the company's Toledo facility. OSHA has proposed penalties of $40,040.

MOSS POINT, Miss. — Two temporary workers hired to cut and weld pipes at the Omega Protein plant in Moss Point on July 28, 2014, had no idea and had no training to know that the storage tank beneath them contained explosive methane and hydrogen sulfide gases. One of the two men found out later as he lay in a hospital with a fractured skull, internal injuries and broken bones. The second, a 25-year-old man named Jerry Taylor, died when the tank exploded.

Employer name: Atlas Steel Coatings Inc.

Inspection site: 129 Philema Road, Albany, Georgia 31702

Date investigation initiated: OSHA initiated the investigation July 22, 2014, after receiving a complaint.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Workers at Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC were exposed to dangerous chemicals, such as formaldehyde and other potential health and safety hazards, because the company failed to implement proper chemical management procedures at its Columbus plant. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration produced 11 serious violations with penalties totaling $60,500.

BEAR, Del. — A chance to get on-the-job training in construction turned tragic when a Delaware high school student suffered a severe head injury after a one-story fall off an unguarded balcony at a local construction site.

Minsa Corp. in Muleshoe, Texas, cited for 33 serious violations and $151,200 in fines

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — "Zimmer TMT is in the business of healthcare and should be aware of the potential health and safety hazards to which its employees could be exposed," said Kris Hoffman, director of OSHA's Parsippany Area Office. "Chlorine gas is poisonous and can cause death. Employers using highly hazardous chemicals absolutely must be prepared for emergencies, and this company clearly was not."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 22-year-old apprentice ironworker fell more than 30 feet to his death while standing on a 9-inch-wide steel girder on a building under construction in Kansas City. On the job for just a few weeks, the worker was not provided fall protection by his employer, Fastrack Erectors Inc., a subcontractor on the construction job. After an investigation into the July 25, 2014, fatality, the U.S.

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Two Lone Star Management LLC employees were directed to use a gas-powered forklift to move pallets of fireworks and cardboard out of an explosives storage facility in Pittsburg when the gas ignited, which caused an explosion and fire. Within seconds, the trapped employees became engulfed in flames. The inferno took the life of one 28-year-old worker and left a 43-year-old co-worker to suffer with burns over 80 percent of his body and the possibility of never working again.