The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) has recently conducted an assessment of workplace safety at Angelica Textile Services, operating under the name of Royal Institutional Services, in Somerville, Massachusetts. The investigation was prompted by multiple worker complaints in regards to illnesses, injuries, and long-term health problems due…
A fire in which an employee was badly burned at Monro Muffler Brake Inc. in Hyannis on February 2nd prompted an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA has since charged Monro Muffler Brake Inc., a company from Rochester, N.Y., for 10 alleged violations of workplace safety…
The Walgreens Company (Walgreens) has agreed to pay the Commonwealth and approximately 75 Massachusetts cities and towns $2.8 Million in a settlement with Attorney General Coakley’s Office. An ongoing investigation by the Attorney General’s Insurance and Financial Services Division exposed that the pharmacy company was overcharging public entities for prescription…
A trash collector has died after falling off the back of a trash truck and was run over by the vehicle in Methuen. On the morning of July 12, Keimani Bell, 28, from Dorchester, was working for F.W. Russell & Sons of Somerville, when he grabbed a trash bag from…
Bostik Inc. reported yesterday that they had determined the cause of their plant´s explosion and 4-alarm fire at their adhesive manufacturing plant in Middleton on March 14. They asserted that the explosion which injured four of their workers was due to open valves that let flammable gas permeate throughout the…
An important decision has recently been made by a Massachusetts Chief Justice who has ruled that the wife of a deceased Massachusetts construction worker can sue the contractor who oversaw a construction site where her husband was killed and son was injured, despite the fact that the contractor has already…
On May 17, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration reopened the public record on the proposed rule to revise the Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements regulation on workers’ musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). As reported in OSHA Withdraws Two Important Workplace Safety Proposals, OSHA…
Folan Waterproofing and Construction Co. Inc., of South Easton, has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for nine serious violations of workplace safety standards at a Lowell jobsite. In December of last year, an OSHA inspector found a Folan worker climbing onto…
According to a report released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, teen work injuries remain a major issue for Massachusetts despite a slight decline over the past few decades. The report is a part of the department´s “teens at work” project that tracks teenager hospital room visits and teenager…
As summer approaches, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently announced a national initiative to educate workers and their employers about the hazards of working outdoors in the heat and ways in which employers can prevent heat-related illnesses for their employees. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis…