{"id":1,"date":"2024-09-04T20:13:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/?p=1"},"modified":"2024-10-17T11:54:09","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T11:54:09","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Labor investigators find Nebraska grain cooperative exposed workers to combustible dust, multiple hazards at Hemingford elevator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>HEMINGFORD, NE<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2012 Federal investigators found life-threatening hazards at a Nebraska grain cooperative, where workers faced risks of fire and explosions due to the company allowing a buildup of combustible dust and failing to maintain effective dust collection systems, leading to more than $500,000 in proposed penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor&#8217;s\u00a0Occupational Safety and Health Administration\u00a0responded to a complaint of unsafe working conditions at Legacy Cooperative&#8217;s Hemingford grain elevator and opened its inspection in March 2024, under the agency&#8217;s\u00a0regional emphasis program for grain-handling facilities in Nebraska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specifically, OSHA found the company permitted more than one-eighth inch of grain dust to accumulate in priority housekeeping areas, such as in the bottom belt tunnel and around the elevator legs. The agency also found duct tape wrapped around the dust collection system, located in the bottom belt tunnel, in a makeshift attempt to repair the dust collection system. This reduced the syste&#8217;s efficiency and increased its vulnerability to failure. If left unchecked, grain dust can ignite in seconds and cause deadly fires and explosions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Grain dust fires and explosions are a well-known industry hazard, which makes Legacy Grain Cooperative&#8217;s failure to control dust where a belt&#8217;s friction could easily cause ignition inexcusable,&#8221; said OSHA Area Director Matthew Thurlby in Omaha, Nebraska. &#8220;Employers must develop company-wide safety procedures to mitigate known grain handling dangers and ensure workers are trained to recognize hazards.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OSHA cited Legacy Cooperative for two willful and 22 serious safety and health violations and proposed penalties totaling $536,965 for the following safety failures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Not conducting regular inspections on equipment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Failing to certify completion of preventive maintenance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not complying with permit-confirmed space requirements, including developing procedures for entry operations that included hazard evaluations, atmospheric testing, rescue procedures, monitoring and training.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exposing workers to fall hazards from unguarded stairway holes and a lack of handrails.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Failing to close electrical openings and improper use of flexible cords.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not providing forklift training as required.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Failing to label containers of hazardous chemicals properly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Through its alliance program, OSHA has partnered with the\u00a0Grain Handling Safety Coalition,\u00a0Grain Elevator and Processing Society\u00a0and\u00a0National Grain and Feed Association\u00a0to address hazards, reduce risks and improve safety and health management systems to help prevent life-altering injuries and fatalities and\u00a0identify the critical steps for handling grain safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Established by the merger of Farmer&#8217;s Cooperative and Panhandle Cooperative in 2024, the Legacy Cooperative is based in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Its Hemingford elevator was operated by Farmer&#8217;s Cooperative previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA&#8217;s area director, or contest the findings before the independent\u00a0Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about OSHA\u00a0and industry-recognized\u00a0safety rules for agricultural operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HEMINGFORD, NE&nbsp;\u2012 Federal investigators found life-threatening hazards at a Nebraska grain cooperative, where workers faced risks of fire and explosions due to the company allowing a buildup of combustible dust and failing to maintain effective dust collection systems, leading to more than $500,000 in proposed penalties. Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor&#8217;s\u00a0Occupational Safety and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[45,46],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safety","tag-living","tag-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanaosh.com\/aasosh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}