U.S. Department of Labor | A Jacksonville roofing contractor has been cited with 10 safety violations for willfully exposing workers to fall hazards by not requiring them to wear fall protection while working at least six feet above a lower level.

On 18 March 2025, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiated an investigation at an Elo Restoration LLC Jacksonville worksite, operating as Elo Roofing. Two weeks later, OSHA initiated a separate investigation at an Elo Roofing site in St. Johns after learning a worker sustained injuries and required hospitalization after falling through a residential roof while removing skylight fixtures.

The agency determined the worksite did not install guardrails, safety nets, or personal fall arrest systems, and employees were not provided with alternative fall protection measures.

Elo Restoration LLC was cited with four willful, three repeat, a serious, and two other-than-serious citations, totaling $752,846 in proposed penalties.

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

United States Environmental Protection Agency | The EPA has announced a settlement with the St. Paul Brass Foundry Co. for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act in March 2023 at a facility at 954 Minnehaha Ave. in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The settlement will require the company to reduce lead and particulate matter emissions, which is already underway.

St. Paul Brass melts and processes lead-containing alloys to make castings for commercial, military and aerospace applications. In March 2023, EPA alleged St. Paul Brass violated its permit by failing to operate air pollution control equipment within acceptable ranges.

In June 2023, EPA alleged St. Paul Brass violated EPA regulations for foundries. St. Paul Brass subsequently provided documentation of its compliance with these foundry rules.

EPA monitored air quality next to the St. Paul Brass facility between June and December 2024. This data showed compliance with EPA’s air standard for lead. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) set up a permanent air monitoring site near the facility in June 2025. The state’s initial month of results also show lead levels are below EPA’s air standard.

The company has added high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters to two existing baghouses, which will reduce lead and particulate matter emissions from those baghouses by 99.97%. The company will also be required to limit the maximum lead content of alloys produced. A new permit application must be submitted to MPCA that includes requirements to operate the new HEPA filters and limit lead content in alloys.

PR Newswire | An Upstate New York jury has returned a $12.25 million verdict to the family of a St. Lawrence County woman who died from mesothelioma cancer, finding that Vanderbilt Mining knew for generations about asbestos contamination in its talc mines but failed to protect neighbours from asbestos exposure in the air.

The verdict, which includes $4.5 million for pain and suffering and $7.75 million in punitive damages, is the largest known jury award in St. Lawrence County. It is believed to be a first-of-its-kind finding in U.S. courts for environmental exposure to asbestos.

Over four weeks of trial, jurors heard testimony that Vanderbilt Mining knew about cancer-causing asbestos in its New York talc mines since 1947 but engaged in a decades-long pattern of denials and misstatements about the dangers to workers, neighbours, and end-users of its products.

Between 1964 and 1984, Anna Bishop lived in Balmat, New York, less than a mile from Vanderbilt mining operations. Ms. Bishop began showing symptoms of mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, in October 2022. She died in January 2023, at the age of 78, after enduring severe medical complications and agonizing treatment to remove fluid from around her lungs.

The case is Linda F. Weaver, as Administratrix of the estate of Anna Bishop v. Vanderbilt Minerals, LLC, Case No. EFCV-22-164221, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of St. Lawrence.

United States Environmental Protection Agency | The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement with Bostik Inc. (Bostik) of Middleton, Massachusetts over alleged violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

As part of the settlement, Bostik will pay a fine of $122,589 and certify compliance with RCRA.

The proposed settlement alleges that Bostik committed five violations of the Federal Hazardous Waste Air Emission Standards under RCRA and seven violations of the federally authorised Massachusetts Hazardous Waste Regulations.

The most significant violations involved failure to comply with the Hazardous Waste Air Emission Standards, including but not limited to the presence of an open-ended line emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the failure to immediately attempt to repair a VOC leak from a hazardous waste tank. The company was cooperative throughout the enforcement process and agreed to take the necessary steps to bring its facilities into compliance with RCRA.

Environmental News Today | V.Ships Norway A.S. (V.Ships) has pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and been sentenced to pay a $2 million fine.

V.Ships admitted that oily bilge water and oily waste was discharged from the Motor Tanker Swift Winchester (M/T Swift Winchester), and the discharges were omitted from the Oil Record Book.

Between February 2022 and August 2022, a hose was connected between the incinerator waste oil tank and the sewage holding tank on the M/T Swift Winchester. This allowed oily waste to transfer into the sewage holding tank and then to be discharged directly into the sea, bypassing required pollution prevention equipment.

A low-ranking engine crewmember reported this to a Superintendent at V.Ships. The Superintendent investigated the matter and discovered what appeared to be oil in the sewage tank. V.Ships dismissed the Chief Engineer.

In August 2022, the new Chief Engineer ordered the engine crew to clean the Oil Water Separator (OWS) filter. The engine crew took the filter onto the deck and hosed it down with a degreaser and the oily waste washed directly overboard through a scupper.

Coast Guard members from U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur conducted an examination, during which an engine room crewmember disclosed the discharges and provided photographic and video evidence documenting the illegal discharges. The M/T Swift Winchester entered Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 25 August 2022, and Port Arthur, Texas, on 7 September 2022, with a knowingly falsified Oil Record Book.

California Department of Industrial Relations | California Ranch Foods has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts after the deaths of two workers.

The victims, Baldemar Gonsales and Maria Osyguss, died after a malfunction in the facility’s nitrogen system led to a hazardous gas release on 1 December 2020.

Cal/OSHA’s investigation found critical failures in safety procedures and training related to the handling of pressurized gas systems.

The case stems from a criminal referral by Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations (BOI) and was prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, California Ranch Foods must:

• Invest $1.6 million in safety improvements at the facility.
• Pay $50,000 to BOI to support enforcement efforts.
• Serve three years of probation.
• Pay a $1 million criminal fine.
• Donate $4 million to local food banks.
• Acknowledge a $35 million civil settlement with the victims’ families.

NJ.com | New Jersey reached a $2 billion settlement with DuPont and several of its entities to resolve a lawsuit over “forever chemical” contamination at four industrial sites, which state officials called the largest environmental settlement ever achieved by a single state.

DuPont de Nemours and Co. will spend $875 million to clean up contamination of PFAS (short for polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances), which the company used for decades in its Teflon production. The materials, often known as part of a set of materials known as “forever chemicals,” have been linked to various cancers and birth defects.

About $125 million from the $875 million is being designated for damages, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said. To ensure that no public funds will be used for the cleanup, DuPont will create a $1.2 billion funding source, as well as a $475 million reserve fund, in the event that the company goes bankrupt or fails to make its payments.

DuPont and its entities agreed to make payments for the next 25 years, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The settlement ends litigation filed in 2019, as part of a broader effort to amend decades of contamination. It comes after about a month-long trial in U.S. District Court, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The settlement is New Jersey’s third major victory in PFAS-related litigation in roughly the past two years.

As part of the lawsuit, New Jersey also targeted Chemours, which was spun off from DuPont in 2015, a move critics saw as an effort to shed DuPont of its hefty environmental pollution baggage.

In a statement, DuPont, headquartered in Delaware, said it will purchase $150 million in insurance proceeds from Chemours for PFAS claims. After the company recovers $150 million and related fees, Chemours will be entitled to its 50% share of further insurance recoveries, DuPont said.

The agreement will also resolve three other lawsuits regarding specific sites in New Jersey, the statewide claims for the firefighting material known as aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) and DuPont and its related entities’ responsibilities under a PFAS statewide directive, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The most notable facility in the litigation is a plant in Pompton Plains, where DuPont spent decades producing munitions materials. Byproducts gradually trickled into the environment, including lakes, streams, and rivers, eventually coming into contact with humans. At the time New Jersey filed its lawsuit, more than 300 homes in the town were equipped with filters to prevent harmful chemicals from seeping into their basements.

U.S. Department of Labor | U.S. Department of Labor safety inspectors have cited Keystone Foods LLC, a distributor for Tyson Foods, for allegedly failing to protect employees against fire and explosion hazards at its Camilla, Georgia, poultry plant.

The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) determined that on 26 December 2024, two workers at the plant, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc., were seriously burned when a hose filled with oil ruptured, igniting the oil mist and causing a fire and explosion in the boiler room.

Inspectors concluded Keystone Foods did not ensure workers followed proper internal procedures nor the manufacturer’s guidelines when conducting maintenance on its boiler pump.

OSHA issued Keystone Foods a citation for a serious violation under the OSH Act’s general duty clause and proposed penalties of $16,550.

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

U.S. Department of Labor | The U.S. Department of Labor has cited an Orlando target-missile manufacturer for exposing workers to fire, burn, and inhalation hazards, after a December 2024 fire at its facility, hospitalizing two employees and injuring others.

Investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that two employees of Aerojet Rocketdyne Coleman Aerospace Inc. were severely burned, and another sustained injuries from burns and smoke inhalation while they worked on a missile component.

OSHA also determined that the employer exposed other workers to burn and inhalation hazards from incorrectly stored and handled explosives and from failing to classify the physical hazards of a highly reactive chemical.

Aerojet Rocketdyne was cited with one wilful and six serious violations, with proposed penalties totalling $262,451.

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

U.S. Department of Labor | OSHA has cited The Salvation Army after a 54-year-old maintenance worker died following a fall at an Orlando donation centre in November 2024.

OSHA found the worker was repairing a roof leak when he fell. The Salvation Army received a repeat violation for fall hazards and five serious citations for failures in hazard assessment, training and machine guarding.

Two “other-than-serious” violations followed for delayed fatality reporting and lack of a hazard communication programme. Penalties total $120,817.

Consolidated Login

Comprehensive Login