A Marietta, Georgia, stone product manufacturer must pay $120,000 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties for failing to administer hearing conservation and respiratory protection programs, the agency announced May 14.
The agency cited the same violations during an April 2024 safety and health inspection.
Five months after the initial inspection, OSHA cited the employer with two repeat violations and 13 serious violations for not providing workplace protections for employees exposed to hazards like silica dust and occupational-related noise.
In addition to paying the penalties, the employer must take action to correct hazards identified during the inspections and take steps to prevent their recurrence, according to OSHA.
Safety Council funding testing of heat stress solutions
The National Safety Council (NSC) has awarded over $140,000 in grants to address the threats of occupational heat stress. Through the NSC’s Work to Zero Heat Stress Pilot Grant, organizations will test and evaluate technologies to protect workers from heat-related illness and death.
Nearly 500 workers have died from heat-related workplace incidents since 2011, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data cited by the NSC.
As part of the pilot, grant recipients will partner with leading technology providers from the 2025 Work to Zero Safety Innovation Challenge. Apex Cool Labs was selected as this year’s challenge winner for its palm-cooling device engineered to combat heat stress and improve performance. According to the NSC, the challenge winners offer a variety of cutting-edge solutions to detect, manage, and prevent heat-related incidents.
Recipients of the Work to Zero Heat Stress Pilot Grant will study the following solutions identified in the challenge:
- Allegion and WSP USA will each test Apex Cool Labs’ hand-held cooling and sensor technology to enhance heat safety in their respective industries.
- Brasfield & Gorrie and United Rentals will deploy MākuSafe Corp’s wearable safety technology to collect environmental and physical data that signals early heat stress risks.
- Geo-Technology Associates will test Critical Ops’ drone-based precision mapping to mitigate heat stress at high-heat construction sites.
- Service Center Metals will evaluate Cryogenx’s rapid body-cooling solution to protect aluminum extrusion workers exposed to extreme-heat conditions.
- The Science and Engineering Corps will collaborate with the Wright Brothers Institute on a pilot of footwear technology designed to steadily keep the body cool within a wide variety of high-risk industries.
“Employers must take meaningful steps to combat the increasing risk of heat-related illnesses and fatalities on the job,” Katherine Mendoza, senior director of workplace safety programs at the NSC, said in a statement. “This new pilot grant program shows how technology can be used to save lives.”
The Work to Zero initiative, funded by the McElhattan Foundation, aims to eliminate workplace fatalities by the advancement and adoption of technology.
While there’s no federal heat illness prevention standard, states like California, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington have their own standards. Last year, OSHA proposed a heat injury and illness prevention standard, with requirements for water, shade, paid breaks, heat acclimatization, and training. The current administration has neither advanced nor withdrawn the proposal.