US DOL Cites Foundation Food Group Inc , Three Other Companies After Investigation Finds Six Deaths Were Preventable workerscompensation.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from workerscompensation.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Source: US Department of Labor
GAINESVILLE, GA – On Jan. 28, 2021, six workers went to work at a Gainesville poultry processing facility unaware that they would not return home. Just after their shift began, a freezer at the plant malfunctioned, releasing colorless, odorless liquid nitrogen into the plant’s air, displacing the oxygen in the room.
Three of the plant’s maintenance workers entered the freezer room without precautions – never trained on the deadly effects of nitrogen exposure – and were overcome immediately. Other workers entered the room and were also overcome. The three maintenance workers and two other workers died immediately, a sixth died on the way to the hospital. At least a dozen other injured workers needed hospital care.
Tanks of liquid nitrogen are seen at the Foundation Food Group poultry processing plant in Gainesville, Ga. Six workers died after a freezer malfunctioned in January 2021.
OSHA has announced 59 citations and nearly $1 million in penalties after an investigation into a nitrogen leak at a poultry processing plant that killed six workers and injured at least a dozen others earlier this year.
Workers had just begun their shift at the Foundation Food Group plant in Gainesville, Ga., when a freezer malfunctioned, releasing colorless, odorless nitrogen into the air, according to the Labor Department. The liquid nitrogen is used to freeze chicken. Six workers died of asphyxiation.
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images
A liquid nitrogen leak at a poultry plant in Georgia killed six workers in January.
Federal officials said Friday their deaths were entirely avoidable had the proper precautions been taken.
Four companies have been fined a total of near $1 million in the incident. 10 Things in Politics: Get the latest political & economic news.
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Four companies have been fined a total of almost $1 million for a liquid nitrogen leak at a poultry plant in Gainesville, Georgia that killed six employees, federal officials said Friday.