All MSHA-reportable accidents at Specialty Minerals Inc operations in 2017. Fatalities appear first.
The employee was pushing bags of lime briquettes into furnace retorts using an ~ 20' pushing rod. The rod caught on the inside of the retort and stopped suddenly causing a sprain/strain injury to the employee's right shoulder.
Mechanic was in the process of removing the sump lid to gain access to the sump by using an electric winch to move the 400 pound lid out of the way. Upon freeing the lid, it moved and caused left hand to be caught between the edge of the lid and an electrical panel mounted to the wall, resulting in a contusion type injury requiring stitches
The employee was working at SCD 2nd floor cleaning rocks that had fallen from the 115 belt. A rock fell from the belt and struck the back of the Employee's hand. The Employee continued to work but on Sunday had trouble making a fist. The Employee was sent to be examined by a doctor on 8/28/17. The doctor prescribed PT and sent EE back to work with restrictions.
Operator was instructed to clean out G-15 dust collector with the vacuum truck. EE was returning from evaluating the job and ee began descending down a steep set of stairs. The operator's left foot came down on a step 3-4 inches below what ee expected. The jarring impact fractured the employees heel.
A maintenance employee was rolling up 50 foot sections of an old conveyor belt for disposal. After finishing rolling up 3 sections the employee started another section. EE started rolling in the kneeling position for 1 turn then EE stood up and hurt EE's lower back. EE went to a doctor on 4/3/17 who diagnose a muscle strain and reported the injury to management at that time.
The employee was removing the tin end of a condenser containing a calcium crown when employee's tooling slipped and employee hit employee's left forearm against the adjacent crown causing a laceration. The employee was not wearing forearm cut protection as required by standard work.