Worker Dies, Company Gets USD 10K Fine – Sounds Fair, Right? 

United States: A Michigan company called Huron Inc. which is already being fined USD 10,300 after not doing enough to stop a harmful bacterium and also called Legionnaires’ disease from spreading. Four years ago, these particular bacteria grew, and it caused one worker to die and two others to get sick in 2023. The Michigan Occupational Health and Safety Administration  

(MIOSHA)investigated the incident and also gave the company the fine. 

This was one of 36 workplace fatalities MIOSHA investigators looked into last year, of which Legionnaires’ disease – a severe pneumonia resulting from breathing mist or water droplets contaminated by Legionella bacteria — was the only one to involve the disease. Seven Mile Capital Partners, a New York private equity firm, bought the facility in 2015 and expanded it seven years ago with a USD 13 million investment. 

It couldn’t be reached for comment by the company. 

As reported by the mlive, MIOSHA case files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act described the circumstances leading to a worker’s death. The report blacked out the worker’s name, gender, and other personal information. 

https://twitter.com/michigannews/status/1860309334774669525

In 2020, it began with two employees of Huron Inc. getting hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease. But Michigan Department of Health and Human Services tested 15 water samples at the facility, and one came up positive for Legionella. 

The company then took ‘corrective actions’ to kill the bacteria. 

And in 2023, more workers became infected

A 61-year-old sickened worker was admitted to the hospital last summer after being exposed to Legionella bacteria given off from within the facility’s water source and died a week later on Aug. 20, 2023. 

While Huron Inc. couldn’t name the water source at the time, case files said this maintenance worker could have been anywhere around the plant. 

The company didn’t even report the death to the state. 

And more than a month later, on Sept. 28, another worker called in sick and wound up in the hospital with Legionnaires’ disease. He had been out six weeks sick for this employee before he returned Nov. 6, 2023, to work.