I fell and now my employer is trying to make me work when it's not safe

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice from people who work in manufacturing, industrial safety, glass handling, or any industry with similar hazards.

I work at a candle manufacturing plant where we produce candles in glass containers.

Any product that gets damaged during production goes to a recovery (salvage/rework) process. The job requires operators to reach into large containers filled with molten wax mixed with broken glass to recover usable material.

To be honest, it’s one of the most dangerous tasks I’ve seen in the plant. Between the broken glass and the hot wax, it feels like we’re one mistake away from a serious hand injury.

Right now we’re using bulky “clown gloves” (the oversized leather work gloves everyone has probably seen). They provide some protection, but they’re extremely bulky, reduce dexterity, slow the job down, and the task still feels risky.

I also tested seamless knit ANSI/ISEA A9 cut-resistant gloves with a leather palm. They did a great job preventing cuts, but the molten wax soaked through the knit material, so they weren’t suitable for the heat hazard.

I’m looking for recommendations for the most specialized gloves and arm sleeves you know of that could handle:

• Maximum cut resistance (ANSI A9 or equivalent)
• Protection against hot molten wax
• Good enough dexterity for handling broken glass
• Preferably something used in glass manufacturing, foundries, metalworking, recycling, or similar industries.

I completely understand that the best solution would be changing the process or implementing engineering controls rather than relying on PPE. Unfortunately, that’s not a decision I can make in my current position, so right now I’m trying to find the best available PPE to reduce the risk.

Any recommendations on specific glove models, brands, materials, or combinations of gloves and cut-resistant sleeves would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and stay safe.

SIMOPS are a big deal. If they're poorly managed they can turn low risk activities into high risk ones. This graphic describes the basic elements of SIMOPS planning

Just as the title says. I was wearing my respirator, but realized that my filter wasn't on the respirator and I inhaled paint dust whenever I was sanding it for a couple of hours and now my chest has been hurting and have been very tight for about a month now.

My girlfriend works at a smoothie stand in the mall in MD and she told me that the owner has denied them access to bathrooms while on the clock. Which is a clear OSHA violation as employers are required to provide access to bathrooms as needed. My girlfriend doesn’t want me to say anything because she said her owner will figure out and it will create problems but I am fighting you because this is not right and just letting the owner just get away with a clear violation doesn’t sit right with me. So I am conflicted right now on what the best course of action is. I don’t want her to get in trouble but I also have seen more than this violation that pushes me to say something. Any suggestions would be good?

At a certain point, these stop being isolated weather stories and become operational readiness stories. Events like wildfires do not just threaten land or infrastructure. They change the conditions people are working in, disrupt transport and utilities, and create knock-on risks across lone workers, remote teams, sites, supply chains, and emergency response.

That is the bigger lesson running through this summer’s headlines. Resilience is not built in the middle of disruption. It is built beforehand, through better visibility, stronger planning, and a clearer understanding of how connected risks can escalate when conditions change.

Hi Reddit,
Apologies if this is not the right thread for this, more than happy to relocate if not -

I’m an Organic Chemist in the UK, working for a very large company in a chemistry lab. The lab is effectively a giant shipping container, with corrugated metal walls, and no insulation. This means it very much feels the effects of the temperature. Additionally we have an air handling unit that is constantly sucking in outside air for the fume cupboards. Because of this, over the last couple of weeks it has been >35 degrees in the lab every day, with over 50% humidity.

We work in full PPE (Lab coat, safety trousers, often 2/3 pairs of gloves, face goggles and sometimes RPE masks etc, and I feel like this traps the sweat to my body.

I know there is no legal maximum for working conditions in the lab, but I’ve never heard anything about heat assessments being done for heat stress etc. we often get purchased ice creams and are told to go on more water breaks but no attempts are being made to cool the lab at all.

The basis of my question is this: I’m beginning to get a quite angry heat rash over most of my torso/legs. I’m dubious to bring this up to my employer as I’m not entirely sure what basis I have to stand on. Can I ask to see relevant heat assessments and the countermeasures? Part of me is scared they’ll just kick me out of the lab as there is ‘nothing they can do’ to fix the heat issue. The heat is making me and other staff miserable and uncomfortable to work on a daily basis.

Any advice on how to navigate this would be appreciated, is it time to join my union?

I’ve been thinking about offshore containers and wondering what usually becomes the biggest problem after years of service.

Is it mainly:

• corrosion from the marine environment?
• fatigue from repeated lifting?
• water ingress?
• something else?

DNV certification covers a lot of safety requirements, but I guess real offshore service life depends on what happens after years of exposure and use.

Curious to hear from people who have actually worked with them — what have you seen fail first?

I need urgent advice cause if something happens, I'll have to pay 30k fine .

If anyone has faced a similar issue ever . Please advise me cause i am stressing way too much .

Any advice is welcomed .. if you are professional or not , doesn't matter cause your experience can help so much.

It is indeed quite stressing for me cause i am college student.

I have a manager at work that intimidated me and had a rather large pocket knife on the desk in front of him pointing toward me when this happened and waited until l was alone to do this.

I have since then purchased two knives that I will have on me at all times, knowing that it is almost impossible to disarm a dual wielding knife attacker without getting at least seriously hurt or dying.

I have also wanted to purchase a concealable bullet and stab proof vest that can stop rifle rounds. This is a rather new manager that was hired not working his way up the chain.

He is an unhinged white, tall man who likes to say the word,
"faggot" a lot in front of everybody might I add, called one of my coworkers that as well and told another FU man for no reason not even joking around, last but not least he has said theN word quite a few times in front of two of us that I know of so far.

I am a blue collar working mechanic and am I just for wearing a bullet proof vest in my situation? To provoke him btw all I told him was that I don't care about all the drama that he has going on with our supervisor below him he's trying to fire and all I'm trying to do is order parts that he wanted me to show him how to do because he wants to learn because he is new and this simple task took at least 2 hours to do because he likes drama.

What are some of the affects HR wise that could occur if I did walk in with a bullet proof vest? This guy also encourages us to fight at work and thankfully no one has that I know of yet, I did suggest to him that if anyone ever felt that way they could go to a fighting gym and sign a waiver and put on gloves so they don't come to work completely battered or at worst dead from fighting at a garage that is not surrounded by padding but instead dangerous surfaces and lots of hard things that could be used as weapons and it is also not surrounded by trained professionals who would stop you if someone went too far at the gym for example.

I would not like to go to HR because HR is not their to protect me but rather the company and I think it would make things worse for me because the supervisor I was talking about earlier he is trying to get him fired for that reason exactly.

Please let me know what your thoughts are and if you've ever had to deal with something like this. Looking for a friend.

Hi all,

I work at an escape room in Northeast Florida. In one of the rooms, themed around a jail, we have two cells of which the floor is unsealed concrete. When guests are playing the rooms, it can be hard to see them through the cameras because of the dust particles flying around in the room.

I took a carpentry pre-apprentice course last year, and in that course I earned my OSHA-10 certification. In that OSHA class, along with some of the projects we did in that year, we learned about silica dust and silicosis, so I know unsealed concrete can be a problem. However, I also have a big "health anxiety" problem, so I don't know if this is an actual issue or if my brain is just spiraling.

I am going to be wearing an N95 mask whenever I go in the room from now on, which I know is not perfect but I assume if I wear a ventilator it will be a bit much lol. I do worry about our customers who are often on their hands and knees looking for clues and kicking up the dust that coats every surface in that room.

Is this something I should go to OSHA about? I worry about my coworkers as well. I am the new hire, I've only been there a week, so I am also worried about retribution on the part of the owners.

Thank you.

OSHA osha osha

Has anyone ever encountered problems stemming from USPs that caused material damage and fatigue? In refiner/ oil&gas industry