The beloved maker of some of the world’s favorite candies has been fined thousands of dollars after a horrific scene played out in its Elizabethtown, PA factory.
On June 2022, emergency personnel were called to the Mars Wrigley confectionary factory in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, to free two workers who had fallen into a vat of chocolate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has now fined the candy maker more than $14,500 in relation to the incident.
The two workers were employed by an outside contracting firm and were conducting maintenance work in the tank when they fell in. Fire crews were forced to cut a hole in the bottom of the tank to help them escape, and both were taken to the hospital, with one transported by helicopter. It is unclear if, or how badly, they were injured.
“Employees of an outside employer, I.K. Stoltzfus Service Corp., cleaned tanks, including the Dove chocolate batching 20-micron tank, owned by the onsite/host employer, Mars Wrigley,” the report said.
The incident has prompted OSHA to cite Mars Wrigley for a “serious” breach of workplace health and safety laws. According to the regulator, the company had failed to ensure that the workers hired to clean the tanks were correctly trained to do so in a safe way.
In response, a spokesperson for Mars Wrigley said that the safety of its workers, both in-house and contracted, was of the utmost importance. ”
“The safety of our Associates and outside contractors is a top priority for our business. As always, we appreciate OSHA’s collaborative approach to working with us to conduct the after-action review,” a Mars Wrigley spokesperson said.
The Elizabethtown factory is just one of many Mars Wrigley confectionary factories across the US and the world. The company is best known for producing some of America’s favorite candies, including M&M’s, Snickers bars, and Mars bars.
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