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Ohio meat factory worker killed after falling into waste grinder

By Ray Downs

Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A worker at a meat-processing factory in Canton, Ohio was killed on the job after he fell into a waste grinder Saturday.

Samuel Martinez, 62, died on the scene at the Fresh Mark facility. Martinez, a Guatemalan national, stepped into a chute and he got caught in a waste auger at the facility, according to the Canton Repository.

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"This afternoon just before 5 p.m., we experienced a work-related fatality at our Canton facility," Brittany Julian, director of marketing at Fresh Mark, said in a statement released to the Beacon Journal/Ohio.com. "Our primary concern rests with the well-being of this employee's family, as well as with the safety and wellbeing of all our employees in the Canton and other Fresh Mark facilities. We are working with authorities to determine the facts regarding this incident."

Martinez is the second worker at the Fresh mark facility in Canton to be killed on the job since 2011.

That year, 20-year-old Marcos Perez-Velasquez, who was also from Guatemala,died from electrocution when he tried to plug in a fan while standing in water.

Fresh Mark produces bacon, hot dogs, dry sausage, ham and deli meats.

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A recent Government Accountability Office report found that 151 meat and poultry workers died in work-related incidents between 2004 to 2013.

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