Regulators and work-safety experts are putting greater scrutiny on the industrial laundry business, particularly Cintas Corp... In August, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the Cincinnati company $2.8 million related to the March death of a worker in its Tulsa, Okla., facility... In October, OSHA proposed a fine of $196,000 at [Cintas's] facility in Mobile, Ala., for 15 violations for not following safety procedures, according to the agency. Federal safety officials said they have also opened an investigation at a Cintas facility in Arkansas; and in August, OSHA fined a Cintas plant in Columbus, Ohio, $117,500... Cintas has appealed OSHA's findings in Mobile, Tulsa and Columbus. It cites a dropping injury rate companywide and an increased emphasis on safety... The Textile Rental Services Association, a trade group, argues industrial laundries in general have grown safer... Federal data show injuries at laundries have dropped significantly in the most recent two-year period... Commercial laundries have automated many functions... But new and faster equipment creates its own risks, often involving the repetitive-strain types of injuries... The Washington Industrial Safety and Health Administration...fined Cintas $13,600 in August, following an accident earlier this year... Cintas has filed an appeal... According to data compiled by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of injuries and illnesses for...establishments with 50 to 249 workers --...[which] includes most commercial laundries -- was 7.3 per 100 full-time workers in 2006. The rate marked a decline from 8.3 injuries in 2005 and 9.3 injuries in 2004. By comparison, the rate of injury for workers drilling oil and gas wells in 2006 was 6.7; in chemical manufacturing, it was 3.7. Industries with higher injury rates in 2006 included forestry and logging, where it was 9.9, and sawmills, where it was 7.8... Some laundry workers, often immigrants who are paid a few dollars per hour above the federal minimum wage, could be reluctant to report their injuries, said Thomas Waters, a senior safety research engineer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.