Athens plant fined for safety problems

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited an Athens manufacturing plant for 32 alleged safety violations and has proposed $137,000 in fines. OSHA cited Overhead Door Corp.'s Athens plant. It said that in recent inspections it found machines operating without proper guards and a lack of switches that keep machinery from being turned on by accident. It said employees at the plant were exposed to various hazards, and found problems with the company's hazard alert system and the way it stored flammable materials.

(Associated Press)

Imperial Sugar Co exec to testify

An executive with the Imperial Sugar Company is expected to testify later today to Congress about conditions at the Georgia plant that led to a deadly February explosion. The vice president of operations for Imperial will testify along with several other safety experts--those including the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. A Senate subcommittee has been examining the accident at the Port Wentworth plant after federal investigators found numerous safety violations. Just last week, OSHA proposed nearly nine-million dollars in fines.