<B>Recycled Paperboard Fined by OSHA</B>

Federal officials issued $163,700 in fines against a Clifton, N.J., paper company after an inspection of the facility turned up 54 alleged safety and health violations, according to the Bergen Record.

Among the violations found at Recycled Paperboard Inc. were a failure to perform annual hearing tests on employees exposed to loud noise and to train employees in the use of fire extinguishers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said.

Those violations carry a combined penalty of $104,500.

Recycled Paperboard also was fined $7,200 for failing to provide stairs between platforms where employees work and for not properly storing cylinders of compressed gas. The company had been cited for those same violations in 1997 and 1998, OSHA said.

The company has until Dec. 7 to contest the citations.

OSHA said it issued the citations after conducting a series of inspections at the facility from May to November. The inspections followed a report OSHA received of an unsafe trench excavated to install water pipes for a fire sprinkler system at the plant.

Other violations OSHA cited at Recycled Paperboard included failure to properly guard machinery, failure to properly label containers of hazardous chemicals, and failure to give employees proper respiratory protection.