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.
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