PLAQUEMINE, La. (AP) -- Federal workplace safety regulators have cited a plant in Plaquemine with 14 serious violations for exposing workers to multiple safety and health hazards at the facility.
Proposed penalties announced Tuesday against Georgia Gulf Chemicals & Vinyls LLC total $55,000. The company specializes in the production of chlorine, caustic soda, vinyl chloride monomer, vinyl resins, phenol and acetone.
Dorinda Folse, director of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's office in Baton Rouge, said they opened an investigation on July 20 after an inspector saw violations by employees while conducting a separate probe of a different company contracted to do maintenance work inside the facility.
The violations include failing to illuminate exit routes, train workers performing preventive maintenance on safety critical instruments, and ensure eyewashes had adequate flow and capped nozzles.
Georgia Gulf, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., has 15 days to comply, request an informal conference with Folse's office or contest the citations and penalties before an independent commission.
