Imperial Sugar
Imperial Sugar was known to be one of the largest sugar processing plants in the United States. The company employed over four hundred employees and contractors at its plant located In Port Wentworth, Georgia, just outside of Savannah. The facility covered over one hundred acres of land and is bordered by a river. The facility used conveyors to transport stored sugar from silos to the necessary areas throughout the plant. The Port Wentworth plant takes raw sugar cane and creates sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and numerous sugar products. This seemingly harmful food turned deadly when it was mishandled creating a series of explosions killing fourteen employees and injuring thirty-six additional employees. (Board) My goal …show more content…
The facility had been warned that they were operating with a highly combustible sugar dust and should have taken the appropriate measures to protect their employees, as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. However, the company did not listen the warnings and ultimately had the employees pay the ultimate price for their carelessness. The Vice President of Operations had even given warnings that the facility should be cleaned immediately and hazards should be eliminated. However, there was no action taken. The facility performed inspections, and always put off safety and health tasks to someone else, causing the greatest disaster the company had ever known. (DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT WORKERS?" - DANGEROUS DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT …show more content…
The facility had not trained the employees in the hazards that are associated to their job. A general knowledge of the potential lethality of explosive dust by employees may have prompted employees to take action and clean their work spaces or file the proper complaint paperwork with OSHA. Thus, potentially preventing all of the lives lost. When asked, Imperial Sugar stated that their employees did indeed have the proper safety training but could not produce any OSHA logs or paperwork substantiating this claim. The facility lacked adequate dust ventilation. Imperial Sugar had dust collection systems in some places throughout the facility; however, they were undersized and in disrepair. Therefore, they were unable to adequately ventilate the dust from the facility. The dust collection system was so poor in the area that produced powdered sugar that tens of thousands of pounds of sugar was lost per month. Employees claimed that there were often times when they were unable to see each other while just a few feet apart (DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT WORKERS?" - DANGEROUS DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT
Imperial Sugar was known to be one of the largest sugar processing plants in the United States. The company employed over four hundred employees and contractors at its plant located In Port Wentworth, Georgia, just outside of Savannah. The facility covered over one hundred acres of land and is bordered by a river. The facility used conveyors to transport stored sugar from silos to the necessary areas throughout the plant. The Port Wentworth plant takes raw sugar cane and creates sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and numerous sugar products. This seemingly harmful food turned deadly when it was mishandled creating a series of explosions killing fourteen employees and injuring thirty-six additional employees. (Board) My goal …show more content…
The facility had been warned that they were operating with a highly combustible sugar dust and should have taken the appropriate measures to protect their employees, as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. However, the company did not listen the warnings and ultimately had the employees pay the ultimate price for their carelessness. The Vice President of Operations had even given warnings that the facility should be cleaned immediately and hazards should be eliminated. However, there was no action taken. The facility performed inspections, and always put off safety and health tasks to someone else, causing the greatest disaster the company had ever known. (DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT WORKERS?" - DANGEROUS DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT …show more content…
The facility had not trained the employees in the hazards that are associated to their job. A general knowledge of the potential lethality of explosive dust by employees may have prompted employees to take action and clean their work spaces or file the proper complaint paperwork with OSHA. Thus, potentially preventing all of the lives lost. When asked, Imperial Sugar stated that their employees did indeed have the proper safety training but could not produce any OSHA logs or paperwork substantiating this claim. The facility lacked adequate dust ventilation. Imperial Sugar had dust collection systems in some places throughout the facility; however, they were undersized and in disrepair. Therefore, they were unable to adequately ventilate the dust from the facility. The dust collection system was so poor in the area that produced powdered sugar that tens of thousands of pounds of sugar was lost per month. Employees claimed that there were often times when they were unable to see each other while just a few feet apart (DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT WORKERS?" - DANGEROUS DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT