Macon aerospace company fined for health violations

Workers at a Macon aerospace plant were exposed to toxic chemicals and the company did not give them adequate safeguards, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

The federal government issued a $83,160 fine to Aerospace Defense Coatings of Georgia after a recent follow-up inspection revealed similar problems to ones found in 2010. Inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that workers were exposed to hexavalent chromium in areas where they eat and that they were not provided rooms to change clothes when they work with the chemical.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers hexavalent chromium to be a carcinogen associated with lung, nasal and sinus cancer.