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Top 10 Articles of 2023 – No. 7: Didion Milling Officials Found Guilty in Deadly Explosion Case

Join us as we look back at ProFood World’s most popular articles of 2023. At No. 7 was the news that two men had been convicted for a 2017 explosion at a corn mill.

On May 31, 2017, combustible dust explosions at the Didion Milling facility in Cambria, Wis., killed five of the 19 employees working on the night of the incident.
On May 31, 2017, combustible dust explosions at the Didion Milling facility in Cambria, Wis., killed five of the 19 employees working on the night of the incident.
CSB

Investigations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) into the 2017 explosion at Didion Milling’s Cambria, Wis., corn mill led to the convictions of two men. We reported on the story in October.

On Oct. 13, a federal jury in Madison, Wis., convicted two current and former Didion Milling officials of workplace safety, environmental, fraud, and obstruction of justice charges following a deadly explosion in 2017 that killed five workers and seriously injured others at a corn mill the company operated in Cambria.

Derrick Clark, Didion Milling’s vice president of operations, was convicted of conspiring to falsify documents, making false Clean Air Act compliance certifications as Didion’s “responsible official,” and obstructing OSHA’s investigation of the explosion at the corn mill by making false and misleading statements during a deposition.

Shawn Mesner, Didion’s former food safety superintendent, was convicted of participating in a fraud conspiracy against Didion Milling’s customers and conspiring to obstruct and mislead OSHA for his role in falsifying sanitation records used at Didion to track the completion of cleanings designed to remove accumulations of corn dust at the mill.

Continue to the full article:
Didion Milling Officials Found Guilty in Deadly Explosion Case

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