Sugar-Coated Counterattack

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The PR firm Edelman is handling a crisis management campaign for Imperial Sugar to "pick apart claims" by a whistleblower about poor safety standards at the Port Wentworth refinery near Savannah, Georgia. Graham H. Graham, who was Vice President of Operations for Imperial, testified that the refinery was a "dirty, dangerous facility" before a February 2008 explosion which killed 14 people. In its report on the explosion, the Chemical Safety Board stated that “Imperial’s management as well as the managers at the Port Wentworth refinery did not take effective actions over many years to control dust explosion hazards...". Bill Huey from the PR firm Strategic Communications, commented on O'Dwyerpr.com website "that wasn’t fairy dust that exploded in Savannah and killed 14 people. The plant had obvious safety problems, and attempting to discredit a whistleblower (to the point of suborning a United States senator) isn’t going to work."