CHEMICAL DISASTER IN LA PORTE, TX

To: Reporters and editors covering chemical disaster in La Porte, Texas

From: National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH)

Backgrounder: Chemical Disaster in La Porte, Texas

Four workers died at a DuPont insecticide plant in La Porte, Texas after 100 pounds of the deadly chemical methyl mercaptan leaked inside the facility.  The La Porte factory, like other DuPont facilities, has been cited numerous times for environmental and health and safety violations.

Following the death of a worker at a DuPont chemical plant in West Virginia in 2010, for example the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) found “numerous safety deficiencies” at the operation.  This CSB video re-enacts the incident, in which a worker lost his life after exposure to phosgene, a deadly gas that was used as a chemical weapon during World War I. 

... But the company that owns the plant, DuPont, has been making millions selling discredited “Employee Safety Consulting” to other companies for years. 

 
www.coshnetwork.org