Four workers killed by poisonous gas during a recent Texas chemical leak were trapped inside the pesticide plant for an hour before 911 was called, and no one told dispatchers what substances were inside.
The DuPont plant in La Porte typically housed as much as 250 tons of highly flammable methyl mercaptan.
But it also contained at least some methyl isocyanate. That's the same chemical that escaped a Bhopal, India, pesticide plant in 1984, killing more than 2,200 people in the world's worst industrial accident.
On Nov. 15, DuPont's shift supervisor Jody Knowles gave no details about the presence of methyl isocyanate and methyl mercaptan in a 911 call to the fire department.
Knowles also attempted to downplay risk to the general public.
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Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com
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