The initial statement about the amount of Mercaptan let loose and undetected is also at odds with common sense :

"Chemical manufacturer DuPont has reported that about 23,000 pounds of a flammable toxic chemical escaped in the building where four of its workers died two weeks ago at a Houston-area plant.

DuPont disclosed in a news release the quantity of the methyl mercaptan that led to the deaths Nov. 15."

Ed

Edward M. Movitz
Health & Safety Officer / FSO

The University of Mississippi

Department of Health and Safety

100 Health and Safety Building

P.O. Box 1848

University, MS 38677-1848

U.S.A.

O:+1-662-915-5433 | F: 662-915-5480

movitz**At_Symbol_Here**olemiss.edu | www.olemiss.edu | Health & Safety Web Site

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From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] on behalf of Debbie M. Decker [dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**UCDAVIS.EDU]
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Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (13 articles)

Did anyone else find this tidbit odd? How could there be methyl mercaptan vapor build up and no one notice it? Around here, someone takes the sealed jar out of the dessicator to take to the fume hood and there's howling up and down the hall from the smell.

Debbie M. Decker, CCHO, ACS Fellow
Chair, Division of Chemical Health and Safety
University of California, Davis
(530)754-7964
(530)304-6728
dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu

Birkett's hypothesis: "Any chemical reaction
that proceeds smoothly under normal conditions,
can proceed violently in the presence of an idiot."

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SAFETY FLAWS LED TO DEADLY DUPONT LEAK
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, death, other_chemical

HOUSTON -- It was DuPont's third deadly U.S. accident in five years and the deadliest of them all. On November 15th, a chemical leak in LaPorte took the lives of four workers, including two brothers.

They were inside a building that manufactured insecticides.

Federal investigators have now claimed there were problems both with the building and with how things were done there.

"What we are seeing here in this incident in LaPorte is definitely a problem of safety culture in the corporation of DuPont," said Rafael Moure-Eraso, Chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

After months of investigating, the independent agency found a ventilation system had been broken that allowed a harmful chemical called methyl mercaptan to build up without anyone knowing it.

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