Comment on DuPont plant workers died rushing to help

Robert Tisnado, a production operator at DuPont's chemical plant in La Porte, was nearing the end of his 12-hour shift early Saturday when he heard a female colleague call for help from the operations building where she had gone to check on a line. After losing radio contact with his three co-workers, Robert's brother, board operator Gilbert "Gibby" Tisnado, 48, grabbed a gas mask and ran in to help, according to relatives' accounts. The four plant workers died after methyl mercaptan exposure, a rare outcome for the common, yet dangerous, chemical used to give natural gas its rotten-egg smell and as a feedstock for insecticides and fungicides. Though DuPont informed law enforcement officials that there were "unresponsive individuals" at the plant around 6:30 a.m., none of those who perished was transported to a hospital. Company officials did not inform the Tisnados of the deaths until county medical examiners made a formal ruling around 2 p.m., following the family's calls for information. Plant personnel with protective gear determined the workers likely were dead before 7 a.m., DuPont spokesman Aaron Woods said, but medical examiners lacked the equipment to enter the area until it was no longer contaminated, after which point the families were informed. Over the past five years, the facility has received dozens of citations and been ordered six times to pay fines by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, with a seventh penalty pending. Rock Owens, who oversees environmental issues in the Harris County Attorney's Office, said fatalities caused by the chemical are rare, but Owens recalled at least three incidents in the last decade in which county residents became ill from exposure. The last apparent fatal incident occurred in July 2001, when a rail car holding the chemical leaked when it was being unloaded at a plant in Michigan and the gas ignited, killing three workers; 2,000 neighbors also were evacuated. Whether from spills, leaks or even normal industrial operations, the substance in recent years has spurred complaints, hospital trips and evacuations, in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Michigan, Maine, New Hampshire, California and Washington. "Yes, there was a nuisance odor, and it stunk and it traveled to Sugar Land, but the processes worked," said Jeff Suggs, La Porte's emergency services coordinator, adding that he thinks DuPont's scrubber system and its communication with officials worked as planned. John Morawetz, the acting health and safety director for the International Chemical Workers Union, said the union would be joining DuPont, OSHA and the chemical board in a thorough investigation.