A severe industrial explosion at DuPont’s Guarulhos facility, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, reportedly injured three local workers on 5 October. One worker was seriously wounded and brought to hospital, allegedly with burns on 50% of his body.

Information on the accident is limited. According to the ICEM affiliated Brazilian chemical union, Sindiquímicos, the local DuPont company declined to provide information on the accident. The union was not allowed to enter the plant, further stating that “not even the number of victims” was communicated by the company.

Jim Rowe, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 943’s president from New Jersey, visited both the Guarulhos and Camaçari DuPont facilities in Brazil in August 2006, together with USW Director Joe Drexler. The company denied them the opportunity to tour the plants. In a USW news release on the current accident, Jim Rowe wonders how “DuPont continues to maintain its reputation as a safe company and sell its safety program to other companies in the wake of serious accidents?”

Workers at DuPont’s Guarulhos facility, waiting for information

The tour of the facilities in Brazil was part of a larger effort by the USW to draw attention to safety and environmental problems stemming from DuPont plants worldwide.

The USW states in its news release that, last year, a worker was killed by an explosion at the Camaçari facility. According to a report from the State of Bahia in Brazil at the time, DuPont was blamed for failing to implement control devices to prevent the explosion. Three serious accidents also happened over the last two years at a US DuPont plant in Niagara Falls, state of New York.

The USW is the lead union in ICEM’s Global DuPont Workers’ Network.