DuPont apologizes for chemical leaks and poor communication

Chemical company DuPont apologized for the leakage of hazardous substances on its premises in Dordrecht and for its poor communication about such leakages with local residentsm director Europa Govert Griffioen said to newspaper AD. This is the first time he is substantively talking about two formaldehyde leaks at the company this year.

"People lost confidence in the factory, and we regret that", Griffioen said to the newspaper. In August the company discovered that 2,730 kilograms of poisonous formaldehyde gas leaked out of the factory over two days. The magnitude of the leak was only revealed a month and a half later. "We are not proud that happened. This kind of incident should simply not happen", the director said, adding about the late communication of the incident that "we were busy ourselves solving the problem. The outside world was forgotten in a sense."

There was another formaldehyde spill at the factory in October and the factory was shut down for a month. It restarts operations again this week. "We completely scoured the factory to prevent something like this happening again. As far as I'm concerned, it will never happen again."