"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- DuPont Co. rejected affordable plant and equipment upgrades, ignored near-miss incidents and violated the chemical giant's own widely touted safety guidelines in failing to prevent three January 2010 accidents that left one Belle plant worker dead, federal investigators said in a report issued Thursday.

U.S. Chemical Safety Board officials found common threads -- including poor maintenance practices, ineffective warning alarms, and insufficient accident investigations -- among the three incidents that occurred over a 33-hour period Jan. 22-23, 2010.

Chief among the findings was that nearly 25 years ago DuPont rejected proposals to enclose the Belle plant's phosgene unit, a move that would have protected workers and local residents from the poisonous material used as a chemical weapon in World War I."

Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette July 7, 2011. [2]