Delaware

18 Workers Sent to Hospital After Exposure Incident at Delaware DuPont Experimental Station

The workers were exposed to a rust-colored substance in the ductwork at DuPont's facility in Delaware.

Hazardous materials emergency personnel responded to an incident Saturday morning at a DuPont research facility in Wilmington, Delaware.

Contractors working in a laboratory at the DuPont Experimental Station on Powder Mill Road were exposed to a material that a DuPont spokesman described as "pH neutral."

"On-site testing has shown no signs of HF (hydroflouric acid) in the material," DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said.

The exposure occurred about 11 a.m. and New Castle HazMat personnel along with on-site emergency officials responded to the lab, DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said.

Eighteen workers were taken to local hospitals for evaluation, Turner said.

"There is no off-site impact to the community," Turner said. "We will provide additional information as it becomes available."

The station is part of a 150-acre campus. The location is the birthplace of hundreds of scientific breakthroughs since its creation in 1903, including Neoprene, Nylon and Tevlar.

DuPont was founded prior to the Civil War and became one of the nation's largest gun powder mills in the mid-19th century.

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