The DuPont Company has been labeled a “severe violator” and placed in an enforcement program after an investigation from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. The investigation occurred after four of the company’s workers were killed at a plant explosion in Texas.

In November of 2014 at the La Porte, TX facility a chemical supply line suddenly released 20,000 pounds of methyl mercaptan when a drain was opened on a vent line. The gas is colorless and toxic and is used in insecticides and jet fuel. One worker was overcome by the fumes and as three others tried to save him, the four of them asphyxiated before the leak could be contained. After the accident the company was issued 11 citations including failure to train employees on the building’s ventilation system or other safety procedures. They faced $99,000 in citations, but OSHA investigators thought that further inspections were warranted.

A second inspection of the site resulted in the company being placed in OSHA’s severe violator enforcement program, cited for three willful, one repeat, and four serious violations and fines of $273,000. The repeat violation was for failing to inspect of test process equipment. OSHA will continue to monitor this particular facility as the severe violator enforcement program mandates.

An OSHA spokesperson said that even though DuPont prides itself on a culture of safety, the results of these inspections suggest that they are operating with a “failed safety program”. OSHA appears to be taking these violations extremely seriously in order to send a message to chemical facilities so that a tragedy like the one that occurred in La Porte will not happen anywhere else be it at a DuPont plant or any other facility.