DuPont
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- This article is about the DuPont company. For the other uses of DuPont, see Dupont (disambiguation).
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Template:NYSE was founded in July 1802 as a gun powder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware. DuPont later evolved into one of the world's largest chemical companies, and in the 20th century led the polymer revolution by developing many highly successful materials such as neoprene, nylon, Corian, Lucite, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Nomex, and Tyvek. DuPont has also been significantly involved in the refrigerant industry, developing and producing the Freon series and more modern environmentally-friendly refrigerants. The company often gives trademark names to its material products, many of which have become more well-known and commonly used than the generic or chemical word for the material itself. In 1999, Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont, switched the company's focus towards growing DuPont chemicals in green plants instead of processing them from petroleum.
Today, DuPont is a global science company with 2004 revenues of approximately $28 billion, employs 55,000 people worldwide and is the 66th largest corporation in the United States. DuPont businesses are organized into the following five categories, known as marketing "platforms" - Electronic and Communication Technologies, Performance Materials, Coatings and Color Technologies, Safety and Protection, and Agriculture and Nutrition. In 2004 the company sold its textiles business to Koch Industries, losing some of its most well known brands such as Lycra (spandex) and Thermolite.
DuPont was named one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
DuPont is the primary sponsor of NASCAR 4-time Winston Cup Champion driver Jeff Gordon.
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Criticisms
In 1941, an investigation of Standard Oil Co. and IG Farben also brought new evidence concerning complex price and marketing agreements between du Pont, a major investor in and producer of leaded gasoline, U.S. Industrial Alcohol Co. and their subsidiary, Cuba Distilling Co. The investigation was eventually dropped, like dozens of others in many different kinds of industries, due to the need to enlist industry support in the war effort.
DuPont is an inventor of CFCs and the largest producer of ozone depleting chemicals in the world. DuPont sells $3 billion in CFCs worldwide. In 1987, Du Pont campaigned against effective controls on the use of CFCs. On april 27, 1992 Du Pont tells the world that "we will stop selling CFC's as soon as possible," but only in the "US and other developed countries." The chemical industry plans to replace CFCs with a new generation of chemicals, such as HCFCs and HFCs.
In West Virginia June 1999, the Tennant family sues DuPont for accidentally killing 280 Hereford cows with C-8, a proven animal carcinogen. DuPont was dumping the chemical in a landfill for nonhazardous waste. The chemical leaked into Dry Run Creek, where the cows drank it. The Tennants settled. As part of the settlement, the Tennants were forbidden to discuss the case. The local drinking water was also contaminated with the C-8. Up to 50,000 residents of the Mid-Ohio Valley started a class-action lawsuit against DuPont. They claim that DuPont knew that C-8 was in the public water supply since 1984, but never informed the community. DuPont says the amount of C-8 is too low to raise health concerns, and that they met their reporting obligations.
The EPA is researching how C-8 has entered the bloodstream of much of the country’s population. Blood-bank samples from across the U.S. are being looked at. The EPA is researching whether or not DuPont broke federal law by not telling the EPA years ago.
On May 26, 2003, ammonium perfluorooctanoate or APFO (used to produce Teflon and similar products) is found in groundwater near a North Carolina DuPont plant. The chemical leaked from a cement cistern the company wasn't using.
Related topics
External links
- DuPont (http://www.dupont.com/)
- DuPont's Teflon Dilemma (http://www.chiefexecutive.net/depts/special/193.htm/)
Data
- Yahoo! - EI du Pont de Nemours and Company Company Profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/10/10487.html).
- DuPont heritage site (http://heritage.dupont.com/sitemap.shtml)de:DuPont
fr:DuPont nl:DuPont ja:デュポン pl:E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company