E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE: DD (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=DD)) was founded in July 1802 as a gun powder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware. Du Pont 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 nylon, Teflon and Kevlar. Today, DuPont is a multi-national chemicals, paint, and health care company with 2002 revenues of $24.5 billion.
In a report submitted by Saddam Hussein to the United Nations shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was revealed that DuPont had participated in Iraq's nuclear weapons program. (Though the U.S. attempted to redact the names of all U.S. companies involved, an uncensored copy was leaked to the press.)
DuPont was named one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
DuPont has evolved into one of the world's largest chemicalcompanies, and in the 20th century led the polymer revolution by developing many highly successful materials such as neoprene, nylon, Corian, Lucite, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, M5 fiber, Nomex, and Tyvek.
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 is an inventor of CFCs and the largest producer of ozone depleting chemicals in the world.
DuPont began conducting tests on female workers handling C-8 and discovered that two female employees who worked with C-8 had given birth to children with defects similar to those reported in the animal tests.
That year, DuPont told the West Virginia Division of Water Resources that it had reassigned "female personnel of childbearing capability to areas outside those in which" C-8 was being made and handled, but it did not mention that the chemical had been found in the area's groundwater.
DuPont spokesman Clif Webb said yesterday that follow-up tests failed to detect any C-8 in the water and that the company did not test again until 2002, after it entered into a consent agreement with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
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