“A small group of construction contractors working inside our facility sought local medical evaluation,” L-H Battery spokeswoman Caroline Ramsey said in response to questions about the situation from the Dayton Daily News. “We are currently investigating the specific area where they had been working and have temporarily suspended construction activity in this area out of an abundance of caution.”
There was no spill or release of hazardous materials, Ramsey said, but she could not specify why there was a need for an evaluation. She said she thought some of the workers went to medical care providers on their own.
“These individuals, as I understand it, just maybe felt ill, so they went to get checked out,” she said.
No one was transported from the plant to medical care, she added.
She could not comment on the workers’ current condition Friday afternoon.
Terrea Little, a spokeswoman for Premier, said Premier’s Jamestown emergency department was closed temporarily because Silvercreek Twp. fire officials thought that the deparment needed to be cleaned.
“They thought it might have been hazardous,” she added.
She referred further questions to the fire department.
An employee at the Silvercreek Twp. Fire Department in Jamestown Friday said his department had been dispatched to the battery plant, but he could not answer further questions. A message seeking further comment was left.
A Fayette County Sheriff’s Office employee referred questions to the Jefferson Twp. Fire Department, where an employee took a message.
A Greene County dispatcher said she was unaware of any activity at the plant.
Honda and LG Energy Solution jointly built the sprawling EV battery plant, which covers the space of about 78 football fields near Jeffersonville, in Jefferson Twp., Fayette County.
In December, LG said it would sell the plant to Honda Development and Manufacturing of America.
When it was first announced in 2022, the plant was expected to employ about 2,200 people.
But Honda has slowed or cancelled EV model launches in the face of a changing auto market. Citing declining profitability and facing losses of up to nearly $16 billion, Honda said earlier this month it is cancelling the planned launch of three U.S.-produced electric vehicles, including one model that would have been made in Ohio.
The L-H Battery plant has about 600 employees, a spokeswoman told the Dayton Daily News last week.
The production site is an approximately 50-minute drive southeast of Dayton and about 40 minutes south of Springfield.
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