> One thread about this in 1995, and then the phenomenon is never seen nor heard about again . . .

A default mode of skepticism is best, however the story of this incident didn't trigger my "Yeah, probably not" reflex. It is based on known physical principles and the extremely unusual context seems in the ballpark of sufficient to potentially cause something like this. So my assumption was this was an extremely unlikely edge case that happened "that one time."

It's also not something which strikes me as being a thing people who work in a large 3M factory would lie about.