C8. April 30, 2004. DuPont to launch $1M C8 study. By Dave Payne Sr., The Parkersburg News and Sentinel (West Virginia).

FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK PESTICIDE PROJECT

Return to Newspaper articles and Documents related to this Class Action

C8 or C-8: PFOA is perfluorooctanoic acid and is sometimes called C8. It is a man-made chemical and does not occur naturally in the environment. The "PFOA" acronym is used to indicate not only perfluorooctanoic acid itself, but also its principal salts.
The PFOA derivative of greatest concern and most wide spread use is the ammonium salt (Ammonium perfluorooctanoate) commonly known as C8, C-8, or APFO and the chemical of concern in the Class Action suit in Ohio.

Ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO or C8)
CAS No. 3825-26-1. Molecular formula:

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA or C8)
CAS No: 335-67-1. Molecular formula:

The DuPont site where APFO is used as a reaction aid is the Washington Works (Route 892, Washington, West Virginia 26181) located along the Ohio River approximately seven miles southwest of Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The Little Hocking Water Association well field is located in Ohio on the north side of the Ohio River immediately across from the Washington Works facility. Consumers of this drinking water have brought a Class Action suit against the Association and DuPont for the contamination of their drinking water with DuPont's APFO, which residents and media refer to as C8.

PFOA is used as a processing aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers to produce hundreds of items such as non-stick surfaces on cookware (TEFLON), protective finishes on carpets (SCOTCHGUARD, STAINMASTER), clothing (GORE-TEX), and the weather-resistant barrier sheeting used on homes under the exterior siding (TYVEK).

Online at: http://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/story/0430202004_new01_DuPontStudy.asp

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel (West Virginia)

Friday, April 30, 2004

DuPont to launch $1M C8 study

By DAVE PAYNE Sr.

PARKERSBURG - DuPont Washington Works officials announced Thursday plans to conduct a $1 million study to compare the health of employees who work directly with C8 and those who do not.

The company is asking all 960 of its employees at Washington Works to participate. Officials hope at least 750 will, said Paul Bossert, plant manager.

Retirees and others who work at the plant for outside contractors will not be involved in the study, Bossert said.

Perfluorooctanoic acid, commonly referred to as C8 or PFOA, is a compound used much like soap in industrial processes.

It has been used at DuPont Washington Works for a half-century and is the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2001 by residents living near the plant. The suit alleges that levels of the chemical in drinking water are unsafe.

DuPont officials deny that claim.

Robert Rickard, director of the DuPont Haskell Laboratory for Health and Environmental Sciences in Newark, Del., said no new data prompted the decision to conduct the survey.

"It is our belief that there are no health effects associated with PFOA. This study will simply add to our body of knowledge," Rickard said.

The examinations are slated to begin June 2 and will take about a month to complete, Bossert said. The company plans to give individual exam results to employees by August, he said.

DuPont has hired a private firm, Professional Health Services, Leachtown, Pa., to perform the survey. The protocol and results will be evaluated by two outside review boards, including the West Virginia University Institutional Review Board, said Robin Leonard, principal research epidemiologist for the DuPont Haskell Laboratory.

Professional Health Services will send the data to the Delaware laboratory in September, she said.

Preliminary results of the study should be available to the public by late September and the final report should be released by November, Leonard said.

The consent form sent to employees Thursday says the company will make every effort to keep the names of employees confidential. However, counsel representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit may be able to view individual results, it says.

"However, you need to know that there is a protective order in place for the C8 litigation that permits plaintiff's counsel to access individual health records.... The protect order does bind plaintiff's counsel from copying or distributing this information anywhere else," the form says.

Harry Deitzler, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, said no plans had been made to request access to the individual records.

"However, as additional medical information becomes available, I am reasonably confident we will seek to have access," Deitzler said.

Deitzler said he does not understand what DuPont hopes to accomplish with the survey.

"According to the letter (sent to employees) DuPont is just comparing employees with employees. With the (drinking) water and air, everybody in the plant is essentially exposed the same," Deitzler said.

The study would be more valuable if it used a control group who lives and works nowhere near where C8 is used, Deitzler said.

"A comparison of workers in the plant is absolutely meaningless," Deitzler said.

Bossert said Thursday afternoon that several employees, including himself, had already signed up for the survey.

"We expect a good response. Employees get a complete physical at no cost to themselves," Bossert said.

The examinations will be performed at the plant, Bossert said.

During the examinations, the company will draw blood to test for serum levels of C8, and will provide urinalysis, pulmonary-function tests, chest X-ray and electrocardiograms.

The study will focus on evaluating liver function, Leonard said. Studies in which laboratory rodents were given extremely high doses of C8 indicate the liver is the primary organ to be affected, Leonard said.

Rickard said the laboratory tests on animals do not reflect human-health hazards from C8 in the environment.

"These are much higher doses than any potential exposure in the workplace or the environment," Rickard said.

Leonard said the survey will enable DuPont officials to "know exactly the concentrations of PFOAs in blood and analyze that data relative to exposure levels."