Little
Hocking Water Association customers will have an opportunity
Monday to find out how the chemical C8 is affecting them,
as an independent research group releases the full results
of its C8 study.
An informational
meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at Warren High School,
led by Edward A. Emmett, professor of occupational and environmental
medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
who headed the study.
Early
results of the government-sponsored study were released
in late July but most of the information will come out for
the first time at the meeting, Emmett said Friday.
“There
will be a lot of new information,” he said. “I
don’t think any of the things we’ve already
discussed (with the public) will change but there will be
quite a lot in addition.”
Already
released from the study of 326 Belpre, Little Hocking, Cutler
and Vincent residents was that the levels of C8 in the residents’
blood was 60 to 80 times higher than in the general population.
Also the study confirmed that C8 in the water supply was
the main cause of the high levels.
“It’s
what we suspected for years,” said Dwayne Allen, 54,
of Little Hocking. “And the other thing most of us
have suspected is that the C8 is making us sick. I hope
we don’t find out that’s true, too.”
C8 has
been used by DuPont to make Teflon since the 1950s and DuPont
maintains that it has no negative impacts on human health.
A year-long health survey and monitoring project began recently,
as part of a settlement reached in a lawsuit filed by Washington
and Lubeck, W.Va. residents against DuPont Washington Works.
The
results of the independent study already completed focus
on health effects, said Emmett.
“I’ll
talk about what we did and what we found in respect to any
health effects of the C8 levels,” he said. “We’ll
also give any recommendations we may have.”
Emmett
wouldn’t comment on any specific findings Friday.
“The
people in the study have to hear it first,” he said.
Allen
said many in the community are anxious to hear the findings
of this study and the research yet to be completed.
“There
wasn’t any research on this to look at until recently,”
he said. “We have no idea what we could find out.”
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