http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/11/18dupontaccusedof.html
November 18, 2004
The
News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware)
Group says report withheld
from EPA
By JEFF MONTGOMERY /
The News Journal
A national environmental organization accused The DuPont Co. on Wednesday
of again failing to report potential human health impacts from a chemical
used to make Teflon. The new charge comes four months after the Environmental
Protection Agency ruled that DuPont violated notification laws involving
the same compound, a finding that could lead to millions of dollars in fines.
The Environmental Working
Group cited tests commissioned by DuPont that in July found higher-than-normal
levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the blood of 12 residents
who live near a company plant in West Virginia. Levels of PFOA, also called
C-8, were nearly a dozen times higher in the group than typical readings
for the general population, according to a report provided to the company.
All 12 individuals live
in the area of DuPont's Washington Works plant along the Ohio River, and
all were plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit over PFOA pollution in West
Virginia and Ohio drinking water supplies, DuPont said. The company recently
offered to settle the case in a deal worth $340 million.
Yet DuPont failed to
notify the EPA of the human health concern as required by federal laws governing
toxic substances and "substantial" health risks, Environmental
Working Group spokeswoman Lauren Sucher said.
"As soon as they
had this information, they were duty-bound to give it to the EPA,"
Sucher said. Instead, DuPont gave the results to the plaintiffs' attorneys
Aug. 5.
Stacey Mobley, senior vice president and general counsel for DuPont, described
the group's report as "irresponsible and alarmist" in a prepared
statement issued late Wednesday.
"DuPont is cooperating
fully with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is providing all
appropriate information to the agency about PFOA, whether required by a
statute or not," Mobley said in the statement. "The [Environmental
Working Group] is doing all it can to mislead the public on this issue."
The environmental group
previously had accused DuPont of failing for years to report evidence of
human risks from PFOA. That claim led to EPA rulings against DuPont that
could have a maximum penalty in excess of $300 million. Federal officials
have said they intend to seek a lesser fine; a hearing is scheduled before
an administrative law judge next month.
In both cases, the group's
accusations involve a type of compound used to make DuPont's flagship nonstick
product that is the subject of a study by EPA scientists. Scientists became
concerned over its unexpected, widespread presence in the environment and
its potential for health risks including increased risk of birth defects,
developmental or other health problems such as cancer.
Federal officials are
working with industry to develop tests to determine how PFOA and related
chemicals break down and reach the environment and living tissues.
According to DuPont's test results, levels detected in the 12 residents
average 67.5 parts per billion, well above the national average of 5.6 parts
per billion. Three of the results were the highest ever measured in humans,
the group said. DuPont said an attorney for those who filed the suit provided
the results to the EPA in September. None of the results exceeded workplace
safety limits, DuPont said.
"While the Environmental
Protection Agency conducts what the agency has termed 'the most significant
scientific assessment ever conducted' because of their concerns over human
exposures [to PFOA], DuPont has apparently chosen to suppress data that
could be critical in the agency's efforts to protect public health,"
a statement by the environmental group said.
DuPont's operations
release PFOA into the air and water in West Virginia and at the company's
Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J. The releases in New Jersey are at
far lower and declining levels.
Earlier studies have
found the same chemical - which is not a naturally occurring substance -
in humans and animals around the globe.
DuPont said it would
have a better understanding of public exposures to the chemical after the
completion of an employee study and a University of Pennsylvania community
study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, due early next year.
Contact Jeff Montgomery
at (302) 678-4277 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.
