News Coverage
DuPont must test residents
Judge
Published April 18, 2003
PARKERSBURG - A Wood County judge on Friday ordered DuPont Co. to provide a key medical test for thousands of area residents exposed to pollution from the company's Washington Works plant.
Wood Circuit Judge George W. Hill Jr. told DuPont to offer blood tests for residents to determine the amount of the chemical C8 in their bodies.
The ruling is a victory for the residents. In a class action lawsuit, plant neighbors and downstream residents allege that C8 in the water they drink and the air they breathe has put them at increased risk of cancer and other illnesses.
"This stuff is still being spewed out into the water and air, whether it's hazardous or not," Hill said. "I assume that, if DuPont didn't think it was hazardous, they wouldn't have put a limit on how much of it would be released."
Hill said he temporarily would suspend his ruling to allow DuPont time to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
DuPont lawyers and officials are reviewing the ruling and haven't decided if they will appeal, said company spokeswoman Dawn Jackson.
"DuPont continues to be confident that its use and handling of C8 over more than 50 years has been safe and protective of human health and the environment," the company said in a prepared statement.
The blood tests, if conducted, could provide a wealth of new information about the potential risks residents face from years of C8 exposure.
Data from a DuPont model already has suggested that area residents have more than 1,000 times the C8 in their blood that federal regulators consider a potential health risk. The model estimates blood concentrations based on exposure to water and air emissions of C8.
DuPont has disavowed the model, though, saying it is not accurate.
The blood tests also could cost DuPont millions of dollars. By one estimate, they could cost $650 to $1,000 per person. Under Hill's ruling, all members of the class of plaintiffs suing DuPont would be eligible for the tests.
Last year, Hill defined the class to include "all persons whose drinking water is or has been contaminated with [C8] attributable to releases" from the Washington Works plant.
Lawyers said that could include 25,000 to 50,000 people. In a March disclosure to stockholders, DuPont said the class could include "tens of thousands" of people.
"There are thousands of people in this area that have been exposed to this," said Rob Bilott, a lawyer for the residents. "Our interest is in getting this test for these people as quickly as possible."
C8 is another name for perfluorooctanoate, and also is known as perfluoro-octanoic acid or PFOA.
At its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg, DuPont has used C8 for more than 50 years in the production of Teflon. C8 and DuPont's emissions of it have been basically unregulated.
But in the past few years, C8 pollution from the plant has come under increasing scrutiny. Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was intensifying its study of C8 because of concerns about toxicity.
On Friday morning, lawyers for the residents asked Hill to grant a summary judgment motion to require DuPont to fund more extensive medical monitoring for the class of people suing the company. Under a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling, companies in some situations can be made to pay for medical testing aimed at detecting illnesses caused by toxic exposure.
In summary judgment motions, lawyers argue that there are no factual disputes and ask judges to rule solely on the law.
Hill declined to order medical monitoring through such a ruling. He said he believed that the state Supreme Court probably would overturn such a decision.
The judge said he might be less likely to be overturned if he instead ordered the blood tests only, and did so in the form of injunctive relief for the residents.
"That's a short-cut that would get to the testing," Hill said.
During Friday's hearing, DuPont lawyers argued that company experts believe C8 is not hazardous to humans.
"It doesn't create a significant increase in the risk of serious disease. Period," said company lawyer Larry Janssen. DuPont lawyers also argued that the company has greatly reduced C8 emissions, and is working to cut them even more.
But Bilott told the judge that DuPont's own documents, obtained during discovery in the case, show that C8 is dangerous to humans.
Bilott said DuPont's studies have linked C8 to liver disease, bladder cancer and kidney cancer.
Studies by 3M, which used to make C8 for DuPont, have linked the chemical to prostate cancer, Bilott said.
"DuPont may argue about this," Bilott said. "Everything that we are saying comes from DuPont. These are their statements and their scientists."
Bilott noted that 3M found C8 in samples from blood banks around the country.
"The industry is still not sure how this is happening - how it is getting into the blood," Bilott said.