News Coverage
A link to more information
Published July 4, 2003
The Marietta Times and its Web site, www.MariettaTimes.com, have created a Web resource for area residents looking for the latest reports and information about a chemical we know as C8, found in some local drinking water supplies.
It's been more than a year since details about C8, a chemical used in the manufacturing of Teflon, were revealed. The chemical is used at the DuPont Washington Works plant.
Since that time, the newspaper has published numerous articles about area residents' concerns about the impact the chemical may have on their health; steps local water systems and state and federal environmental agencies are taking to establish what danger C8 poses, if any; and updates from DuPont which has had its own teams of people researching C8 and its impact on people and the environment.
There's a lot to keep up with, but we know this is a subject many of our readers are interested in and, as such, we have created a C8 resource as part of our Web site.
Readers can access the site easily.
First, there will be direct links from stories that appear at www.MariettaTimes.com dealing with C8. And readers can get to the site any time simply by going to www.MariettaTimes.com and clicking onto the news page. There, on the left hand column, will be a link to "C8 information."
The site offers a variety of information. There's an explanation of C8 and why it's in the news, and a selection of past news reports as the story of C8 has unfolded over the past several months. There's also a link to other Web sites offering C8 information. Sites such as www.teflon.com, www.dupont.com, Dupont's own C8 web resource called C-8 inform; and the site for the Environmental Working Group - www.ewg.org - a national environmental watchdog group which has also been watching the C8 story unfold. Finally, there's a link to the Little Hocking Water Association site, which is one of the Washington County water systems to have what some consider to be a significant problem with C8 in its wells.
There is much left to be learned about C8 and that's one of the reasons we've added this feature to our Web site. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of conducting its own examination of C8 - known by the chemical name ammonium perflourooctanoate, or PFOA - and there's a pending class action lawsuit in which some Mid-Ohio Valley residents are claiming to have been harmed by C8. These will be ongoing stories that we will continue to cover online and in print.
One interesting feature available through our new resource is the capability to do a Google search for any article published about C8. It's just one more way to get the latest published information about the chemical, the companies that use it and its impact on people and the environment.
No final conclusions have been made about C8 and the danger it poses to humans. DuPont claims there is none, and the EPA and others are attempting to determine the answer for themselves. In the meantime, the residents of Washington County and nearby communities, who have C8 in their water, air and soil, have to wait and see.
We'll continue to cover the story and bring our readers the latest information, both in print and online, and we hope this latest addition to our Web site will help readers monitor the latest on C8 more quickly and easily than before.