Ohioans show high levels of C8 in blood

Chemical's concentration has skyrocketed in 24 customers, water system tests find

Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward Jr.
Published July 22, 2005

Managers of an Ohio water system are worried about what they say are high levels of C8 found in the blood of customers who drink their water, according to documents filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Little Hocking Water Association found C8 concentrations ranging from 112 parts per billion to more than 1,000 parts per billion in two dozen customers tested. Association general manager Robert L. Griffin filed the results July 13 with EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. "The results, to me, seem very high," Griffin told The Athens (Ohio) Messenger, which first reported the numbers Wednesday. "We have been concerned about the exposure of our customers, and we need information to make decisions - both short term and long term." The results from Little Hocking customers are far higher than the 3 to 5 parts per billion concentrations in the general U.S. population that prompted the EPA in 2002 to launch a "priority review" of C8's dangers. Also, the results indicate concentrations of C8 in DuPont plant neighbors that rival those that the company has found in its workers. C8 is another name for ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or PFOA. DuPont has used the chemical since 1951 at its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg to make Teflon and similar products. Since that time, C8 - and DuPont's emissions of it - essentially have been unregulated by state and federal agencies. Last August, DuPont agreed to pay more than $ 107 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 50,000 current and former plant neighbors whose water was tainted with C8. Much of the money will fund a detailed review by private scientists of C8's dangers and a landmark community health study in the Parkersburg area. In his letter to the EPA, Griffin noted that the Little Hocking water system wells - which serve about 12,000 people, according to EPA data - "contain the highest levels of C8 found in any public water supply in the country to date." Last week, the Washington-based Environmental Working Group issued a report indicating that C8 also can be found in the bloodstream of newborn babies. "For years, scientists have studied pollution in the air, water and land, and in our food," said Jane Houlihan, the group's vice president for research. "Now, we find this pollution is reaching babies during vital stages of development. These findings raise questions about the gaps in our federal safety net. Instead of rubber-stamping almost every new chemical that industry invents, we've got to strengthen and modernize the laws that are supposed to protect Americans from pollutants."