CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, David Mattingly
Published May 12, 2005
COOPER (voice-over): A baby born with deformities. The mother says teflon's to blame. But Dupont says, no way. Tonight, 360 investigates. A contaminated community, and the effects of what some are calling a silent killer.
And King Tut revealed. Scientists unveil models of the boy king, but is this really the real face of King Tut? 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Chances are you have a nonstick frying fan your kitchen right now. The chances are it's made out of Teflon, a substance that is also used in clothing and cars, even in contact lenses. What you may not been Teflon, however, is that the company that makes it, Dupont, settled allegations by federal regulators for $15 million.
The EPA claimed Dupont failed to disclose health information for decades about a chemical used to create Teflon -- C-8, a chemical found in all of us -- and which some people living near Dupont plants believe causes birth defects.
CNN's David Mattingly looks into it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's why the nurses and the doctors, they had never seen anything like it.
MATTINGLY (on camera): You said you were afraid to hold him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was.
MATTINGLY: Why? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was afraid he was going to die in my arms.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): When doctors told Sue Bailey that her son Bucky, born with severe facial deformities wouldn't live through the night, she knew in her heart they were wrong. What she didn't know was that it was the beginning of a childhood filled with pain. And a lifetime filled with questions about a substance used in making products found in millions of American homes.
SUE BAILEY, FORMER DUPONT WORKER: I know what happened. It was the C-8. It was the exposure to C-8. I will never believe anything else.
MATTINGLY: C-8, or PFOA for perfluorooctanoic acid has been used since the 1950's in the manufacturing of the non-stick coating best known by the Dupont trademark Teflon. But that same substance, first used in pots and pans, today also provide protection in stain- resistant clothing and carpet, and it is the coating on countless miles of wiring and cable, the conduits of the information age.
Teflon is manufactured in Parkersburg, West Virginia, on the Ohio River at the Dupont Washington Works Plant, where a pregnant Sue Bailey was employed handling waste water. She worked at Dupont until 1986.
(on camera): At what point in his life did you start to suspect your work at the plant had something to do with this?
SUE BAILEY, FORMER DUPONT WORKER: The doctor at the plant kept calling, kept calling. And I called. And I said, what is so important about this? And he said, because anytime that there's a baby born with a birth defect, we have to report it.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The company says there's no link between Buckey's birth defects and C-8. Twenty-four years ago, Dupont temporarily removed female employees from areas where C-8 was being used. They returned when company's studies determined there was no link between C-8 and birth defects.
Additional studies by Dupont scientists, according to company officials, have also shown no connection between C-8 and cancer, or C- 8 and heart disease.
FRANCINE SHAW, VP, CORPORATE OPERATIONS, DUPONT: The information we do have is very reassuring. And we have just recently completed an employee health study at our Washington Works Plant, which is our largest manufacturing facility in the world. We studied over 1,000 people in this process, and the great news was that these are healthy people.
MELINDA MCDOWELL, RESIDENT: Do we have water, dear?
MATTINGLY: But the Dupont finds provided little comfort to people living down river. In Little Hawking, Ohio, bottled water sales at the corner's store are brisk, because municipal water supplies are contaminated with C-8.
The McDowell family is among those heeding the official warning from the water company last June. It read: "C-8 may pose serious health risks." It was punctuated by the chilling words, "you are using this water at your own risk."
(on camera): So you're even afraid to touch the water.
MCDOWELL: Oh, yes. Afraid. You want to wash your face? You know. Do you want to wash it with that stuff? You know, to me, I see poison. I'm thinking, you know, I wonder if it had a color, how much color would be there?
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Without admit wrongdoing, Dupont recently agreed to a court settlement, to construct a filtering system to remove C-8 from wells in several municipalities, including Little Hawking. Dupont will also pay for an independent medical study of the tens of thousands of customers who'd been drinking the contaminated water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to be part of this experiment. I just don't. But here we are.
MCDOWELL: If somebody came up to you and said I will give you $1,000 for you to be part of this experiment, I don't know what it will do to you. It may do nothing to you, but it may hurt you. It may hurt your children. You know, how many people would say, yeah, that's a good thing?
MATTINGLY: And in some ways, we may all be part of the experiment. There are studies showing 96 percent of the world's population has some traces of C-8 or PFOA in the bloodstream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really don't know whether that's due to an increase of cell number or some other mechanism.
MATTINGLY: Certain studies show a potential risk for developmental problems and cancers in animals, but there is substantial uncertainty about just what risk that may suggest for humans.
Without a significant body of evidence showing C-8 causes harm to people, there's never been a law limiting how much C-8 can be released into the environment. But according to independent scientists recently convened by the EPA, one thing is now clear: Once C-8 is in the environment, it doesn't go away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a persistent chemical. We don't know of any way that PFOA can break down in the environment, which means you need to be cautious with environmental releases of the material. It accumulates in living organisms, which means that it builds up to higher levels than what you would find in the environment, and it causes a number of adverse effects.
MATTINGLY (on camera): Is it accurate it say it's been going into the Ohio River for 50 years from that plant? SHAW: We use PFOA in our manufacturing processes, and the materials that we make with PFOA make the world a safer place.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Dupont officials choose their words carefully when questioned about C-8 discharges in West Virginia, where work is under way to drastically reduce the plant's C-8 emissions.
SHAW: We recognize that there are still questions. And we are actively at the table working with EPA, regulatory agencies. We want to be part of the solution. Scientific community, the technological world, we're at the table, trying to answer those questions where they're unknown (ph).
BUCKY BAILEY, SUE BAILEY'S SON: They're such a company that cares so much about the community and they care so much about helping the community and giving back to the community, but yet with all this, it takes so much to get them to admit anything to admit any possible effect that this could have. And I just want to know why.
MATTINGLY: But independent scientific answers to these and other C-8-related questions are elusive.
Now 25 years old, Bucky Bailey has had more than 30 surgeries to correct deformities to his nose and right eye. He and his mother remain convinced C-8 is to blame, while Dupont continues to deny any connection.
David Mattingly, CNN, Little Hawking, Ohio.
