DuPont Settlement Finalized

A class-action lawsuit against DuPont was finalized in February 2005, resulting in a $108 million settlement (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 11 for more on the tentative settlement). DuPont was charged with polluting the drinking water of several Ohio and West Virginia communities with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, which is used to manufacture Teflon^® and other products (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3). Some of the money will fund an independent study of the health implications of exposure to C8. More than 800,000 people drank contaminated water for more than a year and will be paid for submitting questionnaires and blood samples for testing. If researchers link C8 to any human disease, DuPont will be forced to fund a medical monitoring program, costing an additional $235 million. A separate lawsuit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is pending. Meanwhile, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has renewed water pollution and waste management permits for a Wood County DuPont landfill without limiting the permissible discharge of C8. Although company tests show that C8 is leaching from the landfill, the state has no water pollution standards for the chemical.