Personal Injury Lawsuits Allegedly Due To C8 Exposure Plague DuPont
Ohio personal injury law firm is investigating Personal injury lawsuits filed against DuPont in Ohio and West Virginia for exposure to C8.
Personal injury lawsuits filed against DuPont in Ohio and West Virginia moved to federal court at DuPont’s request so the corporation “doesn’t get hometowned.” Many more personal injury lawsuits expected after Panel finds probable links between C8 chemical exposure and a multitude of diseases.
DuPont and C8 Exposure
DuPont has been using perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), known as C8, for more than 60 years to produce many consumer products, including Teflon, at their DuPont Washington Work plant near the Ohio River Valley town of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
In 2002, a lawsuit was filed against DuPont after C8 contamination was found in the water supply of the Belpre, Pomeroy, Tuppers Plains, and Little Hocking communities in Ohio, and in Mason and Lubeck Counties in West Virginia. In 2005, that lawsuit, which became a class action, settled and as part of the settlement, a $70 million cash payment was made to the plaintiffs, who elected to use the money to fund the C8 Health Project.
The C8 Health Project was formed to collect data and blood samples from nearly 70,000 people living near the DuPont plant. The C8 Science Panel was also formed to establish any probable links between any diseases and C8 exposure. (http://www.c8sciencepanel.org/panel.html)
The C8 Science Panel has concluded that a probable link exists between C8 and the following:
- diagnosed high cholesterol
- kidney cancer
- thyroid disease
- testicular cancer
- pregnancy-induced hypertension (including preeclampsia)
According to the settlement, any link found between C8 and any human disease would obligate DuPont to fund a $235 million medical monitoring program, designed by a panel of medical experts.
The settlement also required DuPont to establish state of the art water treatments facilities for the communities involved to clear C8 from the water supply, and preserved all personal injury claims of class members.
DuPont Facing Growing Number of Personal Injury Lawsuits
Last October, as the C8 Science Panel released its final finding, the Athens Messenger reported that DuPont released a statement saying, “Because of this work, DuPont will, with the advice of independent doctors, provide medical monitoring for eligible Class Members that will extend many years into the future. In addition, DuPont remains committed to its ongoing program of providing state of the art water filtering systems for area water systems to ensure that C8 is filtered out of the drinking water,”
Seemingly, as the pressure of the personal injury cases mount, DuPont issued a statement earlier this month stating “Lawsuits such as these ignore family history and lifestyle choices as a primary cause of health issues and disease in specific individuals…DuPont will vigorously defend against any and all such lawsuits not based upon valid science,” the Messenger reports.
The current class action is open to anyone who worked or lived in any of the six contaminated water districts prior to December 3, 2004 and suffers from a disease linked to C8 exposure by the C8 Science Panel.
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