Teflon Article

March 14, 2007

Cancer rates high in C8 areas

Residents in the communities where water is polluted with the toxic chemical C8 have elevated levels of several cancers, according to a previously confidential state government analysis…

Agency researchers found elevated rates of prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Wood and Jackson counties, according to a draft of the study. DHHR also discovered high rates of leukemia and skin cancer in Wood County, where a DuPont Co. plant makes and discharges C8, according to the study…

Since the 1950s, DuPont has used C8 at its Washington Works chemical plant south of Parkersburg. The chemical is used to make Teflon, other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain- and water-repellent textiles. C8 is another name for ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or PFOA. Researchers are finding that people around the world have C8 in their blood. The blood levels may be generally small, but it is unclear whether these amounts are dangerous…

Dan Turner, a media spokesman for DuPont, released a short statement about the study from Robert Rickard, DuPont’s science director. “We agree with the authors that studies of this kind can provide a useful initial screen of differences in disease rates across geographic areas,” Rickard said. “But, as the authors themselves acknowledge, the study cannot and does not identify any cause that explains the observations.”