U.S. Water News Online
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. -- There are no known human health effects associated with exposure to the amount of a chemical some Wood County residents say has contaminated their drinking water, E.I. DuPont deNemours & Co. officials say in response to a lawsuit.
Customers of Lubeck Public Service District in Wood County filed a lawsuit in August against the water supplier and the company, saying they are concerned about the health effects of a chemical used at DuPont's Washington Works to manufacture Teflon.
The lawsuit, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court, asks for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages, plus medical testing for residents who get their drinking water from the Lubeck PSD.
C-8 poses a health risk to humans at concentrations of less than one part per billion, the level set by DuPont as an exposure guideline for drinking water, the lawsuit said.
In a written statement released earlier, company officials said DuPont has used C-8 at its Washington Works plant for more than 50 years. The company says its level of C-8 discharge is safe.
DuPont admits C-8 has a tendency to persist ``in the blood of animals and humans,'' and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists has categorized C-8 as a ``confirmed animal carcinogen with unknown relevance to humans.''
The company statement says it has knowledge that C-8 is present in public and private drinking water supplies at concentrations below levels that pose a threat to human health or the environment.
It continues to use C-8 and releases C-8 pursuant to permits issued by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
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