EPA stands firm on C8 stance
DuPont disputes report’s finding about cancer risk
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH - June 02, 2006
By Spencer Hunt
A group of government scientists won’t back off its finding that a chemical DuPont uses to make Teflon poses a "likely" cancer risk to people.
That decision, in a final report issued yesterday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was a setback for company officials. They argue that perfluorooctanoic acid, or C8, isn’t harmful.
Robert Rickard, science director of the DuPont Haskell Laboratory for Health and Environmental Studies, said the EPA report relied on old research on lab animals.
"There is absolutely no information to indicate that this causes cancer in man," Rickard said.
The Washington-based Environmental Working Group, a longtime DuPont critic, praised the scientists’ work. Spokeswoman Lauren Sucher said she expects the EPA to more aggressively study C8’s health effects.
"They more often than not follow the advice of their science panels," Sucher said.
EPA officials, however, warned that it still is too early to draw any conclusions about C8.
"The agency is working as quickly as possible to develop a complete understanding of the sources and pathways of (C8) and what risk, if any, it poses," spokeswoman Enesta Jones said.
DuPont has used the chemical for decades to help make Teflon and other water- and stain-resistant coatings for pots, pans, clothes and carpets at its sprawling Washington Works plant along the Ohio River near Parkersburg, W.Va.
The chemical has been detected in the blood of animals and humans around the globe. Some of the highest blood levels were detected in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia residents who live near the plant.
The EPA’s science advisory board assessment declares C8 a likely carcinogen based on research linking it to tumors in lab rats. The finding is the conclusion of 12 of the panel’s 16 members.
Rickard and other DuPont officials urged the board to change its assessment from "likely cancer risk" to "suggested cancer risk." In a June 2005 draft report, a majority of its member scien- tists called it a likely risk.
Though C8 can remain in humans for years, male lab rats clear it out of their bodies within weeks. Rats’ health problems began at doses of C8 hundreds of times higher than the average 5 parts per billion in people.
Rickard said the EPA’s Science Advisory Board relied on old studies, the most recent of which were completed in 2004. He predicted new research, both recently completed and under way, will show C8 isn’t harmful.
Sucher said she expects future studies will lead the EPA to conclude that its scientists were right.
In the meantime, DuPont faces new lawsuits that say C8 released from Washington Works threatens the health of nearby residents.
Attorneys filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of 33,000 Parkersburg residents whose well water is contaminated with C8. The suit was filed by the same team of lawyers that last year settled a similar lawsuit against DuPont for an amount that could reach $343 million.
Another recently filed suit seeks damages for the Little Hocking Water Association, a nonprofit water company in southeastern Ohio that owns and operates wells contaminated with C8 and similar compounds.
In January, DuPont and the U.S. EPA announced an agreement to eliminate the company’s global releases of C8 by 2015. That will happen, Jones said, even if the EPA decides the chemical is not harmful.
SOURCE:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-st ... E1-00.html