DuPont facing three lawsuits over C8 exposure

DuPont is facing two personal injury claims and a wrongful death suit over the chemical C8, known as perfluorooctanoic acid, used in its Washington Works plant near Parkersburg.

The cases are separate from an earlier class-action lawsuit over contaminated water in West Virginia and Ohio.


Virginia Morrison is the plaintiff in the wrongful death lawsuit. She claims her husband died in 2008 from kidney cancer-related injuries.

"We lived on DuPont Road for years,'' Morrison told the Associated Press. "Only this year did we find out that the water we were drinking may have made my husband sick.''

The other lawsuits claim injuries involving thyroid disease and ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease.

The company agreed under a 2005 settlement of the class-action case to phase out the use of C8 by 2015.

The company also will pay for medical monitoring programs to help detect the onset of C8-linked diseases among residents.

"Recently, however, plaintiff attorneys began advertising for clients to now sue us for specific health issues in personal injury lawsuits,'' DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said in a statement.

"Lawsuits have been filed, including three in Wood County. 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 while providing good jobs with good wages and benefits in our local community.''

As part of the class-action settlement a science panel established probable links between C8 exposure and thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and pregnancy-induced hypertension.

Source: AP


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