C-8
2005.07.15–Meigs High School. We went to a town meeting tonight. These are some of the noteworthy items mentioned at the meeting.
- C-8 is a man made molecule. It does not exist naturally. It has a half life of five years in the human body.
- DuPont has been using it for over 50 years and it has escaped into the environment through the air and water. 3M stopped manufacturing it in 2000. DuPont continues to make it at a plant in North Carolina.
- A class action lawsuit has been filed against DuPont. People who have drank water for over a year from a half dozen local water districts are members of the suit. This includes everyone in my family.
- The C-8 health project is meant to collect data. It is operating under court orders in the settlement. The purpose is to collect data, not interpret it.
- Once the data has been collected (they expect it could take up to a year) it will be turned over to scientists who will interpret it and the project will be completed.
- If you are elegible to participate (everone in my family is), they will pay you up to four hundred dollars to answer a detailed questionnaire and take a sample of your blood.
- The results of the blood tests will be provided to you in about two weeks. The results will be shared with the scientists at the conclusion of the project but not your identity. The scientists will be given a participant number and your results. There will only be your test results (which will contain your participant number) and a single master list which will be provided to the Wood county clerk at the conclusion of the project.
Obviously, such a project will bring up questions. I’ve attempted to answer a few below. NOTES: These are not legal opinions, just what I think I heard at the meeting last night. I’d check the website of the C-8 Health Project for “official” details concerning the project or contact an attorney if you want legal advice.
- Q. Does C-8 cause disease? A. There presently is no known study that shows conclusively one way or the other. The purpose of this project is to collect a large sample of data so that scientists can determine if C-8 is harmful.
- Q. Hasn’t there been other studies before now? A. Yes. However, they have utilized a very limited number of people or was in some other way flawed from a scientific perspective. This project hopes to look at a broad spectrum of 60,000 people in detail who have drank the water for over a year.
- Q. What if I live out of town but otherwise will qualify? A. You can still participate and collect the $400.
- Q. Could you explain the half life? A. Suppose you have 16 parts per billion C-8 in your blood today. Five years from now you would have 8. After another five years you would have 4. After another five years you would have 2. Twenty years from now you could still expect to have 1. Eventually, it would become unmeasurable (and assumed of no consequence) but you can see that it is a very slow process. Compare that to the turkey dinner I ate last night. I expect it will be out of my body within a day or so.
- Q. If I participate, does that preclude me from taking any legal action in the future. A. No.
- Q. What if the study proves that there is a link between C-8 disease? A. There is a legal fine line here but in essence, DuPont has agreed to pay for monitoring of your health for life if there is a link between C-8 and disease.
