Global Headquarters. C8 Science Panel Website. Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals in the U.S. Population: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2004 and Comparisons with NHANES 1999–2000. DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception. KEN WAMSLEY SOMETIMES DREAMS that he’s playing softball again.
He’ll be at center field, just like when he played slow pitch back in his teens, or pounding the ball over the fence as the crowd goes wild. Other times, he’s somehow inexplicably back at work in the lab. Wamsley calls them nightmares, these stories that play out in his sleep, but really the only scary part is the end, when “I wake up and I have no rectum anymore.” Wamsley is 73. After developing rectal cancer and having surgery to treat it in 2002, he walks slowly and gets up gingerly from the bench in his small backyard.
He enjoyed the work, particularly the precision and care it required. At the time, Wamsley and his coworkers weren’t particularly concerned about the strange stuff. Today Wamsley suffers from ulcerative colitis, a bowel condition that causes him sudden bouts of diarrhea. “Who knew?” Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. Mariah Blake Home to one of the most brazen, deadly corporate gambits in U.S. history.
Story by Mariah Blake Media directed by Emily Kassie “Hold on to something,” Jim Tennant warned as he fired up his tractor. We lurched down a rutted dirt road past the old clapboard farmhouse where he grew up. At 72, Jim is so slight that he nearly disappears into his baggy plaid shirt. When we had gone as far as the tractor could take us, Jim climbed off and squeezed through a barbed-wire fence. The Tennant clan farmed the fertile patch of soil around the home place for more than a century.
Then, in the early 1980s, DuPont, which ran a sprawling chemical plant called Washington Works in nearby Parkersburg, approached the family about buying some acreage for a landfill. Shortly after the deal closed, Jim and Della, whose home abutted the new landfill, say their two young daughters started wheezing and hacking. Deer bones and Dry Run Creek. The new products quickly captured the popular imagination. Teflon flu. DuPont’s Teflon Neighbors Worry Chemours Won’t Pay Bills. DuPont Co.’s plan to spin off its Teflon unit is spurring concern on the West Virginia-Ohio border that the new company won’t cover medical payments for residents sickened by a chemical long-used at the production plant.
In 2004, as a result of a class action filed three years earlier, DuPont agreed to pay $235 million to monitor residents’ health around Parkersburg, West Virginia, where the plant is located. The new company, though, will start life heavily in debt because of a promised $4 billion dividend it owes DuPont after the spinoff, set for July 1. Now a group called Keep Your Promises DuPont is demanding DuPont explain how the new company, Chemours Co., will fund its commitment to the community’s health. The faceoff is part of a 14-year debate over pollution from the plant that’s been the catalyst for 3,500 personal injury lawsuits and 32 wrongful death claims, according to an April 21 regulatory filing. Open Letter Class-action Suit Area residents say that may not be enough. Hoe DuPont met teflon een ongekende milieuramp veroorzaakte. Ook in Nederland? Arne van der Wal Chemiebedrijf DuPont heeft decennialang de giftigheid van een bestanddeel van teflon verdoezeld.
In de Verenigde Staten lopen zo’n 3500 civiele zaken tegen de chemiereus. Het betreft een van de grootste milieuschandalen waarvoor de chemische industrie verantwoordelijk is. Maar in Nederland, waar DuPont in Dordrecht teflon produceerde, is het opmerkelijk stil rond deze kwestie. Zaten de toezichthoudende instanties te slapen? Leverkanker, zaadbalkanker, een verhoogd cholesterolgehalte, hormoonverstoring, colitis ulcerosa (een ontstekingsziekte van de dikke darm), verminderde vruchtbaarheid, nierkanker, blaaskanker en geboorte-afwijkingen. De stof PFOA is door chemiebedrijf DuPont tientallen jaren gebruikt voor de fabricage van teflon, waarop DuPont het patent bezat.
Dat feit is al sinds 2001 bekend, maar de Nederlandse toezichtsautoriteiten hebben dat genegeerd. ‘Waardevol en veelzijdig’ Teflon is een fantastisch product. Teflon is populair als smeermiddel Onverwoestbaar.