'Keep Your Promises, Dupont' Campaign Kicks Off

Mid-Ohio Valley residents launched a campaign this week in an effort to pressure DuPont, a chemical company, into complying with a 2005 settlement agreement and to educate community members on how they can monitor their health.

http://youtu.be/E-id9scDjD4

For decades, DuPont used a chemical called C-8 in its Washington Works plant near Parkersburg in the manufacturing of Teflon. C-8 is used in hundreds of products from non-stick pots and pans to Goretex boots and cosmetics.

A lawsuit was filed when C-8 was found in community water supplies. An independent panel of epidemiologists appointed to study the chemical and its effects on human health determined that it has a ‘probable link’ to several diseases, including kidney and testicular cancer and thyroid disease and several others.  

The new community-based organization is named Keep Your Promises Dupont. Its launch comes 10 years after Dupont agreed in a settlement to compensate exposed community members and provide means for continuous health monitoring, among other concessions. The organization’s website offers community members a place to share stories and find resources.