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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INVESTIGATING DUPONT'S C-8 PROBLEM |
| (05/20/2005) |
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Federal investigators have begun a criminal probe of DuPont's handling regarding the toxic chemical C8. The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded that DuPont hand over thousands of records concerning the chemical and company studies that allude to its danger. The grand jury subpoena comes a few days after the Bush administration is reportedly fining the giant corporation $15 million dollars in what skeptics called a "sweetheart deal," saying they could have been fined up to $300 million by the EPA. The subpoena is seeking documents "previously produced to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other documents related to those chemicals," likely to include documents where DuPont reportedly been accused of hiding problems caused their employees and the community. The Washington Works plant in Wood County has used C8 for more than 50 years, mostly notably in the production of Teflon. The EPA has begun a detailed review of the chemical and sued DuPont for allegedly hiding information about C8's dangers. A Wood County judge approved a $107.6 million settlement of a civil lawsuit filed against DuPont on behalf of thousands of residents whose drinking water was allegedly poisoned with C8 and millions more have been set aside if health problems are confirmed. The EPA alleged that DuPont had caused "widespread contamination" of drinking water supplies near its Wood County plant and has created a "substantial risk of injury to the health or the environment." The EPA alleged that DuPont never told the government the company had water tests that showed C8 in residential supplies in concentrations greater than the company's own limits. They also claimed that for more than 20 years the results of a test showing that at least one pregnant worker from the Parkersburg plant had transferred the chemical from her body to her fetus. The EPA said that agency efforts to understand C8's health effects "might have been more expeditious" if DuPont had submitted the human test results in 1981." Then DuPont did not provide the EPA with this information, even after the agency requested it under the terms of the company's hazardous-waste permit.
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