| The Environmental Protection Agency has invited DuPont and other chemical companies to join in a global effort to eliminate the use of C-8, a product used in making teflon.
The product is currently the subject of one of the largest evaluations of community health conducted in the USA, with about 80,000 individuals in the mid-Ohio Valley being checked.
The controversial chemical has already cost DuPont millions of dollars, and maybe millions more if the product is found hazardous.
They have already paid money in a civil suit brought against them by Wood County residents after C-8 was discovered in the local water supply, and have been fined by the EPA for allegedly covering up information that could affect the health of their employees and the public.
The initiative is asking DuPont and eight other companies to reduce environmental releases by 95 percent. The deadline for reduction is 2010, with elimination by 2015.
DuPont has agreed, admitting no wrongdoing.
It may be four years before the health effects on the general population are known.
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