EPA, DuPont Settle Teflon Lawsuit

Agreement Reached Over Allegations Company Knew Material Dangerous

(AP) 
DuPont has maintained that C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, has no negative health effects. In February, DuPont settled a class-action lawsuit for $107.6 million brought by Ohio and West Virginia residents in 2001, alleging the Wilmington, Del.-based company intentionally withheld and misrepresented information concerning the nature and extent of the human health threat posed by C8.

The EPA in July 2004 filed a complaint that alleged DuPont had caused "widespread contamination" of drinking water supplies near its Washington Works plant. The EPA also alleged DuPont never told the government the company had water tests that showed C8 in residential supplies in concentrations greater than the company's own internal limit.

The EPA alleged DuPont withheld the results of a test showing that at least one pregnant worker from the Washington Works plant had transferred the chemical from her body to her fetus. That information, the EPA said, supported animal tests showing that C8 "moves across the placental barrier."

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.

Shares of DuPont rose 50 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $43.61 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.