New Lawsuit Against DuPont Over PFOA
A lawsuit has been filed in the US state of Delaware against chemical giant DuPont, claiming the company paid its defense attorneys in class action suits more than it has spent on toxicology tests for the chemicals discharged from plants in the states of Ohio and West Virginia.
Specifically, the residents who claim they were harmed by discharges of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, or C8), the chemical once used to manufacture DuPont’s Teflon-brand non-stick pan coating, say the company has paid its attorney, Michael Rozen, almost $15 million since 2015 while only spending $860,000 on testing.
The plaintiffs accuse the Wilmington, Delaware-headquartered chemical producer of failing to meet the terms of a 2004 class action settlement that included a promise to test more than 100,000 people for diseases linked to PFOA.
According to the newspaper News Journal, DuPont promised blood collection tests to determine exposure to the substances for thousands of people living close to its Washington Works complex near Parkersburg, West Virginia – now part of spin-off Chemours. However, the residents’ attorney, Rob Billiot, claims the funds have not been allocated in a way that would allow a sufficient number of people to undergo testing.
As of March 31, 2016, out of 99,065 potential participants, only 6,678 individuals had registered and 5,955 had been accepted for monitoring, Billiot told the newspaper. He said blood had been collected for only 1,825 patients.
In February of this year, DuPont and Chemours agreed to jointly pay $670.7 million in cash to settle out of court around 3,550 personal injury lawsuits related to discharges of PFOA from the Washington Works.
