Environment

Chemical companies are using a trade secrets loophole to withhold the health effects of new products, preventing scientists from identifying emerging environmental threats.

While touting GenX as being a safe replacement for PFOA, DuPont filed 16 reports of “substantial risk of injury to health or the environment” about its new chemical.

The EPA has yet to regulate the toxic PFCs found in fire-suppressing foam, Teflon, and other products that have contaminated our drinking water.

After less than one full day of deliberation, a jury in Columbus, Ohio, found DuPont liable for $1.6 million in a personal injury claim over C8 contamination.

The first of 3,500 personal injury and 37 wrongful death claims against DuPont went to trial in Columbus, Ohio, this week.

The Environmental Protection Agency has long known that C8 is harmful to human health. But the chemical, which is in the bloodstream of 99.7 percent of Americans, remains unregulated at the national level.

When attorney Robert Bilott filed suit against DuPont on behalf of a West Virginia cattle farmer, he had no way of knowing the case would lead to one of the most significant class actions in environmental law.

Internal documents reveal that DuPont long suspected C8 was harmful, yet continued to put the company’s workers and the public at risk.