A few days ago, researchers at West Virginia School of Medicine who are involved in the C8 Health Project provided some initial results from the 69,030 participants who live in the vicinity of DuPont's Washington Works plant near Parkersburg, WV. The information was presented at a May 7 public lecture entitled "The C8 Health Project: How a Class Action Lawsuit Can Interact with Public Health: History of Events" (Slides here), and was reported in the Charleston Gazette (here).Â
The data to-date indicate that participants have serum concentrations of C8 (perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)) which are substantially higher than the general population, and these concentrations differ based on participants' age, gender and the district in which they receive their drinking water. Preliminary univariate analyses show associations between C8 and measures of immune, liver and thyroid function, and cholesterol levels.
The presentation prepared by the WVU researchers (with 63 slides) explains the history of the C8 Health Study, the role of the Science Panel, the WVU Project Team and Brookmar, Inc. in the project, a timeline of the legal events and study activities, as well as maps of the area from which study participants reside.Â
The SKAPP website offers a case study on PFOA; a previous blog post on this topic was called "How'd that C8 get into your blood?"
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This is scary to say the least. Potentially harmful stuff in our drinking water and blood stream!!
Submitted by Collins PR for Salter & Associates, Parkersburg, WV
For Immediate Release May 16; For More Information: Lisa Collins, 304/483-1355
C8 Science Panel Responds to Release of Preliminary Results on C8
The C8 Science Panel, chosen to determine whether C8 has a probable link with any disease, is making a statement in response to recently released C8 results of preliminary analyses from WVU.
According to Dr. Kyle Steenland, one of the C8 Science Panel, "West Virginia University has recently released information from the C8 Health Project. These include some simple table and graphs relating C8 to several blood tests. These do not represent a thorough data analysis. Therefore, the C8 Science Panel does not believe they provide valid information regarding the presence or absence of association between C8 exposure and health outcomes.
The C8 Science Panel will analyze the data that serves as a basis for these reports in more detail. There is a possibility the initial impressions from these simple tabulations may change considerably when we evaluate the information more systematically.
The Science Panel's charge is to assess whether there is a probable link between C8 exposure to community residents and health effects. The Science Panel is the only entity that is charged by the Court under the terms of the settlement with evaluating and reaching conclusions on this issue.
We will make extensive use of the information collected through the C8 Health Project in 2005-2006. Besides analyzing the C8 Health Project data itself, we will also conduct follow-up studies of the C8 Health Project participants which will provide stronger information than the data from the C8 Health Project. The data from the C8 Health Project by itself is
insufficient, even when completely analyzed, to draw any firm conclusions about whether C8 is linked to disease."
When complete, the Science Panel reports will be filed with the Court, published in academic journals, and shared directly with the interested public. Their first analyses of the C8 Health Project data will be made public later this year.
WVU researchers have analyzed the C8 Health Project data under a contract with Brookmar, Inc. Brookmar was set up as part of a Settlement Agreement following a lawsuit between community residents and DuPont. Brookmar conducted the C8 Health Project.
The C8 Science Panel was been created under the same Settlement Agreement but is independent of Brookmar and the C8 Health Project, although the Panel will be analyzing the C8 Health Project data. The Science Panel is made up of three scientific experts in the field of epidemiology, who will analyze the data collected by the C8 Health Project, administered by Brookmar in 2005-2006. The Science Panel will also conduct a series of studies over
the next one to four years. The three panelists were agreed upon by both DuPont and the plaintiffs. Included are Dr. Tony Fletcher, Dr. Kyle Steenland, and Dr. David Savitz. More information can be found at www.c8sciencepanel.org.
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