For folks who are closely following issues surrounding the toxic chemical PFOA (also known as C8), both the C8 Science Panel and the C8 Health Project have published their first papers in peer-reviewed journals.

The Science Panel’s first paper went online back in March, but is just now available in the July issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The first paper on the C8 Health Project appeared online for the first time Monday in the same journal.

The Science Panel and the Health Project are separate, but also somewhat intertwined efforts to get to the bottom of what the adverse health effects are from exposure to PFOA.

The Science Panel is a team of three scientists appointed as a result of the big class action settlement with DuPont in Wood County, W.Va. They will study C8 and determine if there is a link between exposure and adverse health effects. If they find such a link, then DuPont could be on the hook for millions of dollars in future medical testing for area residents who drank polluted water.

The Health Project is a community study in the Parkersburg area, funded by proceeds from the class-action settlement, dreamed up by residents and their lawyers to gather detailed medical information on those residents and use it to also help explain C8’s effects.

The Science Panel’s paper is most a rehash of material that was already made public by the panel on its Web site (and covered here by the Gazette). Likewise, the Health Project paper includes material that has been previously made public.

But both papers are still worth a read, to see the findings in context and understand what other scientists in the field will be seeing as they keep up with this fast developing field of science.

Print PDF