The C8 Science Panel, chosen to determine whether C8 has a probable link with any disease, is now making duplicate copies of portions of the C8 Health Project data available to those Health Project participants who may have lost or misplaced their results. The duplicate data is for the level of C8 and the nine other related fluorocarbons measured in the C8 Health Project conducted in 2005-2006 by Brookmar. Dr. Kyle Steenland, one of the Science Panelists, says many participants have asked how they can obtain copies of their personal results. Those copies of the C8 data will be sent to the participants who have consented to be part of ongoing Science Panel studies, and write in with a request. About 2/3 of the C8 Health Project participants have signed such consents. Those who have already consented may request copies of their data by mail, by following the sample letter at http://www.c8sciencepanel.org/results.html. Those who have not consented may still do so by downloading the consent form at the website, sending it to the Science Panel, and at the same time requesting their duplicate results.
According to Dr. Steenland, letters recently went out from Brookmar, Inc., to those who had blood drawn prior to December 7, 2005, about a third of those who participated in the C8 Health Project. Those participants were sent corrected results. For quality assurance purposes, retesting was done on specimens obtained on or before Dec 7, and these achieved better results. This large number of analyses took some time and these corrected data have now also been given to the Science Panel. “We appreciate the patience of the community, as we have waited to get the best possible, corrected information to begin our work,” Steenland said on behalf of the panel.
The C8 Science Panel has been created as part of the settlement agreement with DuPont concerning the presence of C8 in water supplies. The Science Panel is a panel of three scientific experts in the field of epidemiology, who will analyze the data collected by the C8 Health Project and alsoconduct a series of studies over the next one to four years. The community and worker follow-up studies are two of these studies. 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 http://www.c8sciencepanel.org.