|
 Plaintiff Carla M. Bartlett is trying to prove that C8, which
leached into drinking water near one of DuPont's plants in West
Virginia, gave her kidney cancer and that DuPont's recklessness is
to blame.
DuPont disposed of C8 in the Ohio River for decades, and thousands
of people have sued the company, saying they contracted a disease
from exposure to the chemical.
"You are the first people to hear this story and the whole world's
watching," Bartlett’s attorney Michael Papantonio told the
seven-member jury hearing the case in U.S. District Court in
Columbus, Ohio during closing arguments Tuesday. He argued that
DuPont disregarded the dangers of C8 in order to make huge profits
from the Teflon products it manufactured with the help of the
chemical.
DuPont's attorney, Damond Mace, Tuesday called Bartlett’s case a
“house of cards.”
“Just because C8 is capable of causing kidney cancer doesn’t mean it
caused Mrs. Bartlett’s cancer," Mace said.
"This case is about Carla Bartlett, nobody else,” he said, pointing
out that the burden of proof in the case lies with her.
Papantonio said DuPont hid the information it uncovered about the
dangers of C8 from the community and from regulatory agencies.
Mace countered that DuPont did far more than any other company using
C8 to make sure the chemical was safe.
The case in Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr.'s courtroom is one of more
than 3,500 filed against the chemical giant by people who lived in
the area surrounding the DuPont Washington Works plant near
Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The lawsuits claim that C8 caused serious health problems because it
was in the area’s drinking water for more than 40 years.
[to top of second column] |
Bartlett’s case and another set for Nov. 30 are the first to go to
trial and are considered early tests of the potential liability that
DuPont could face for the decades-long leak.
For nearly two decades, area residents have questioned the safety of
C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PF0A.
A 2012 health study concluded there are probable links between the
chemical and high cholesterol, testicular and kidney cancers,
thyroid disease, pregnancy-induced hypertension and ulcerative
colitis. That paved the way for the lawsuits.
Chemours Co, a recent spin-off of DuPont’s performance chemicals
segment, is covering any potential liability from the cases.
(Reporting by Kathy Lynn Gray in Columbus, Ohio; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
