Coles v DuPont Co.
DuPont Faces Another Lawsuit Targeting Chemicals Used to Make Non-Stick Products
New Jersey resident Donald Coles charged that the Chambers Works Plant in Deepwater, N.J., released perfluorooctanoic acid (also known as PFOA or C8) and related chemicals into groundwater tapped by utility companies in New Jersey townships. Coles filed a lawsuit against the DuPont Co. that targets the company's releases of a chemical used to make nonstick and stain-resistant products.
Coles' suit seeks medical monitoring for residents, a community-wide water filtration system and punitive damages.
PFOA is under intense federal scrutiny, triggered by concerns the chemical resists breakdown, accumulates in the environment and tissues and can potentially cause cancer and other illnesses. An advisory panel to the Environmental Protection Agency recently recommended listing the chemical as a likely carcinogen.
In March, the agency quietly admitted chemicals used to make popular nonstick, nonstain products may be unsafe for humans and the environment. The admission came in documents seeking regulatory changes that would require closer scrutiny for new uses of the compound.
DuPont already has agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for pollution releases to drinking-water supplies in West Virginia and Ohio from the company's Parkersburg, W.Va., plant.
