Lawyer overseeing testing is criticized

The New York City attorney overseeing testing of MidOhio Valley residents for C8 (perfluorooctanoic acid) contamination continues to come under fire for his handling of the screening process.

After three years, just over 6,000 people, out of a potential 99,000 who may have consumed contaminated water, have qualified for medical screening. And informational sessions about the C8 Medical Monitoring Program scheduled for this week are only the second time such public gatherings have been scheduled.

“Until every class member has received comprehensive monitoring for all C8-linked diseases at no cost, the program will be a failure,” Jeffrey Dugas, spokesman for Keep Your Promises, said Friday.

The grass-roots group of residents is keeping watch on the medical monitoring.

“This program has been obstructed and mismanaged from the start, and holding a handful of meetings at times when working people will not be able to attend falls far

short of fulfilling the program’s purpose,” Dugas said.

He has described it as the “fox watching the henhouse” because the monitoring program and Michael Rozen, the attorney overseeing it, are financed by DuPont.

Of the six public meetings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Ohio and West Virginia towns along the Ohio River, only one — at 7 p.m. Monday at Belpre High School — is after normal daytime work hours.

Rozen has said the times were chosen to spread the meetings out during the day when the sites were available.

“We’ve gotten good response from the community,” he said, adding that an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people have signed up to attend the six sessions over two days.

Rozen said he is limited as to what he can do and how quickly he can act because DuPont and the group representing plaintiffs who sued over C8 contamination must agree on his actions.

DuPont, maker of C8, is obligated to spend up to $235 million for the monitoring program as part of a settlement over C8 released from the company’s Washington

Tuesday, Oct. 10

■ 8 a.m., Blennerhassett Hotel ballroom, 320 Market St., Parkersburg, West Virginia

■ Noon, Meigs County Public Library, 216 W. Main St., Pomeroy, Ohio ■ 3 p.m. Historic Lowe Hotel, 401 Main St., Point Pleasant, West Virginia Works plant near Parkersburg, West Virginia. DuPont has been criticized for paying Rozen almost $15 million to direct the program, but only about $880,000 for the actual testing of residents so far.

Cincinnati attorney Robert Bilott, whose investigation revealed the hazards of C8 in the early 2000s, filed a motion with the court in Wood County, West Virginia, in April to have Rozen step up medical monitoring.

“I think this is definitely a positive step in the right direction because the director’s office has put together additional outreach,” Bilott said of the new informational sessions.

Bilott represented a West Virginia farmer who claimed in a lawsuit that C8 killed his cattle and sickened his family. The farmer and DuPont reached a settlement in 2000.

Four years later, DuPont agreed to filter the water coming from its Washington Works, where C8 was made until production was halted a few years ago, and to create the medical monitoring program.

“The ongoing direct exposure has stopped, but those past exposures could lead to medical problems in the future, which was a critical part of that settlement,” Bilott said.

A science panel reviewing blood test results of Mid-Ohio Valley residents concluded in 2012 that a probable link existed between C8 and six medical conditions: kidney and testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, thyroid disease and high cholesterol.

The following year, 3,500 plaintiffs sued DuPont claiming C8-caused illnesses. The suits were consolidated for hearing in U.S. District Court in Columbus. After losing three trials, DuPont in February agreed to settle for $671 million.

DuPont said that since 2012, it and now its spinoff company, Chemours, has been using a chemical identified as GenX to make Teflon at Washington Works. The company said the biopersistence of GenX — the rate at which it leaves the body — is much quicker than C8 and it does not cause cancer.

Critics said that without more detailed test results, it’s impossible to know whether the new compound is safe.