Cancer Rates High in C8 Areas
Residents in the communities where water is polluted with the toxic chemical C8 have elevated levels of several cancers, according to a previously confidential state government analysis.
The study was drafted more than a year ago by the state Department of Health and Human Resources, but was never finalized or made public.
On Tuesday, DHHR officials offered varying answers about why the study wasn’t completed — and whether they actually planned to finish it.
“I don’t know that there was ever a conscious decision not to inform the public,” said Chris Curtis, acting commissioner of DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health. “It was one of those things that was simply put aside and never finished.”
In the study, DHHR scientists used state cancer registry data to compare disease rates statewide with those in counties where water has been contaminated by C8.
Agency researchers found elevated rates of prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Wood and Jackson counties, according to a draft of the study.
DHHR also discovered high rates of leukemia and skin cancer in Wood County, where a DuPont Co. plant makes and discharges C8, according to the study.
The study found increased cancer rates in Mason County, but those were not elevated enough to be considered significant.
“The analyses presented here establish only that the rates of certain cancers previously associated with occupational PFOA exposure are elevated in counties in which residents may have been exposed to PFOA via the water supply,” the study said. “They do not demonstrate a causal relationship between PFOA and individual cancer cases.”
“These data do, however, establish the need for further examination of the impact of non-occupational exposures to PFOA on cancer incidence in communities,” the study concluded.
Since the 1950s, DuPont has used C8 at its Washington Works chemical plant south of Parkersburg. The chemical is used to make Teflon, other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain- and water-repellent textiles.
C8 is another name for ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or PFOA.
Researchers are finding that people around the world have C8 in their blood. The blood levels may be generally small, but it is unclear whether these amounts are dangerous.
Nonstick cookware may be one route of exposure to C8, but recent studies suggest that food packaging may be a much bigger source.
In the Parkersburg area, DuPont is paying — as part of a $107.6 million lawsuit settlement — to install new water treatment systems to get C8 out of local drinking water supplies. The company is also funding a detailed study of C8 health effects by an independent, three-scientist panel.
In its study, the state DHHR compared statewide data from the West Virginia Cancer Registry to the registry’s data for Wood, Mason and Jackson counties.
After adjusting for age, DHHR researchers found statistically significant elevated rates of prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Wood and Jackson counties. For example, the prostate cancer rate in Wood County was 162 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 148 per 100,000 people statewide, the study said.
The elevated prostate and skin cancer rates were consistent with previous studies of plant workers that reported associations of PFOA with those diseases, the DHHR study said.
However, some of the cancers found to be elevated in the DHHR C8 study — including non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia — have not been reported elsewhere to be associated with the chemical.
Also, some cancers found to be elevated in worker C8 studies, such as bladder and kidney cancer, were not found to be statistically significantly elevated in the DHHR study.
DHHR researchers said that some other factors, such as age, race and income, did not appear to be factors in their findings.
But the agency’s study noted that pesticides used in the area could be a factor. More study would be needed to rule it out, the study said.
Also, the study noted the release into the area’s air of the chemical 1,3-butadiene, which has been associated with elevated cancer rates. The GE Chemical plant in Wood County, located next door to DuPont, releases 1,3-butadiene into the air, according to federal records.
The DHHR study came to light only after a lawyer for Wood County residents who drank C8-contaminated water discovered it in state Department of Environmental Protection files and distributed it to various parties, including the Gazette.
Jessica Greathouse, DEP’s communications officer, said Tuesday that her agency “inadvertently disclosed” the draft report in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
But under state law, the basic facts of the study — including the cancer rate comparisons — would have to be released. Only commentary or recommendations by the study’s authors could be withheld.
After the Gazette began asking questions about the DHHR study, DEP officials contacted the residents’ lawyer to try to retrieve the document and prevent its public disclosure.
DHHR’s Curtis said that she could think of no real harm that would have come from releasing the study.
“I don’t know that it would have hurt anything in retrospect,” Curtis said. “There was some talk about expanding it or looking at some other information, but ultimately that was never completed.”
Study author Patricia Colsher said that she was waiting a year to add new data — cancer rates from 2006 and for other counties affected by C8 — to finalize the study.
“We did it, edited it, and then as the whole concern kind of expanded to other health outcomes and to other counties, we decided to hold off for another year’s data,” Colsher said.
With the 2006 data now available, she said, a final study could be completed sometime later this year.
One of Colsher’s supervisors, state epidemiologist Loretta Haddy, agreed that the plan was to add new data and publish the report.
A timeline or exact plan for doing so has not been put together, Haddy said. “It’s still in the evolutionary phase,” Haddy said.
As for why the agency did not make public the preliminary findings in the draft study, Haddy said that decision was made by one of her superiors, Joe Barker, DHHR’s director of Epidemiology and Health Promotion. Barker did not return repeated phone calls Tuesday.
Dan Turner, a media spokesman for DuPont, released a short statement about the study from Robert Rickard, DuPont’s science director.
“We agree with the authors that studies of this kind can provide a useful initial screen of differences in disease rates across geographic areas,” Rickard said. “But, as the authors themselves acknowledge, the study cannot and does not identify any cause that explains the observations.”
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.
Death By Water
Hold Your Wee for a Wii Turns Deadly
Its an almost unbelievable story, a 28 year old mother of three is competing in a radio show contest to win a brand new Nintendo Wii for her children. She consumes massive amounts of water and literally dies the next day from water intoxication poisoning (also called hyperhydration). Hyperhydration is basically when your body consumes so much water that it puts your body out of its natural balance of water to electrolytes. When you perspire, you not only lose water but also electrolytes. To rehydrate, drinking water is usually safe for most of us, but massive quantities can be deadly as in the case with Jennifer Strange, who died January 12th of 2007 due to this radio contest. Even more troubling are the facts that KDND 107.9 was privy to many of the warning signs and had callers calling in warning of the dangers of water poisoning. The station was also was aware of an incident in 2005 at California State University where a college student died of this during a hazing incident due to hyperhydration. Unfortunately no criminal charges were brought up against the station but the FCC is investigating the incident.
Hyperhydration is also something to keep in mind with small children. In 2002 a 3 year old died from being forced to drink 3/4 of a gallon of water as a form of punishment by her babysitter. Fortunately there was some justice in this case as babysitter was charged with 1st degree murder. Children are more susceptible to water poisoning simply due to them being smaller than adults.
Marathon runners, other high performance athletes , and really anyone perspiring a lot during a real long work out also need to be wary of water intoxication. This is why Gatorade is such a popular item for athletes as it is loaded with all the ingredients which we sweat out. It is still smart to drink water if dehydrated, as the number of deaths by dehydration strongly outweighs death by massive water consumption, however one should always be aware of this in case they are in a similar situation to any listed above.
People who are ill also need to keep in mind that water intoxication is possible although in most cases it is out of our control. Well known artist Andy Warhol, known for his paintings of Campbell's Soup, Coca-Cola and other famous American products and icons in the 1960's, died in 1987 from water intoxication. Warhol was in the hospital for a routine gallbladder surgery, but due to the hospital staff mistakenly overloading him with fluids, he died of a heart attack caused by hyperhydration.
The actual odds of one dying by water intoxication is extremely low. Again if you are dehydrated, don't fear drinking water as dehydration is responsible for at least 300 deaths a year in the United States alone and is surmised to cause 2 million deaths per year in the world. However, if you are in any of the situations listed above, it might be a good idea to have some Gatorade on hand just in case.
Ozone Nano-Bubbles Harnessed To Sterilize Water
A new sterilizer uses ozone nano-bubbles to produce a water mixture that can be used for food processing.
Royal Electric Co.'s RVK-NI water sterilizer mixes ozone nano-bubbles with oxygen micro-bubbles, according to a report by Japan Corporate News (JCN).
Because ozone is an unstable, highly reactive form of oxygen, it is 51 times as powerful as chlorine, the oxidizer most commonly used by most food processors, and 3,000 times as fast at killing bacteria and other microbes.
The method is generating considerable interest among manufacturers seeking a means of ensuring ultrapure and almost completely bacteria-free water for use in food processing.
The treatment also means that manufacturers can forego the use of chlorine or other chemicals used to disinfect the water used in their processes.
Royal Electric says its new equipment can either be used to produce water for food processing or for cleansing seafood as it has a stronger antibacterial effect than conventional ozone water, reported JCN.
The RVK-N1 can produce about 40 liters of micro-nano bubble water per minute but Royal Electric intends to produce larger water sterilizers in the future.
The machine was produced through a collaboration between Japan-based Royal Electric, the REO Research Institute and the Naga Group.
REO Research, a private institute, was responsible for developing the method to produce ozone nano-bubbles.
REO worked with Japan's Research Institute for Environmental Management Technology (AIST) to develop the method, which succeded in forming ozone and oxygen nanobubbles.
Although ordinary ozone can only exist in water for a very short time, it can be retained for several months when supplied in the form of nanobubbles, according to an AIST report.
'Because the process produces large quantities of free radicals using very little energy, for example, when this technology is applied to wastewater treatment of the organic effluents discharged from a food processing plant, virtually all organic components can be decomposed efficiently into water and CO2,' AIST stated.
Separate research by the University of Abertay Dundee found that ozone by itself normally only eliminates 99.99 per cent of bacteria. By combining the gas treatment with microbubbles destroys 99.9999 per cent of E.coli bacteria in a given volume of water, according to the research.
Ozone gas is a naturally occurring tri-atomic form of oxygen that is formed as sunlight passes through the atmosphere. It can be generated artificially by passing high voltage electricity through oxygenated air.
Nanotechnology refers to the technique of controlling and manipulating matter at near atomic scales to create new materials and devices.
Ahmed ElAmin
