DuPont workers want blood tests after exposure to toxic Teflon chemicals

DuPont water tower in Dordrecht (Photo: Willemjans/Wikimedia Commons). DuPont water tower in Dordrecht (Photo: Willemjans/Wikimedia Commons)

Employees of chemical company DuPont in Dordrecht are demanding blood tests after it was revealed that they worked for years with the toxic substance C8, which is used to make Teflon for non-stick pans. They are concerned about health problems, AD reports.

According to the newspaper, DuPont did blood tests on employees who worked with Teflon in its own medical center for decades. But the company never reported that they were concerned about the outcome to the Inspectorate of Social Affairs and Employment, formerly the labor inspectorate.

Once C8 enters a person's blood, it stays in the system for years and can result in health problems. DuPont stopped making Teflon with C8 in 2012. EenVandaag showed the results of DuPont blood tests of between 2000 and 2010 to a number of toxicologists on Saturday and they found the results unacceptably high.

Employees and former employees are now demanding that DuPont perform another large-scale health examination, involving all former and current employees. "We worked with toxic C8. DuPont must bear the consequences of it. DuPont knows that it is in our blood. The company has a duty to examine us", one employee said to the newspaper.

One of the toxicologists that looked at the earlier blood test results, Martin van den Berg of the University of Utrecht, thinks that the employees are right in demanding another examination. "You see continuously high level among the employees. So DuPont has known for 10 to 20 years that they are too high", he said to broadcaster NOS. By doing another examination, it can be calculated how much of the toxins the employees absorbed in the last few years. "The substances stay in the body for a long time. The time the body needs to degrade it all is many years, that can take about 5 to 10 years."