NIDAN - DuPont - Part 2 - National Priority List

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DuPont was rated as the number one worst polluter on the Political Economy Research Institute's Toxic 100 index. The company has contributed to over 20 superfund sites, which are identified as the nation's worst toxic waste sites. Sites that put people most at risk are placed on the National Priority List. Two of DuPont's sites have made the list. In addition, DuPont has numerous other contaminated sites that require clean-up and remediation.

Some of the chemicals used in pesticides produced and marketed by DuPont have been linked to brain damage and disruption of the hormone system. The company has also faced a string of lawsuits in recent years, brought by parents whose children were born without eyes. These defects are alleged to have occurred, due to the children's mothers being exposed to the fungicide Benlate, whilst pregnant.

DuPont is a major producer of formaldehyde. This chemical is a known carcinogen and is also implicated in other health problems such as respiratory illness. Despite this, DuPont has vigorously fought efforts to get the chemical banned, using spurious science and disinformation. It is one of the companies that provided funding for the Formaldehyde Institute, a corporate front group set up to defend the chemical.

DuPont and other chemical companies have been accused of trying to suppress evidence regarding the severe toxicity of dioxins, hardly surprising given the quantities of these carcinogens they churn out every year. Recently, residents in Mississippi, threatened a $3 billion lawsuit against DuPont, claiming damage from dioxin pollution.

A now-closed DuPont owned factory has contaminated the soil and groundwater surrounding a neighborhood in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey.

Dupont dumped toxic chemicals in the Pompton Lakes community for almost 100 years, causing massive damage not only to the resident's health, but to natural resources.

Tests of soil under 37 homes and apartment buildings scattered above the plume of contamination in the groundwater, found vapors above acceptable levels in more than 9 of 10 cases, indicating that vapors were likely seeping into basements.

A cancer report, by the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services, which covered the period 1979-2006, found elevated rates of two types of cancer: kidney cancer in women and non-Hodgkin lymphona in men.

About 500 concerned and rightfully angry residents turned out at a public meeting in December 2009, to demand that their community be cleaned up, that multi-billion dollar corporate polluter DuPont be held accountable, and that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection be fired for their incompetent years of failure to enforce cleanup by DuPont.

DuPont has admitted the plant's wastewater treatment was improperly handled, and that the company was responsible for chemically contaminating the water and soil underneath hundreds of homes. Now, a disproportionately high number of people in the area are developing and dying from cancer.

One resident, Tom(?) Carroll commented, "My wife died of lung cancer in June, my stepson died of throat cancer, my neighbor across the street has it, everybody is dying around here. I've never seen anyplace like this." Eight months ago, Carroll had a cancerous kidney removed.

Carroll used to work at the plant and now says, "It was a great job when we had it, but we didn't know the ramifications would be this." The table next to him holds no less than 11 different types of medication.

Another resident, Joe Intintola Jr., shares, "It's in my colon, they want to remove half of it, I've got a pre-cancerous mass in my stomach, a mass in my chest. If I had known about this I would never have moved here."

Unfortunately and understandable, residents are having trouble selling their homes. And that leaves many of them surrounded by the contamination, and stuck breathing the toxic fumes each day.