Tens of thousands of Mid-Ohio Valley residents have elevated levels of the toxic chemical C8 in their blood, a landmark new health study has confirmed.

Residents of communities around DuPont Co.'s Parkersburg plant have more than five times more C8 in their blood than the average American, according to the first official study data, made public this week.

"It's true, and it's not surprising that it's true," said Dr. Alan Ducatman a West Virginia University researcher and principal investigator for the C8 Health Project. "These folks are not like what you find around America."

Previous reports have found high levels of C8 in the blood of DuPont plant neighbors.

One earlier study, however, looked at only 324 residents and another, by DuPont, at a dozen residents. Preliminary data from the C8 Health Project, made public against the wishes of some of the scientists involved, included about 24,000 residents.

The C8 Health Study is examining blood samples from about 65,000 of the nearly 69,000 residents who signed up for the project.

Data made public this week showed a median C8 concentration of 28 parts per billion in residents' blood. That compares to a median level in the general U.S. population of about 5 parts per billion found in other studies.

Customers of the Little Hocking Water District in Ohio, believed to be the most polluted by C8, showed a median concentration of 132 parts per billion of the chemical in their blood.

One Little Hocking resident had the highest level of those tested, 22,412 parts per billion.

C8 is another name for ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or PFOA. DuPont has used the chemical since the 1950s at its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg. C8 is a processing agent used to make Teflon and other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain-resistant textiles.

Researchers are finding that people around the world have C8 in their blood in low levels. Evidence is mounting about the chemical's dangerous effects, but regulators have not set a federal standard for its safety.

The C8 Health Project is a multi-year effort to examine the chemical's possible effects on Mid-Ohio Valley residents. It is funded by major portions of a $107.6 million settlement paid by DuPont to settle a lawsuit alleging the company poisoned residents' drinking water. The settlement also is funding a related examination by a three-person science team of possible C8 links to adverse health effects.

Tens of thousands of Mid-Ohio Valley residents have elevated levels of the toxic chemical C8 in their blood, a landmark new health study has confirmed.

Residents of communities around DuPont Co.'s Parkersburg plant have more than five times more C8 in their blood than the average American, according to the first official study data, made public this week.

"It's true, and it's not surprising that it's true," said Dr. Alan Ducatman a West Virginia University researcher and principal investigator for the C8 Health Project. "These folks are not like what you find around America."

Previous reports have found high levels of C8 in the blood of DuPont plant neighbors.

One earlier study, however, looked at only 324 residents and another, by DuPont, at a dozen residents. Preliminary data from the C8 Health Project, made public against the wishes of some of the scientists involved, included about 24,000 residents.

The C8 Health Study is examining blood samples from about 65,000 of the nearly 69,000 residents who signed up for the project.

Data made public this week showed a median C8 concentration of 28 parts per billion in residents' blood. That compares to a median level in the general U.S. population of about 5 parts per billion found in other studies.

Customers of the Little Hocking Water District in Ohio, believed to be the most polluted by C8, showed a median concentration of 132 parts per billion of the chemical in their blood.

One Little Hocking resident had the highest level of those tested, 22,412 parts per billion.

C8 is another name for ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or PFOA. DuPont has used the chemical since the 1950s at its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg. C8 is a processing agent used to make Teflon and other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain-resistant textiles.

Researchers are finding that people around the world have C8 in their blood in low levels. Evidence is mounting about the chemical's dangerous effects, but regulators have not set a federal standard for its safety.

The C8 Health Project is a multi-year effort to examine the chemical's possible effects on Mid-Ohio Valley residents. It is funded by major portions of a $107.6 million settlement paid by DuPont to settle a lawsuit alleging the company poisoned residents' drinking water. The settlement also is funding a related examination by a three-person science team of possible C8 links to adverse health effects.

In such situations, it often is difficult to collect health and chemical-exposure information on a large enough group of people to do a statistically valid study. Some of the cancers and other illnesses are rare, and scientists need large sample sizes to perform an accurate assessment.

However, with money from the DuPont settlement, such a large number of residents have been tested that the study should be able to answer questions about C8's effects. Scientists have collected hundreds of pieces of information - from demographics to medical histories - for nearly 70,000 people.

"This is a very big dataset," Ducatman said. "It provides a vast amount of data."

Over the next six months, Ducatman and his team hope to begin making public complex comparisons of C8 blood tests to demographic and health information, including cancer and other illness data.

Ducatman cautioned that such comparisons are complex, and urged residents not try to compare the C8 Health Project results with widely available cancer incidence data.

The two sets of data differ, and aren't proper to compare, he said. One includes data on whether adverse health effects show up on tests that are a snapshot in time, while the other covers longer periods. Also, the two do not offer comparable information about when someone had a particular ailment.

The new blood data provide some interesting information, though, Ducatman said.

For example, C8 levels appeared to increase with education and income levels. Also, children and older residents also showed levels higher than the general community population.

University of Pennsylvania researcher Edward Emmett found similar figures for children and the elderly in his much smaller study of 324 residents, released in 2005.

"We can't explain all of the health effects, and I'm concerned that the level is high in the very young," Emmett said during a public meeting at the time. "We may not be able to say it's harmful, but do we know it's safe? That's another thing."

The C8 blood data results are available online at www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed/c8/results/C8AndPFCLevels/index.asp.

To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.