PHILADELPHIA _ Shares of DuPont spinoff Chemours fell 22.5 percent in trading Wednesday, and the DuPont Co. slid 1.8 percent after a West Virginia jury awarded $5.1 million in compensation to Ohio resident David Freeman, who accused the company of causing his testicular cancer by letting drinking water become polluted with chemical byproducts of its popular anti-stick Teflon material.
DuPont spokesman Dan Turner declined to comment, noting the trial has not finished. The Freeman suit is one in a series of claims, some of which have been settled out of court.
"There will be additional testimony before the jury awards a dollar amount for punitive damages" in the Freeman case, said Harold Bock, a spokesman for Keep Your Promises DuPont, an activist group supporting Freeman and other residents who have sued DuPont. He said the trial "vindicated" claims that DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., had "covered up" Teflon damage for years.
Critics say DuPont spun off Chemours to free itself of cleanup and damage costs from its chemical businesses. The rest of DuPont plans to merge with Dow Chemical Co. later this summer, and later split into three separate manufacturing groups.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania have been trying to lure Chemours headquarters away from Wilmington; investors speculate the company may be sold.
