DuPont Investor Coalition Urges Shareholders to Back C8 Disclosure Proposal
Thousands of shareholders warned about
possible impact of hidden C8 costs
BOSTON, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of DuPont
Co. shareholders is calling on thousands of concerned investors to urge DuPont
management to fully disclose legal fees and other hidden costs associated with
the production and use of C8, the potential carcinogen used in DuPont's
trademark Teflon and other products.
The newly formed coalition --
DuPont Shareholders for Fair Value (DSFV) --this week delivered letters to 5,000
major investors asking them to support a stockholder proposal forcing DuPont to
fully disclose the costs for attorneys, experts, lobbying and public relations
associated with the health and environmental consequences of perfluorooctanoic
acid, also known as PFOA, or C8. The DSFV proposal, which appears as Item 9 in
DuPont's Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement, will be voted on at
DuPont's shareholder meeting on April 27th in Wilmington, Del.
Members of the DSFV coalition own a combined 28,000 shares of DuPont stock. The
coalition includes the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers
International Union (PACE), the United Steelworkers of America, the Sisters of
Mercy Merion Regional Community in Merion, PA, institutional investors Green
Century Capital Management in Boston, and DuPont employee John D. Kimmerle of
Kenmore, NY. "Shareholders have been poorly informed for the past 25 years about
what DuPont knew about health and environmental and financial risks of PFOA and
Teflon," said DSFV spokesman Sanford Lewis, who is an attorney and leading
expert on environmental law and policy. "Management needs to make this first
step toward full disclosure of hidden costs and liabilities - it is the only way
the shareholders can get their fair value from DuPont stock."
In its letter to shareholders, the DSFV raised questions about the
dramatic impact undisclosed expenses linked to PFOA, or C8, could have on DuPont
stock. Two months ago, DuPont settled a class-action suit in which the company
agreed to pay nearly $108 million to settle claims from Ohio and West Virginia
residents whose drinking water was contaminated with PFOA. The Environmental
Protection Agency claims in a federal lawsuit that DuPont hid information that
showed leaching from DuPont's Washington Works, WV waste site contaminated local
drinking water and other information about the health risks associated with PFOA.
For more information about DSFV and the shareholder proposal, go to
http://www.dupontshareholdersalert.org/.