Jul 4, 2016 2 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jurors in an Ohio federal court are poised to decide whether DuPont’s C8 chemical caused a man to get cancer and – if so – whether it acted in “conscious disregard” by dumping it from its plant in West Virginia into the Ohio River.

The Columbus Dispatch reported testimony in the Columbus courtroom concluded last week in the case against the Delaware-based chemical company. Jurors are expected to begin deliberations today.

There are 3,500 lawsuits alleging a link between illnesses and the company’s discharging of the chemical into the river.

In this case, David Freeman said he got testicular cancer because of C8, which was used to make Teflon.

Freeman, 56, said in his lawsuit residents along the river suffered from C8 in tainted drinking water, which he blamed for his sickness.

DuPont maintains there were only small the amounts of C8 in drinking water – not enough to be harmful.

Dawn Jackson, a former spokeswoman for DuPont’s Ohio River plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., testified she never knew of any concerns about C8 being dumped into the river when she told residents the water was safe to drink.

An attorney for Freeman showed Jackson internal company documents and memos about concerns with C8, many of which she said she never seen before.

Freeman’s case is among the first few cases to be heard. In one now under appeal, jurors awarded $1.6 million to a woman who got cancer.