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GenX Contamination Research Continues Three Years After Breaking Story

Sign outside Chemours' Fayetteville Works site
Vince Winkel
Discharge from the Chemours' Fayetteville Works site was linked to high quantities of toxic chemical compounds in the Cape Fear River three years ago. The region is still feeling the effects of the contamination.

Three years ago this weekend, the public learned about the presence of a toxic chemical compound known as GenX in the Wilmington-area drinking water. 

The Wilmington Star News broke the story, highlighting the research that a North Carolina State University lab — led by Detlef Knappe — conducted on the drinking water and its links to the discharge from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant into the Cape Fear River. Local government officials are still fighting for greater regulation of toxins like GenX. Researchers are also still conducting studies on humans and wildlife to determine the long-term effects of the compound in living systems.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with WHQR reporter Vince Winkel about the most recent updates and research on GenX. 
 

Kaia Findlay is the lead producer of Embodied, WUNC's weekly podcast and radio show about sex, relationships and health. Kaia first joined the WUNC team in 2020 as a producer for The State of Things.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.