PFOA / Teflon / Scotchgard

On Thursday, May 19, 2005, DuPont was served with a subpoena from the Justice Department's environmental crimes unit requesting documents on a key Teflon chemical. DuPont has already agreed to pay up to $340 million in a civil settlement for Teflon pollution and is the subject of an EPA investigation into its coverup of studies of the chemical's health effects.

A top Minnesota environmental official who worked for 3M is refusing to monitor the state's water supply for contamination from the company's dumping of a toxic Teflon chemical. EWG urges her to sever financial ties with 3M and let state scientists do their job.

EWG wrote to health officials in five states where chemical companies use Teflon chemicals to ask: please test your water. Alabama, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania could find that like Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio and West Virginia, they've also got a Teflon pollution problem to deal with.

EWG is petitioning the federal government to conduct a full investigation of this apparent violation of federal reporting requirements for toxic chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act, 15 U.S.C.

DuPont is continuing to make the same excuses to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on their violations of federal law. This analysis by EWG of DuPont's 2003 response to EPA's original inquiry still applies, since their defense has not changed, even after EPA announced it will formally take action against DuPont for violating section 8(e) of the Toxic Substances Control Act.