PFOA / Teflon / Scotchgard

An EWG science analysis shows that EPA's tilted risk assessment for DuPont's Teflon chemical will prove a shaky foundation for future health protection policies for the more than 95 percent of the American public carrying the chemical in their bloodstream.

Despite Teflon maker DuPont's longstanding claim that there are 'no known health effects' associated with its Teflon chemical PFOA, the company today announced that in a recently-completed worker study it found that PFOA exposures among Teflon plant workers were correlated with a 10 per cent increase in cholesterol.

a series of studies published beginning in the 1950s shows that DuPont has known for at least 50 years that Teflon fumes at relatively low temperatures can cause an acute illness known as polymer fume fever. In several studies DuPont recruited human volunteers and intentionally exposed them to Teflon fumes to the point of illness. The results of these studies suggest that people cooking on Teflon and other non-stick pans may be at risk.

EWG tests of coated pans found that in two to five minutes on a typical household stove, heated pans reach temperatures that produce toxins that even DuPont acknowledges kill hundreds of pet birds each year and cause flu-like polymer fever- in humans. EWG Petition to the CPSC (PDF).

However, these perfluorochemicals"" (aka PFCs) have emerged as a regulatory priority for scientists and officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Until recently they were thought to be biologically inert. No one thinks so now."

Secret tests conducted in 1984 by the DuPont chemical company found a Teflon-related contaminant (C8) in the tap water of the Little Hocking Water Association in Ohio, just across the river from the company.

A review of federal and industry science on the toxic industrial chemical commonly called C8 (perflouroctanoic acid, used to make Teflon) reveals that water pollution policy by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is far less protective than previous industry standards. The findings, authored by the Washington-based research organization Environmental Working Group (EWG), undercut public assertions by state officials that their drinking water standards are based on sound science.