News Coverage
Advocacy Group Accuses DuPont Of Hiding Birth-Defect Data
Published April 10, 2003
An environmental advocacy group accused DuPont Co. (DD) of intentionally withholding evidence over the last two decades that links a toxic chemical in Teflon to birth defects in some children, in violation of federal law.
The Environmental Working Group charged that an internal company study detected a toxic, Teflon-related substance called perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the umbilical cord blood of an infant born to a company employee and in the blood of another worker's baby.
That same report, according to the EWG, records serious birth defects in two of seven babies born to a group of female workers at one of DuPont's Teflon plants. The workers were monitored by DuPont's medical staff and were transferred out of the Teflon production facility in Parkersburg, W.V., that same year, according to the EWG.
The group is petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate DuPont. The study became public last year as the result of a class-action lawsuit against DuPont by 3,000 West Virginians that allege PFOA pollution from the Parkersburg facility has contaminated tap water.
DuPont officials dismissed the EWG's assertion that it violated federal law, saying the group inaccurately represented PFOA as a health hazard.
DuPont admitted that it found "low levels" of PFOA in eight blood samples taken from female employees working in or near that work site in the early 1980s.
"There is no evidence or data that demonstrates PFOA causes adverse human health effects, including developmental or reproductive effects, in any segment of the human population," Robert Rickard, director of the DuPont Haskell Laboratory for Health & Environmental Sciences, said in a statement.
The Toxic Substance Control Act requires companies to report information that "reasonably supports the conclusion" that a particular substance "presents a substantial risk of injury to health," DuPont said in a statement.
"The data referred to does not relate exposure to PFOA with any adverse human health effects, was not designed to do so, and did not meet (federal) reporting requirements," the statement reads. Although the information showed one confirmed birth defect, DuPont said there was no indication it was caused by PFOA.
DuPont said it did remove women of childbearing years from the plant after 3M Co. (MMM) provided DuPont with results of a preliminary study in 1981 indicating that PFOA may cause birth defects in laboratory animals. Further testing, however, showed no birth defects "and it was concluded that the original study was not valid and that PFOA did not cause birth defects," the company's statement said. Women were allowed to return to the fluoropolymer area in March 1982, the company said.
The Environmental Working Group said the EPA is expected to soon require expedited health studies and chemical data on PFOA from DuPont and other manufacturers.
"We expect, but cannot prove at this point, that DuPont has been deliberately withholding this information to avoid EPA action against PFOA and its highly profitable Teflon line," said EWG Vice President of Research Jane Houlihan.