ABC's Good Morning America, Brian Ross and Charles Gibson
Published November 18, 2005
DUPONT, TEFLON
CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
All right, Tony. We're going to turn next to a troubling question that has been raised by a corporate whistleblower. The question, could the paper used to package many of the foods you eat be a health hazard?
GRAPHICS: BRIAN ROSS INVESTIGATES
CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(Voice Over) ABC's chief investigative correspondent, Brian Ross, is joining us with this story. Brian, good morning.
GRAPHICS: CONSUMER ALERT
GRAPHICS: YOUR FOOD WRAPPED IN DANGER?
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Off Camera) Well, good morning, Charlie. To prevent grease stains on french fry boxes, and popcorn boxes, and candy bar wrappers, and hundreds of other food items, the paper is coated inside with a chemical that is part of the Teflon family made by DuPont. Now ABC News has learned that the Food and Drug Administration has opened an investigation into the chemical safety based on new information and the testimony of a DuPont company whistleblower.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voice Over) Glen Evers was a senior engineer at DuPont for 22 years. He says the company has tried to hide the fact that the chemical coating on food wrappers comes off and ends up in humans in far greater concentrations than originally approved.
GLEN EVERS (FORMER SENIOR ENGINEER
You don't see it, you don't feel it, you can't taste it, but when you open that bag and you start dipping your french fries in there, you are extracting fluorchemical and you're eating it.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Off Camera) And the chemicals are going inside the body?
GLEN EVERS (FORMER SENIOR ENGINEER
Yes, they are.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Off Camera) Is that a bad thing?
GLEN EVERS (FORMER SENIOR ENGINEER
It is a very bad thing. It bioaccumulates, which means that the chemical goes into the blood and it stays there for a very long period of time.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voice Over) A recent government study found that the chemical is now in the blood of 96% of all Americans. But Evers says the company refused to listen to his pleas to discontinue the chemical's use in food wrapping.
GLEN EVERS (FORMER SENIOR ENGINEER
DuPont thinks that they have pollution rights to the blood of every American. Every man, woman and child in the United States.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voice Over) A DuPont company memo from 1987, obtained by the Environmental Working Group, reveals test results showing the chemical was coming off at three times what the FDA allowed.
DOCTOR TIM KROPP (ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP)
The documents that we are sending now to the FDA again show that this is a pattern of cover-up and suppression.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voice Over) Evers says he was pushed out of the company for his stand, and he has now told what he knows under oath in a lawsuit brought against DuPont.
GLEN EVERS (FORMER SENIOR ENGINEER
You know, it's a, it's a sad situation that they knew it was in the, in the blood.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voice Over) Evers says he is ashamed he waited so long to talk.
GLEN EVERS (FORMER SENIOR ENGINEER
You have to ask for forgiveness for things, excuse me, for the things that you've done and you haven't done. I couldn't take it. I had to confess it to my priest and, and my priest said to me, you just can't dance with the Devil. You just have to do something. And so I pushed very hard within that company to clean up all these blood poisons that the company is putting into people.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Off Camera) In a statement to 'Good Morning America," Dupont says its products are safe for consumer use and that it strongly disputes the allegations made by Glen Evers, who they say was dismissed because of restructuring, not because he blew the whistle. The companies, McDonald and the other food companies, say it's safe to use these products, and they follow the FDA which is now saying, we're not saying these are unsafe, but the questions being raised, Charlie, simply cannot be ignored.
CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(Off Camera) All right. Thanks very much, Brian Ross. Robin?
