Company agrees to heed EPA call on health issues
Wilmington News Journal, Jeff Montgomery
Published January 26, 2006
The Environmental Protection Agency cited global health concerns Wednesday in calling on DuPont and other companies to end within 10 years worldwide releases of chemicals used to make Teflon and thousands of other stick- and stain-resistant consumer goods.
DuPont and seven other companies were asked to enroll in the agency's voluntary "stewardship" program in advance of the public announcement. Terms of the agreement would require a 95 percent reduction by 2010, with annual reports due starting in October.
DuPont is the nation's only producer of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the main chemical targeted by the EPA proposal.
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In a prepared statement, DuPont said that it already has agreed to the EPA's request, and pointed out that the company has cut emissions of the targeted chemicals by 94 percent since 2000.
The company's Chambers Works plant, in Deepwater, N.J., at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, makes or handles related compounds also chosen for phaseout. Some are used in an assortment of consumer goods, including fast-food packaging, popcorn bags and fabric treatments.
A commercial wastewater plant at Chambers Works has in the past discharged PFOA and similar chemicals into the Delaware River. Company officials shipped some of the compound to Chambers Works from West Virginia after groundwater contamination there was traced to the DuPont's Parkersburg, W.Va., Teflon plant.
In its statement, DuPont noted that Teflon cookware and other company products are safe for consumer use.
Search for substitute
Federal regulators began to focus on PFOA, sometimes called C-8, and associated chemicals in the late 1990s after they began turning up in human and animal blood around the globe. Concern increased as scientists learned more about PFOA's ability to linger and accumulate in the environment and living tissues.
"In real terms, what [the EPA request] means is there will be no continued loadings to the environment of PFOA," said Susan Hazen, acting assistant administrator in the Office of Pre- vention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances at the EPA. "The low levels that are there will remain low and in fact, as time goes by, will decrease."
Regulators also will seek a requirement that companies regularly make public reports on releases of PFOA, along with "pre- cursor" chemicals that might turn into PFOA, Hazen said.
The EPA's proposal, DuPont said, will help cut industrywide emissions more quickly, "while ensuring continued availability of the many essential products serving critical industries such as telecommunications, aerospace, semiconductors, and fire fighting."
DuPont and companies worldwide are racing to develop affordable alternatives to PFOA for Teflon and similar products. Although DuPont is a leading supplier, companies based in Germany, Japan and Italy are among those identified as having produced PFOA.
Environmental group elated
The initiative drew heavy praise from one environmental group that for years criticized both industry and federal regulators for failing to acknowledge and eliminate risks from the chemicals.
"This is one of those days when we feel the EPA is at its best," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an organization based in Washington. "They're asking industry to err on the side of caution and public safety, and invent some new ways of doing business."
Some reports found the chemical could cause developmental problems, cancers and other harm to laboratory animals. The findings prompted an EPA advisory panel recommendation in 2005 to label PFOA as a "likely" cancer-causing agent that also may cause other health problems.
DuPont's Teflon and associated products account for about $1 billion in business. Related families of chemicals, called telomers, are under study because of their potential to break down into PFOA.
Company officials say no human health effects are known to be caused by PFOA. They also say studies have found cookware and other products made with or using DuPont materials are safe for consumer use.
Environmental Working Group senior scientist Tim Kropp said risks are clear.
"We don't know all that we should know, but what we know is troubling," Kropp said.
In mid-December, DuPont agreed to pay $16.5 million in fines and compensatory spending to settle EPA charges the company failed to report PFOA releases and human exposures, and information about possible toxic effects.
"For the last several years, we have had an aggressive effort under way to better understand what, if any, risks PFOA may pose to the public," Hazen said. "The science is still coming in, but the concern is there, so acting now to minimize future releases of PFOA is the right thing to do for our environment and our health."
Contact Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or
jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.
News Journal file/FRED COMEGYS
DuPont's Chambers Works plant makes and handles compounds related to perfluorooctanoic acid, which an EPA panel recommended labeling a "likely" cancer-causing agent last year.
EPA'S GLOBAL STEWARDSHIP GOALS
