News Coverage
DuPont says again it met disclosure rules
Chemical maker responds to EPA complaint concerning health risks of PFOA
Published August 12, 2004
DuPont Co., the second-largest U.S. chemical maker, reaffirmed that it complied with federal regulations on disclosing information on health risks related to a substance used in Teflon.
"We are confident that we have met all reporting obligations," DuPont General Counsel Stacey Mobley said in a statement.
DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., responded Thursday to three counts in an Environmental Protection Agency complaint involving perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, used in nonstick Teflon coatings and other flouropolymers.
The company failed to disclose the health risks of PFOA, or C-8, and may face as much as $300 million in fines, the government said last month.
"Does this mean people will stop using Teflon?" said Gene Pisasale, who helps manage $26 billion at Wilmington Trust Corp., the fourth-largest DuPont shareholder with 26.3 million shares. "Probably not. But it certainly may raise some questions in the minds of consumers."
Teflon-related products contribute at least $100 million to DuPont's full-year profit, or almost 10 percent of 2003 earnings, The New York Times reported this week.
The EPA said in a statement it is evaluating the company's response, and "the agency remains committed to pursuing an appropriate resolution to DuPont's failures to report information."
The government said in April 2003 that it "does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using any consumer or industrial-related products" with PFOA, DuPont said. "We have and will continue to manage PFOA safely, and we expect to resolve the issues raised in the EPA complaint," Mobley said.
As early as June 1981, DuPont found traces of the chemical in the fetus of a pregnant worker in West Virginia, and in the mid-1980s detected the substance in municipal water supplies in West Virginia and Ohio, according to the government's complaint. EPA was alerted in March 2001, when a lawyer in a class action suit disclosed internal DuPont documents.
Shares of DuPont fell 39 cents, to $40.74 in New York Stock Exchange trading, down 6.8 percent in the past year.