News Coverage
EPA Taps Outside Experts to Solve Teflon Enigma
The agency can't assess the risk of a chemical found in most people tested in the U.S.
Published January 13, 2005
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday reported that a chemical used in making Teflon that has been detected in human bodies worldwide could cause cancer and developmental problems. But the chemical, pioneered by DuPont, has raised so many novel scientific questions that the federal agency asked outside experts to help nail down its risks.
The EPA's long-awaited draft risk assessment found "no notable health effects," including no elevated cancer rate, among DuPont workers exposed to the industrial chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. But in tests on laboratory animals, the EPA reported links to liver and testicular cancer, reduced weight of newborns and immune suppression, which raises the potential for some human health effects too.
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