NBC Nightly News, Tom Costello
Published June 28, 2005
BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:
We're back with NBC News IN DEPTH tonight, and a question, does a chemical compound found in everything from frying pans to pizza boxes to raincoats cause cancer? It's a chemical most commonly found in Teflon, and Teflon, as you know, is everywhere these days. Now an advisory panel to the EPA says there is reason to be concerned. IN DEPTH tonight, here is NBC's Tom Costello.
TOM COSTELLO reporting:
With five kids, it seems Barbara Andrukonis always has something cooking in a pan. But it's the chemical compound used to make the pan's Teflon coating that has her, and an EPA panel, concerned.
Ms. BARBARA ANDRUKONIS: Anything that isn't sort of the way nature made it has to have some kind of problem with it for us as humans.
COSTELLO: The compound is PFOA, and trace amounts of it have shown up in blood samples taken from people across the country. When rats and mice were exposed to PFOA in far greater amounts, they developed brain tumors. Now an EPA advisory panel reports PFOA is a likely carcinogen in humans. Activists have been pushing the EPA to regulate it for years.
Mr. RICHARD WILES (Environmental Working Group): Our concern is that this is a unique chemical. It lasts literally for eternity, and now it has been determined to be a likely human carcinogen. That ranks it up there with DDT, PCBs, dioxin, as a very serious hazard. It needs to be banned.
COSTELLO: Teflon and the products that contain PFOA are everywhere from those pots and pans to Gore-Tex jackets, carpet coatings, computer chips, engine fuel lines, even pizza boxes. But the manufacturer, DuPont, says it doesn't know why PFOAs are turning up in human blood samples nationwide. And it says there is no PFOAs in Teflon-coated pans because, it says, they've been destroyed during the manufacturing process. It also says its tests indicate PFOAs are not a threat.
Mr. ROBERT RICKARD, PhD (DuPont Scientist): Clearly, based on our assessment of the science, we do not believe this poses any cancer risk to the general population.
COSTELLO: There are nonstick coatings that don't contain Teflon, but now the EPA must decide if PFOA used in Teflon and other processing should be regulated.
Mr. CHARLES AUER (Environmental Protection Agency): The EPA's prepared to act, but we do have to have a pretty complete understanding of the risks, the exposures, etc.
COSTELLO: Whether a chemical that's part of everyday life is also a threat. Tom Costello, NBC News, Washington.
