News Coverage
The Sticking Point
Published November 30, 2004
There is a simmering debate going on about something most Americans have in their kitchens: Teflon.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accusing DuPont -- the company that makes Teflon -- of failing to disclose health risks posed to workers and communities around Teflon plants.
At the center of the EPA investigation is a memo tracking the pregnancies of 8 employees in the early 1980's who worked at a plant where Teflon was made. It indicates two of those pregnancies resulted in birth defects. The EPA says DuPont hid the memo from the public.
"Part of what we're trying to figure out is what DuPont knew, when they knew it and what they did with that information when they did know it," said Tom Skinner, a spokesperson for the EPA.
Scientists are blaming a chemical known as C8 used to make Teflon for birth defects in children and flu-like symptoms in adults. C-8 shows up in places you might not expect: the depths of Lake Michigan, polar bears in Alaska and the bloodstreams of almost every person tested for it.
"We're exposed through so many routes," said Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group. "Right now, the government is trying to figure out which routes are the most important."
DuPont said it did not break the law by withholding what it calls the "informal" pregnancy survey. The company does admit, however, pans can be dangerous if heated beyond 500 degrees, but says consumers do not cook with the ultra-high heat.
The environmental group leading the charge against the company disagrees.
"DuPont says people don't cook at high temperatures," Houlihan said. "That's just not true. And then at higher temperatures -- in the mid-600's -- you are actually getting multiple kinds of toxic gases coming off the pans."