News Coverage
Teflon comes unstuck in China `mass panic'
Published July 20, 2004
Concerns about the safety of non-stick cookware coated with DuPont's Teflon have triggered what a company spokeswoman called a ``mass panic'' among Chinese consumers, forcing retailers to pull all non-stick cookware from their shelves as sales plummeted.
The public alarm was sparked by news reports earlier this month that the the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had alleged that DuPont failed to report potential risks from the synthetic chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) used to make non-stick pots and pans.
News of the agency's move evoked little response in the United States and Europe, where Teflon has been on the market for decades.
Not so in China. Spurred on by heavy media coverage of the EPA report and a spate of scandals involving contaminated food, environmental degradation, and shoddy, locally made goods, consumers opted not to take a chance and spurned Teflon and other non-stick goods.
Retailers quickly responded to the buyers' strike. Last week Beijing Sogo and some department stores in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, removed non-stick cookware from their shelves, as did managers of some ParknShop supermarkets in Guangdong.
"After some news reports saying a substance in Teflon-coated pans potentially poses health risks, we started to remove the related non-stick frying pans from our shelves,'' an official at a ParknShop in Guangzhou's Tianhe District said.
Some individual homeware stores in Guangzhou's Tianhe and Wangfujing shopping centres also said they started to send Teflon-coated cookware back to warehouses as a temporary measure until the concern abates.
Although some large retail chains including Wanjie, Trust-Mart and Carrefour stores in Guangzhou still sell non-stick frying pans, their sales dropped more than 60 per cent in the past week, store employees said.
An official with one of the Wanjie stores in Guangzhou said sales of China-made brands of Teflon-coated cookware fell by more than 60 per cent over the past week.
"Today, no one shows any interest in non-stick cookware,'' he said.
"This is because the worries that using Teflon-coated pans might increase the risks of cancer have not been dispersed.''
Safety concerns have also delayed China cookware makers' new-product promotions.
An official with Aishida, one of the largest cookware producers in China, said the company suspended the promotion of its new non-stick frying pans amid the increasing worries on non-stick cookware.
But the official, who declined to be named, said the Teflon controversy did not seriously affect its non-stick cookware sales because 90 per cent of its production is exported.
Zhejiang-based Supor Cookware Company, one of the largest pressure cooker makers in China, said it was little-affected because most of its goods are shipped overseas.
Olivia Chan, spokesman for DuPont in China, said the company has complied with the reporting requirements of the law.
She said the company will file a formal denial to the complaint within 30 days, adding there is no legal basis for the EPA's allegations.
Given the chain reactions by supermarkets and department stores, Chan said DuPont is disappointed by the retailers' reaction and hopes it would be temporary.
Chan attributes the panic to media reports on the controversy.
"Even though we translated the full report by the EPA into Chinese soon after some news reports misinterpreted the report, the extensive coverage has triggered the mass panic,'' she said.
Chan said PFOA has been used for 50 years in Teflon and the cookware is safe since PFOA is vaporised during manufacturing.
DuPont China Holdings president Charles Browne said the Chinese media's ``misinterpretation and misunderstanding'' of the EPA's press release have caused unnecessary concern among mainland consumers and the government.
"This misinterpretation of the EPA press release has led to unease about using non-stick cookware. PFOA is not hazardous to human health,'' he said. In an attempt to ease concerns, a "crisis team'' comprised of senior DuPont executives from the United States, Hong Kong and Shanghai flew to Beijing for a meeting with the quarantine authorities.