Union contacts paper companies about safety of DuPont chemical

Associated Press State & Local Wire, Staff
Published April 20, 2005

Union officials are looking into safety concerns over the use of a Teflon-related chemical by hundreds of food packaging and other paper manufacturers across the country. Boyd Young, a top official with the union that until recently was known as the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International, recently sent letters to the CEOs of more than 200 major paper companies about possible health risks associated with using Zonyl, a chemical produced by DuPont. The letters were sent before last week's merger of Nashville-based PACE with the United Steelworkers of America into an organization now called USW International. Zonyl breaks down into C8, a suspected carcinogen currently being investigated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the subject of a major lawsuit settlement this year in West Virginia and Ohio. The union, which represents 850,000 workers, is conducting a preliminary survey among 1,200 local union officials to collect initial information on the prevalence of Zonyl's use and how workers are exposed to it. Labor leaders believe Zonyl is used widely in the paper industry, including to make packaging for food products. "It is our duty to protect the health and safety of the workers our union represents," Young said in a statement released Thursday. Officials with Georgia-Pacific Corp. and other paper companies that were mailed letters did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. A spokesman for DuPont also did not immediately return calls. Timothy Kropp, senior scientist at Environmental Working Group, said, "While nearly every American has in their blood Teflon chemicals used in food packaging and other paper products, workers may have higher levels. Studies have found that workers exposed to the Teflon chemical known as C8 are at risk for increased stroke, leukemia and prostate cancer." The EPA has filed a federal lawsuit alleging DuPont hid information about the dangers of C8. DuPont also recently settled a $108 million class action lawsuit filed by residents in West Virginia and Ohio residents alleging the company had contaminated their water supplies with C8.