News Coverage
EPA Says DuPont Withheld Data on Teflon Chemical Risk
Published July 11, 2004
DuPont Co., the second-largest U.S. chemical company, failed to disclose the health risks of a
substance used in Teflon and may face as much as $300 million in fines, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont illegally withheld information about perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, used in non- stick Teflon coatings and other flouropolymers, said Tom Skinner, the agency's enforcement chief. DuPont denied the allegation and
said it complied with reporting rules.
As early as June 1981, DuPont found traces of the chemical in the fetus of a pregnant worker in West Virginia, and in the mid-1980s detected the substance in municipal water supplies in West Virginia and Ohio, according to the government's complaint. EPA was alerted to the information in March 2001, when a lawyer
in a class action suit disclosed internal DuPont documents.
"Companies have an obligation to report this type of information by law," Skinner said from Washington on a conference call with reporters. "This complaint is intended to send a very clear signal to those companies that they better."
DuPont probably won't face the same level of liability as it did with the fungicide Benlate, for which the company has paid more than $1.5 billion in damages, said Gene Pisasale, senior investment officer at Wilmington Trust Co., DuPont's fourth- largest investor with 26.3 million shares as of March.
'Premature'
"I'd be very surprised if it was anything on that scale," Pisasale said. "It's very premature to talk about huge fines. It's more 'stay tuned' than anything else."
DuPont violated the Toxic Substances Control Act twice and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act once, Skinner said. The agency can seek fines of up to $27,500 a day for each violation between 1981 and 2001. The maximum fine for the period is $300 million and probably will be lower, Skinner said.
DuPont said it will file a formal denial of the complaint. A decision against DuPont would redefine reporting requirements under the law and would not be upheld by the courts, DuPont General Counsel Stacey J. Mobley said in a statement.
"This is not about the safety of our products," Mobley said. "It is about administrative reporting."
The EPA has not made any conclusions about the safety of PFOA, Skinner said. DuPont is working with DuPont, 3M Co. and other companies to determine whether voluntary or regulatory actions are needed to protect human health and the environment, he said. A revised risk assessment on PFOA is due this fall.
EPA Allegations
PFOA, made by DuPont outside Parkersburg, West Virginia, since 1951, is a liver toxin in animals and associated with birth defects in rats, according to the EPA complaint. It accumulates in humans and is in the blood of the general population throughout the country, the agency said.
DuPont found PFOA in blood samples from pregnant workers and their fetuses at its West Virginia plant, the agency said. That information could support the conclusion that PFOA is a substantial health risk and should have been immediately reported to environmental regulators, Skinner said.
The company also failed to report 1991 tests that found PFOA in public water supplies in communities near the West Virginia plant that were at a higher level than DuPont guidelines indicated are safe, Skinner said.
'Largest' Fine
More than a dozen similar cases of companies withholding toxicity information about their products have been settled for about $1 million each, he said. DuPont has been in violation for almost 20 years, so the penalty "will probably be the largest we've sought," Skinner said.
DuPont maintains that PFOA, or C-8, does not cause birth defects, and that there is no evidence of it harming human health.
"We have 50 years of scientific data and research, none of which indicates PFOA is harmful to human health or the environment," DuPont spokesman Clif Webb said. "On the basis of that, we felt the information was not reportable."
Shares of DuPont fell 32 cents to $42.77 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had gained 1.9 percent in the past year.
DuPont scientist Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon in 1938. The company sold Teflon as the first non-stick cookware coating in 1962.
Dow Chemical Co. is the biggest U.S. chemical maker by 2003 revenue.
