DuPont's Toxic Teflon Problems

In theory, chemical companies should strive to create chemicals that are as safe and harmless as possible to humans and to wildlife. Sadly, history has shown that this simply isn’t the case.

Industry has a track record of promoting chemicals as harmless, even when they are well aware of significant risks. What is worse than that is when companies have been found to have lied to federal and local regulators, consumers and even their own employees about the toxicity of various chemicals.

DuPont’s Deceptive Practices:

DuPont is one such company. DuPont has had about 3,500 personal injury claims against them, including 37 claims for wrongful death related to non-stick PFOA chemicals, which includes Teflon.

Besides using Teflon in pots and pans, Teflon and related compounds were used in hundreds of other non-stick and stain-resistant products, from microwave popcorn bags and fast-food wrappers to waterproof clothing and soil-repellant carpet, as well as for furniture treatments.
PFOA is a fluorinated chemical and it is the fluorine that provide the slipperiness. These chemicals take about 4 years to be 50% eliminated from the body. That is providing that you are not taking in any more.

There were experiments done on rats, dogs, and rabbits, showing that C8, which is an ingredient of Teflon, was associated with a wide range of health problems that sometimes killed the lab animals.

This legal process has uncovered hundreds of internal documents revealing that DuPont knew of the chemical’s danger to the public and employees, probably as early as 1961, yet continued using it without warning of its risks.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined DuPont $16.5 million for withholding decades’ worth of information about health hazards associated with PFOA. At the time, that fine was the largest the EPA had ever assessed.

In 2005, a panel of three scientists convened as part of a settlement to determine the chemical’s effects on people. After seven years of research, the results were detailed in more than three dozen peer-reviewed papers.

The C8 Science Panel linked PFOA to:

• Ulcerative colitis
• High cholesterol
• Pregnancy-induced hypertension
• Thyroid disease
• Testicular and kidney cancer

Its health effects were deemed to be widespread and occurred even at very low exposure levels. According to The Intercept, DuPont was aware of many of these risks, yet kept its knowledge secret, even from its own workers, who came into direct and prolonged contact with the chemical.
These man-made compounds didn’t exist a century ago, but C8 was in the blood of 99.7% of Americans, according to a 2007 analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control. C8 was also found in newborn human babies, breast milk and umbilical cord blood.

Scientists have been tracking the chemical’s spread through the environment, documenting its presence in a wide range of wildlife, including Loggerhead sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, harbor seals, polar bears, caribou, walruses, bald eagles, lions, tigers and arctic birds.
PFOA Dangerous at Levels 1,300 Times Lower Than Recognized By EPA:
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently released a Teflon report, suggesting that PFOA in drinking water may pose a significant threat to at least six million Americans across 27 states.

The EWG also highlights recent research showing that PFOA is dangerous at levels 1,300 times lower than previously recognized by the EPA.

Today we live in a world where giant companies can easily buy and pay for their own research studies, as well as the lobbying to support whatever legislation they need passed in their favor. Conflicts of interest have become the norm.

The bottom line is that we can’t trust the chemical companies or even the government to protect us. You simply need to be your own healthcare advocate and watch out for your family. If you don’t, who will?

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