Conscious Consumer - Bringing It Home

"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death."Rachel Carson,1907-1964

Teflon - From the Frying Pan into the Fire

The chemicals used to make Teflon coated pots and pans as well as other related products continue to take their toll on our individual and planetary health.

At issue is the large chemical family of Perfluorochemicals (PCFs). Most evidence points to the emissions of PFCs during manufacturing and their release from food packaging, fabric treatment, and other products are important sources of local and global contamination. Scientists found compounds generated from parent PCFs persist in the environment, contaminate the blood of human and wildlife, change body chemistry and cause health problems, including cancer.

DuPont and other companies use these synthetic compounds to make an extraordinarily wide range of products, including nonstick cookware (e.g, Teflon), grease-resistant food packaging (e.g., microwave popcorn and pizza boxes), stain-resistant fabrics and carpets (e.g., Stainmaster), shampoos, conditioners, cleaning products, electronic components, paints, firefighting foams, and a host of other artifacts of modern life.

PFCs have turned up in wildlife on at least three continents and above the Arctic Circle, in the blood of dolphins, seals, sea lions, minks, polar bears, gulls, albatrosses, bald eagles, sea turtles, and dozens more species. PFCs are widespread in seafood. Fifteen PFCs have been identified in human blood samples, with highest concentrations in Americans. Once in the body, it doesn't leave quickly; almost four years after being taken in, half of the original amount remains in the body's system.

DuPont Argues No Harm

DuPont has never conceded that PFCs might cause health or environmental problems, but the company has bowed to relentless and rising public pressure in recent years and moved to rein in its emissions.

The EPA sued DuPont in 2004, charging that the company had for years been concealing information on PFOA pollution (a PFC emission) at Washington Works, a Dupont manufacturing centre. A year ago, without admitting any wrongdoing, DuPont agreed to pay $16.5 million in fines and support of research and education -- the largest civil judgment EPA had ever obtained. In the same year, the settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by Ohio and West Virginia residents living in the vicinity of DuPont's Washington Works plant required the company to spend more than $100 million to ensure that homes in the area are supplied with water uncontaminated with PFO. But it's important to note that all restrictions put on the production of PFC to date have resulted from civil settlements, not regulatory actions.

Scientists have observed a general buildup of PFCs in the biosphere, but very little is known about what that will mean for ecosystems. PFCs apparently do not have the extreme toxicity of, say, dioxins; nevertheless, there's little reason for complacency when compounds that can be found so readily in such a broad range of animals -- mammals, birds, and reptiles -- have also been shown to damage the health of the few species on which they have been tested.

There are no manufacturers of PFCAs in Canada. But a range of PFCAs and related substances have been detected in Canadian biota and the environment. According to the Government of Canada's website:

Available evidence indicates that PFCAs are highly persistent, meaning they may degrade in the environment at only extremely slow rates. As well, PFCAs with a longer chain length (i.e., those with 9 or more carbons, referred to as long chain PFCAs) are bioaccumulative, meaning they collect in living organisms. Some PFCAs may move up the food chain and become more concentrated during this process, thereby biomagnifying in certain organisms.

In tests on laboratory animals, one PFCA (perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA) has been shown to cause cancer in rats and adverse effects on the immune system in mice. In addition, PFOA can display reproductive or developmental toxicity in rodents at moderate levels of exposure, and moderate to high systemic toxicity in rodents and monkeys following long-term exposure by the oral route.

In Oct. 31, 2006 letter to the EPA, DuPont administrators claimed to have slashed both their U.S. factory emissions and the PFOA content of their products by 97 percent since 2000. Fluoropolymer products going into automotive, military and medical products will take somewhat longer to convert to low PFOA content, wrote DuPont, "due to their criticality."

DuPont has maintained that PFOA has no negative health effects. Yet in addition to the civil suit DuPont has just settled, there is an ongoing criminal investigation of its actions regarding PFOA pollution.

Unlike pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals receive only minimal federal scrutiny before being OK'd for use. Today, between 80,000 and 100,000 industrial chemicals may be used freely in the United States alone and only a handful of such chemical compounds have been placed under restrictions.

 

 

 

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