http://www.ewg.org/issues/PFCs/20040812/index.php
August 12, 2004
Press Release from
the Environmental Working Group (Washington DC)
Contact: Lauren Sucher, 202-667-6982
DuPont Sticks To Denials
In Teflon Pollution Probe
EWG Calls for Swift
Imposition of Maximum Fine
WASHINGTON —
Repeating arguments it advanced last year and which have since been rejected
by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DuPont today denied that
it had illegally suppressed birth defect and water pollution studies for
17 years as its Teflon-related chemical contaminated the bloodstream of
virtually every American.
DuPont was responding
to an EPA petition charging the company with violating the Toxic Substances
Control Act and another federal law by suppressing the studies. The Agency
can now fine DuPont up to $313 million, request a hearing before a judge,
or wait for an undetermined period of time — even past this November's
presidential election.
"If it truly
is DuPont's corporate philosophy not to disclose information they collect
about chemical contamination of their worker's fetuses or the tap water
of the communities they operate in, it makes you wonder what else the
company knows but isn't telling the public about their products and facilities,"
said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group (EWG). "That
is the reputation DuPont is building for itself in this Teflon scandal.
And the corollary is, the public will never really know what DuPont knows
about contamination or pollution, or when they knew it, until someone
sues them," Cook added.
"DuPont's response
today shows that it is an unrepentant global polluter which needs to face
the maximum fine EPA can levy; the company must learn that it cannot suppress
studies of Teflon's toxicity that carry global public health implications,"
said EWG Senior Scientist Dr. Timothy Kropp.
The fine for three
of the violations runs $25,000 or $27,500 daily for periods spanning 10
and 20 years. EWG has calculated the maximum fine could be $313 million.
DuPont's annual profits from the sale of Teflon are $200 million.
The EPA's complaint
against DuPont resulted from an April 2003 EWG petition to the Agency
that brought the undisclosed studies to light after they were discovered
in ongoing litigation in West Virginia.
The
Teflon chemical, known as PFOA, and its variants belong to a family of
fluorine-containing substances that are unusually persistent—they
have yet to be shown to break down in the environment—and have been
found to cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems in laboratory
animals. A recent
study found PFOA and related chemicals in human blood around the world.
The combination of toxicity, persistence and pervasiveness in humans and
wildlife has triggered growing concern from regulatory scientists in the
U.S., Canada, and Europe reminiscent of the scrutiny that led to bans
on DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other notorious pollutants
which were banned in the 1970s.
Teflon
chemicals are used to make dozens of widely used products, such as Teflon
and other coated cookware, fast food containers such as French fry and
pizza boxes, clothing, outdoor gear, furniture, carpet treatments such
as Stainmaster, cleaning products and even cosmetics. DuPont's
own website brags that "it's everywhere," with a graphic animation
showing products that contain Teflon in every room of the house.
The
EPA placed PFOA, also known as C8, on its priority investigation list
in September 2002 after Agency officials negotiated the phaseout in 2000
of a related chemical known as PFOS that was used in Scotchgard.
The EPA's concerns about the Scotchgard chemical — health effects
and worldwide pollution -- were nearly the same as those that have emerged
about the Teflon substance.
# # #
The Environmental
Working Group is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington,
DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the
environment. Four years' worth of EWG research on Teflon chemicals and
related substances is available at http://www.ewg.org/issues/PFCs/index.php.
