Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)
December 5, 2006 Tuesday
By Scott Streater, McClatchy Newspapers
Editors's note: This is the final part of a three-part series looking at common toxins.
FORT WORTH, Texas -- They're found in floor waxes and shampoos, fast-food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags. They coat pizza boxes, carpets and frying pans.
And they're in people.
They're perfluorochemicals. While you may not recognize the word, you probably know the brand names: Teflon, Stainmaster, Gore-Tex.
You are exposed to those compounds every day, and there is mounting concern that they may cause a variety of health problems. A panel of scientists selected by the Environmental Protection Agency concluded this year that a perfluorochemical used in nonstick cookware is a likely cancer-causing agent.
As is the case with many of the 82,000 chemicals in commercial use today, health officials aren't sure what levels of perfluorochemicals in the body can cause health problems. Researchers aren't even sure of the main source of human exposure: household products, manufacturing plants or both.
They know only that perfluorochemicals remain in the environment and the body for a long time.
"These compounds are used in an unbelievable number of products that we come in contact with every day," said Kurunthachalam Kannan, a scientist at the New York State Department of Health, in Albany, who has extensively researched the compounds.
Highest levels in U.S.
Researchers have found that U.S. residents have the world's highest levels of perfluorochemicals in their bodies. Kannan says it takes the body at least eight years to rid itself of the chemicals.
In January, DuPont and other companies volunteered to phase out perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, used in Teflon nonstick cookware and some microwave popcorn bags.
But there's evidence that neither compound breaks down in the environment -- ever. That means people could be exposed for an untold amount of time.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram tested the blood of 12 people for the presence of PFOS and PFOA, along with dozens of other toxic chemicals. The study found PFOS in all 12 participants and PFOA in six.
The concentrations were tiny -- parts per billion. One part per billion is equivalent to one kernel of corn in a 45-foot silo filled to the brim. Yet one study published last year in the peer-reviewed journal "Toxicological Sciences" found that PFOA hurt the livers of laboratory rats at low levels. The highest level of PFOA found in any of the Star-Telegram study participants was 5 parts per billion.
The chemical that makes nonstick cookware slick is in the national spotlight now.
Chemical lawsuits
DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., is North America's only producer of PFOA and faces numerous lawsuits tied to the compound.
In 2004, DuPont agreed to pay up to $343 million to settle a class-action suit filed by Ohio and West Virginia residents who said their water supplies had been contaminated with PFOA from DuPont's plant in Parkersburg, W.Va.
A similar federal lawsuit was filed in April by New Jersey residents who contend that a DuPont plant in Salem County, N.J., contaminated drinking water supplies and that the company knew of the contamination for years. The PFOA levels in those cases are much higher than what would be expected from products.
DuPont faces a federal class-action lawsuit brought by residents in 20 states and the District of Columbia who say the company failed to make public the possible health risks associated with use of its nonstick pots and pans. The lawsuit, filed in May in Iowa, alleges that DuPont knew its Teflon cookware releases toxic gases when heated.
DuPont denies the allegations.
Last year, the EPA fined DuPont $10.25 million -- the largest civil penalty in the agency's 36-year history -- for failing to report that it had learned as early as 1981 that PFOA could pass from a woman's blood to her fetus.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore said in February that blood samples from the umbilical cords of 298 newborns had trace levels of the compound.
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