It will be interesting to see how REACH, the new European chemicals policy, deals with PFOA, the main component of Teflon; indeed, how it deals with Teflon itself
PFOA, perfluoroctanic acid, is the main component in the making of Teflon, the non-stick, heat resistant, highly useful and versatile fluoropolymer used in countless industry and household products. PFOA is made at DuPont , West Virginia , at a site next to the Ohio river , the Mississippi ’s largest tributary
DuPont have long denied any links between elevated rates of cancer and exposure to chemicals at its plants, but the company has also attracted the attention of negative research. A great amount of this has focused on PFOA.
Local residents living downstream from the DuPont plant have had their water supplies contaminated by PFOA for fifty years, and say that local paediatricians report a manifold higher than average rate of early childhood caries – where children’s adult teeth fall out at 12.
James Dahlgren, a California toxicologist, has found a statistically significant excess of prostate, breast and cervical cancers compared to the US average in both plant workers and residents.
I recently interviewed Kathie Ball, 52, who has had three cancers after working on the production line at DuPont for 10 years. She was eventually fired after complaining of sexual harassment – her supervisor wanted to touch her silicone breasts – and because she had taken too much time off. Since this time off was due to the cancers she had contracted, this is a rather cheeky complaint. Kathie sounded like one of life’s victims, a former homecoming queen and high school cheerleader whose chief character trait was to be too trusting and chose the wrong job because it was well paid.
Activists I spoke to in West Virginia say that the heavy concentration of chemicals firms in this rural, hilly, indeed beautiful Appalachian state find it convenient that its population is relatively poor, unconnected, ill-educated.
DuPont have moved on criticisms: last year they settled a $100 m class action law suit with 80,000 local residents, without however admitting liability.
The Environmental Protection Agency has launched its own lawsuit against DuPont for failing for two decades to report health risks associated with PFOA.
The sum will be settled in January and could amount to as much as $300m, the largest corporate environmental fine in US history. Earlier this year, the EPA said PFOA was a likely human carcinogen. There has been a lot of US media coverage about this, with many headline puns on the themes of criticism “sticking” and DuPont being “in the frying pan”.
How does this relate to REACH? Neither DuPont US nor DuPont UK return calls. But according to a source in the green movement who has connections with the working group that classifies chemicals into the groups of high concern, PFOA is imported into Europe in quantities of about 100 tonnes a year, where, presumably, locally, it is made into teflon. Because of the ridiculous way that the tests for toxicity under REACH that have to be carried out are dependent only on individual amounts made by each producer, imported by each importer, PFOA could be quantified according to the 1 – 10 tonne range – if there are, say, 11 importers.
This is the lowest quantity range band, and requires provision to the EU chemicals agency of the absolute minimum of data – such as boiling point - unless the chemical in question has been classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or harmful to reproduction.
Only then will the substance be subject to further tests and possible authorisation.
REACH is based on self assessment – the chemicals industry might call it an “invitation to commit suicide”. A commission source says the company itself has to determine and state whether a substance is carcinogenic, based on definitions in a previous EU directive. But on further examination this argument is circular, because that too talks about carcinogenic without defining it further.
Question: is DuPont going to call PFOA carcinogenic?
Supposing it doesn’t. its low quantities, and low risk also means companies would be given the longest possible deadline to register PFOA – 11 years – and, as said, could well escape the need for authorisation altogether.
There is a provision for the commission to check suspect dossiers; and it may do so for PFOA – because DuPont is a big company, PFOA is on the greens’ hitlist, star attraction of their alarming brochures, and because of articles like this. DuPont may also declare PFOA as a carcinogen. Then, another question poses itself
Teflon is a polymer; and polymers are blanket exempted from need for registration at all. It is also generally believed to be harmless. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
However, there is increasing American evidence that the Teflon used in greaseproof wrapping under the brand name zonyl comes off in small amounts during eating and enters the stomach. The stuff is used in hamburger wrappers.
In the stomach it degrades i7nto PFOA, findings by US scientists show. A Teflon carpet spray meanwhile that impregnates carpets against stains and spills is believed to contain alcohol residues of PFOA- alcohol which evaporate easily into the atmosphere – and are likely to enter the lungs of babies crawling around the house. According to Canadian scientist Scott Mabury, head of chemistry at Toronto university, under atmospheric action it also degrades into PFOA, which is why the chemical is found in the blood of polar bears in the arctic, albeit in tiny concentrations. Toxicologists say that PFOA’s advantage, the strong carbon fluorine bonds that give it its anti stick, heat resistant properties, also makes it one of the most persistent chemicals on the planet. One American chemicals campaigner said morosely of this entirely manmade chemical: “When mankind and all our civilisation has come and gone, this will be our pathetic signature. Aliens arriving on the planet in the distant future will know this as Earth’s PFOA age.” Even the much-malign PCBs, already banned, degrade slowly.
PFOA may not - unlike at the DuPont plant – enter the average European’s body in sufficiently dangerous quantities to be banned.
It will be interesting to see what happens next- how the EU deals with it. DuPont is subject to another lawsuit, in Florida . The plaintiffs are calling for five billion dollars to replace the planet’s pots and pans.
