In a surprise turn Wednesday, the
Environmental Protection Agency moved to eliminate the
production of a suspected carcinogen used in the making
of Teflon and other non-stick and non-stain
coatings.
The EPA has asked eight
manufacturers that use a family of chemicals known as
perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, to reduce production
95% by 2010 and to stop using it altogether by 2015.
PFOA, which is found in the blood
of more than 95% of Americans, has been tied to cancer
and developmental damage in animal studies. It is used
in the process that makes water-, stain- and
grease-resistant products, everything from microwave
popcorn bags to pizza box liners, non-stick cookware to
pillows, upholstery to carpets.
Environmentalists and consumer
groups have long dogged the agency to act.
“The science is still coming in,
but the concern is there, so acting now to minimize
future releases of PFOA is the right thing to do for our
environment and our health,” says Susan Hazen of EPA's
Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances.
“This program will call on
industry to essentially eliminate PFOA release and its
presence in products over the next decade.”
EPA officials are calling for
voluntary PFOA cutbacks because “under the Toxic
Substances Control Act, they don't have authority to ban
it,” says Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working
Group, a public interest group that has long fought to
bring public attention to PFOA in the environment.
If the EPA is able to get the
chemicals phased out, Wiles says, it will be “the single
biggest action the agency has ever taken.”
The DuPont Company announced
Wednesday that it would comply with the EPA's voluntary
guidelines. “DuPont has been aggressively reducing PFOA
emissions to the environment,” DuPont vice president
Susan Stalnecker says.
DuPont has been at the center of
the controversy. The company agreed in December to pay
$10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million for research
and education to resolve federal charges that it hid
information about the dangers posed by PFOA.
Less toxic alternatives are
readily available, says Scott Mabury, a professor of
environmental chemistry at the University of Toronto in
Canada.
PFOA is characterized by a chain
of eight carbon atoms. But a version of four carbon
atoms works well and doesn't accumulate in bodies,
Mabury says. “You won't find them in huge quantities in
polar bears or human blood, like we do the eight-carbon
version. There will be chemical pollution from it but
you can't have toxicology if you don't have exposure. It
is an appropriate chemical solution to a chemical
problem.”
