DuPont Co., the third-largest U.S. chemical producer, is tainting candy, butter, popcorn and baked goods with a potentially cancer-causing chemical that seeps out of grease-resistant packaging, a former company scientist said yesterday.
The Wilmington company has known since 1987 that its Zonyl RP, which makes paper resistant to grease, is absorbed by humans at three times the permitted level, said Glenn R. Evers, a DuPont chemical engineer from 1981 to 2002. Zonyl is used in food packaging.
The human body breaks down Zonyl into the chemical PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, causing enlarged livers in animal studies, he said. The absorption findings were not disclosed by DuPont to customers or regulators, Evers said.
DuPont has said PFOA does not cause human health problems, even in workers exposed to high doses. In a statement yesterday, the company said Zonyl packaging was safe for consumers.
"DuPont has always complied with all FDA regulations and standards regarding these products," the company said. Spokesman R. Clifton Webb declined further comment.
The Food and Drug Administration regulates food packaging. An FDA spokesman did not immediately return calls yesterday seeking comment.
The Environmental Protection Agency is studying PFOA, used in Teflon-coated pans, to determine whether it causes cancer in people and why it is found in the blood of most Americans.
"DuPont has hidden and suppressed the data so they wouldn't draw further government scrutiny," Evers said at the Washington headquarters of the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog organization that persuaded him to speak publicly. "The issue is, are you going to play by the rules?"
DuPont is paying $107.6 million to settle claims that PFOA, also known as C8, from its West Virginia factory polluted the drinking water of 60,000 people.
International Paper Co. uses DuPont's Zonyl RP to make clamshell boxes for McDonald's Corp. hamburgers. Also, ConAgra Foods Inc. uses Zonyl to make bags for microwave popcorn, Evers said in an interview. Spokesmen for those companies were not immediately available to comment.
The Environmental Working Group disclosed to regulators and reporters yesterday what it said were internal DuPont documents that support Evers' claims.
A ban on PFOA would affect $1 billion of DuPont's $27.3 billion in annual sales, the company said in a Nov. 3 filing.
Evers, who was a chemical engineer in charge of fluorotelomer paper coatings at DuPont's Chambers Works site in Deepwater, N.J., said he tried to persuade his colleagues at DuPont to notify customers and regulators after he received a September 1987 study that found Zonyl leaches from paper coatings into food at 0.62 part per million. The FDA safety standard of 0.2 ppm was set in 1966.
DuPont subsequently learned that Zonyl breaks down into PFOA in the blood, and that PFOA accumulates and persists in people, he said.
DuPont would not market safer packaging alternatives because they were more expensive to produce, and Zonyl was the company's best seller, Evers said.
"I pushed as hard as I possibly could for eliminating blood contamination chemicals that are retained in the blood," Evers said.
Evers was fired in 2002 as part of a company restructuring, and he filed a wrongful-termination suit this year. He said he had no financial interest in speaking out.
"My personal convictions do not allow me to withhold what I know," Evers said. "This effort can do nothing but make trouble for me."
PFOA affects two groups of products made by DuPont: fluoropolymers and fluorotelomers.
PFOA is not found in finished fluoropolymer products, such as Teflon coatings, rain gear and wiring insulation, DuPont said. The chemical is present at trace levels in fluorotelomer products such as firefighting foams and grease repellants added to paper, clothing, leather, upholstery and carpet, DuPont said in a Nov. 3 government filing.
An EPA scientific advisory board in June said PFOA was a likely human carcinogen, based on animal studies. The EPA itself has not determined whether the chemical harms human health.
source: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/13186802.htm 17nov2005
WASHINGTON — DuPont Co. hid studies showing the risks of a Teflon-related chemical used to line candy wrappers, pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags and hundreds of other food containers, according to internal company documents and a former employee.
The chemical Zonyl can rub off the liner and get into food. Once in a person's body, it can break down into perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts, known as PFOA, a related chemical used in the making of Teflon-coated cookware.
The Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to decide whether to classify PFOA as a "likely" human carcinogen. The Food and Drug Administration, in a letter released Wednesday evening by DuPont, said it was continuing to monitor the safety of PFOA chemicals in food.
The DuPont documents were made public Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization.
At the same time, a former DuPont chemical engineer, Glenn Evers, told reporters at a news conference at EWG's office that the company long suppressed its studies on the chemical.
"They are toxic," Evers said of the PFOA chemicals. "They get into human blood. And they are also in every one of you. Your loved ones, your fellow citizens."
From 1981 to 2002, Evers helped DuPont develop new products. He lost his job in 2002 in what DuPont described as a company restructuring.
Evers had a different view: "It is my belief DuPont pushed me out of the company" because he started raising concerns about the chemicals' safety.
Evers said he decided to talk publicly about the PFOA problem after filing a civil suit against DuPont this month in a Delaware court. Evers' aim is mainly to "set the record straight" about the chemical and his own career, said Herb Feuerhake, Evers' lawyer.
But Evers said he also hoped to influence the outcome of an EPA hearing later this month on whether DuPont had withheld from EPA the study on PFOA and possible birth defects. The company could be fined millions of dollars.
After EWG tracked down Evers _ who had provided expert, unpaid testimony in two lawsuits against DuPont _ the 47-year-old Delaware resident said he talked it over with his priest, who told him, "`You can't dance with the devil.'"
DuPont denied allegations that PFOA posed a health risk, saying the Food and Drug Administration had approved the products for consumers.
"These products are safe for consumer use," the company said in a statement. "FDA has approved these materials for consumer use since the late 1960s, and DuPont has always complied with all FDA regulations and standards regarding these products."
The company said Evers "had little if any direct involvement in PFOA issues while employed at DuPont. ... Evers expressed a wide range of personal opinions that are inaccurate, counter to FDA's findings, and which DuPont strongly disputes."
The environmental group on Wednesday gave the FDA and the EPA copies of DuPont-sponsored internal studies indicating higher dangers from Zonyl than the government knew, including its ability to migrate into the food.
One of the documents, a 1987 memo, cites laboratory tests showing the chemical came off paper coating and leached into foods at levels three times higher than the FDA limit set in 1967. Another document, a 1973 Dupont study in which rats and dogs were fed Zonyl for 90 days, said both types of animals had anemia and damage to their kidneys and livers; the dogs had higher cholesterol levels.
"What makes this worse is that DuPont knew at that time that Zonyl breakdown-products, such as PFOA, in food were very persistent in the environment and were contaminating human blood, including the fetal cord blood of babies born to DuPont female employees," EWG Senior Vice President Richard Wiles wrote to FDA and EPA officials.
Wiles asked the agencies to determine whether DuPont should be penalized for withholding the studies. Last year, based on another DuPont document that the environmental group obtained, EPA alleged the company had repeatedly failed over a 20-year period to submit required data about PFOA. The document referred to a study that suggested possible links between PFOA and birth defects in infants.
EPA spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said Wednesday the agency "has an extensive effort under way to determine the sources of PFOA, how the public is being exposed, and whether these exposures pose a potential health risk."
Evers' decision to go public with his concerns may have already had an impact.
In August, he told a Mississippi court that all three of DuPont's U.S. plants were releasing "massive amounts" of dioxin _ a class of organic chemicals that EPA studies have shown pose a possible cancer risk in humans. In that case, an oyster fisherman who claimed dioxin from a DuPont plant caused his rare blood cancer was awarded $14 million in actual damages and his wife received $1.5 million.
He also testified last year in a West Virginia case in which DuPont agreed to a $107.6 million settlement of a class-action suit. Residents around a plant near Parkersburg, W.Va., had said that PFOA contaminated their drinking water supplies. DuPont also remains the target of another class-action suit over PFOA seeking $5 billion.
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111601875_pf.html 17nov2005
The DuPont Co. failed to act for years on warnings about higher-than-expected food contamination from a coating widely used in fast food burger wrappers and other nonstick food containers, a national group asserted Wednesday.
Citing anonymously leaked memos and accounts by a Delaware scientist who once worked for the company, Environmental Working Group claimed DuPont "covered up" critical information about risks from a chemical now found in 95 percent of Americans' bloodstreams, and in humans and animals around the globe.
Clear signs of trouble surfaced as early as 18 years ago for the nonstick wrappings, the group said.
DuPont has denied the claims made by the group and by Glenn R. Evers, a Hockessin-area resident who was terminated by DuPont in 2002 after working for more than two decades as a company researcher.
Company officials later released a letter from the Food and Drug Administration saying the agency had no reason to change current safety findings for the coatings, although studies are continuing.
Evers said he was aware in 1987 that a test had shown the nonstick coating sold by DuPont, called Zonyl RP, leaked a chemical at more than three times a federally approved limit.
"They went on contaminating people for another decade, and they in all likelihood are doing this today," Evers said.
The claims focused new attention on potential health concerns involving products that earned DuPont $1 billion in revenues in 2004, including the company's flagship Teflon coatings and a huge variety of consumer and industrial goods.
Environmental Protection Agency officials are now studying how perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and related compounds get into the environment and affect living things. Contamination from Zonyl RP can break down into PFOA, a substance under consideration for labeling as a "likely cancer-causing agent," Evers said.
Company denies claims
DuPont has insisted that Teflon and other company products are safe and Wednesday denied the claims made by EWG and by Evers.
Evers said Wednesday he was aware as early as 1987 about a test result showing that a nonstick paper coating sold by DuPont leaked a chemical similar to PFOA at more than three times a federally approved limit. The product is a type used in fast food enclosures, wraps and bags worldwide.
"When we received this data, it was: 'Oh my God, we're out of compliance. We've already sold this product. What are we going to do?' " Evers said, describing the reaction of some company scientists at a meeting at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J. He added that the company never reported the result or issued a warning.
DuPont branded Evers' comments false in a recently released statement, and said the former employee had filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company. The statement also said Evers "had little if any direct involvement" in topics he discussed while giving information for a lawsuit involving pollution at a West Virginia plant involved in Teflon production.
"In his deposition, Evers expressed a wide range of personal opinions that are inaccurate, counter to FDA's findings, and which DuPont strongly disputes," DuPont said.
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce next week a penalty agreement with DuPont for company failure to report potentially toxic effects, including possible birth defects, at the West Virginia site. Maximum penalties in that case could top $300 million, although the EPA has publicly ruled out a full penalty on all counts.
Environmental Working Group, a non-profit science, environmental and consumer organization, has criticized DuPont for failing to report potential risks from its perfluorinated compounds, a class of materials that are potentially toxic, build up in living tissues and are capable of lingering in the environment unchanged for thousands of years.
Prodding by the group helped build pressure for an ongoing EPA study of PFOA risks. The EPA also opened a criminal investigation into DuPont's reporting of risks or problems associated with PFOA and related chemicals.
Letter sent to FDA
EPA officials last year filed civil complaints against the company for failing to report problems with the compounds at the company's plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., prompting DuPont to set aside a $15 million reserve earlier this year.
EWG said DuPont "suppressed" its discovery that Zonyl RP leaked chemicals from food wraps at higher-than approved rates.
"DuPont never informed the FDA of this important finding, even though it is clear that it could have had a major impact on the public's health, and could have triggered a re-evaluation of the safety of the Zonyl as a paper coating that leached into foods," EWG senior vice president Richard Wiles said in a letter urging the Food and Drug Administration to investigate.
"Zonyl was and presumably still is, used as a grease and water barrier for food containers for hundreds of popular food items, from french fry and pizza boxes to cooking and doughnut packages, candy wrappers and microwave popcorn bags," Wiles said.
The FDA in a letter to DuPont on Wednesday said that a recent study had found "negligible" risks that PFOA will escape from nonstick cookware, and said that chemicals released by nonstick paper coatings are different from PFOA.
"At this time we have no reason to change our position that the use of both perflurocarbon resin and telomer-based coatings are safe for use in contact with food" under current rules, FDA Consumer Safety Officer Paul Honigfort wrote. "However, we are still investigating" total exposure to the chemicals from all sources.
EPA review ongoing
EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the agency "has an extensive effort under way to determine the sources of PFOA, how the public is being exposed, and whether these exposures pose a potential health risk."
DuPont established a $108 million reserve last year to pay settlements in connection with a class action lawsuit involving citizen water pollution claims in Ohio and West Virginia. The settlement includes a medical monitoring agreement that could cost the company up to $235 million.
Evers, who has criticized DuPont publicly on pollution issues in Delaware, said he came forward "because I'm concerned about what the EPA might decide next week" about penalties in the agency's civil action. He also said he was intercepted and questioned by armed criminal investigators for the EPA after making statements to attorneys in connection with the class action case in West Virginia.
source: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051117/NEWS/511170336/-1/NEWS01 17nov2005
According to internal DuPont documents and a former employee, the company hid studies showing the risks of a Teflon-related chemical used to line candy wrappers, pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags and hundreds of other food containers.
The chemical Zonyl can rub off the liner and get into food. Once in a person's body, it can break down into a chemical known as PFOA or C-8. That chemical is used in the making of Teflon-coated cookware.
The environmental protection agency has been trying to decide whether to classify PFOA as a "likely" human carcinogen. The Food and Drug Administration says in a letter released Wednesday evening by DuPont it was continuing to monitor the safety of PFOA chemicals in food.
At the same time, a former DuPont chemical engineer, Glenn Evers, told reporters at a news conference at EWG's office that the company long suppressed its studies on the chemical.
In West Virginia, DuPont agreed to pay nearly $108 million to settle a class-action lawsuit involving C-8. Residents around a plant near Parkersburg, had said that the chemical contaminated their drinking water supplies.
Bill Hopkins, the Washington Works Plant Manager had this to say about the allegations:
"These products are safe for consumer use. The Food and Drug Administration has researched this very question using state-of-the-art methodology and the most sensitive measurements scientifically possible and the agency continues to approve these products as safe for consumer use. FDA has approved these materials for consumer use since the late 1960s, and DuPont has always complied with all FDA regulations and standards regarding these products."
"Glenn Evers was employed by DuPont until 2002, when he lost his job in a restructuring. Mr. Evers later testified at a deposition in the West Virginia PFOA litigation, despite having had little if any direct involvement in PFOA issues while employed at DuPont. In his deposition, Evers expressed a wide range of personal opinions that are inaccurate, counter to FDA's findings, and which DuPont strongly disputes. Mr. Evers has recently filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against DuPont which the company is contesting."
source: http://www.wtap.com/news/headlines/1980172.html 17nov2005
A former engineer for the DuPont company has accused his ex-employer of concealing test results almost two decades ago that showed toxic chemicals leaching out of a paper coating used to give grease resistance to microwave popcorn bags, fast food and candy wrappers, and pizza box liners. The statements Wednesday by chemical engineer Glenn Evers come a week before the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce what fines it will levy against DuPont for withholding information about tests involving a similar chemical used in making non-stick coatings.
When ingested, these chemicals break down into perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical that an EPA expert panel this year found to be a likely human carcinogen. PFOA has been found in the blood of more than 95% of Americans, several studies have shows.
At a briefing arranged by the watchdog Environmental Working Group, Evers said that in 1987, DuPont scientists were testing two potential products to see how much perfluorinated chemical leaches out when they are exposed to water and heat, as they are when used to wrap hot foods.
The scientists used the company's widely used Zonyl RP grease-resistant coating as a benchmark because it was supposed to leach out the chemicals at a rate of 0.2 parts per million or less. But when the tests results came back, Evers said, they showed that the popular product leached out at 0.62 parts per million, three times the amount allowed by the Food and Drug Administration.
The two products tested were never put on the market for unrelated reasons, but Zonyl RP is still in use.
"People were shocked," Evers said, calling it an "Oh, my God" finding. But when he tried to tell company executives that they had to notify the FDA, he was told they were working on it, he says.
Neither customers nor the FDA were ever alerted, he says.
Evers lost his job at DuPont in 2002 due to a restructuring. He has since worked as a consultant to the paper industry. He says he came forward because "my personal convictions do not allow me to not tell what I know. I've thought and prayed hard about this."
Evers' appearance and internal company documents sent to government agencies by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) comes days before the EPA is expected to announce the amount of fines it will levy against Delaware-based DuPont for failing to report the results of tests that found PFOA in umbilical cord blood taken from the children of employees. The maximum possible fine is $313 million.
In a statement, DuPont said "Allegations that food-contact paper made with DuPont materials contain unsafe levels of PFOA (C8) are false."
EWG staff toxicologist Tim Kropp agrees that there is no PFOA in the treated paper. It's only after the perfluorinated chemical is ingested that it breaks down into PFOA in the body, he said.
DuPont said its products are safe and that it "has always complied with all FDA regulations and standards regarding these products."
source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-11-16-dupont-usat_x.htm 17nov2005
|
To
send us your comments, questions, and suggestions click
here |