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« Farm Subsidies v. Food Stamps | Main | Arkansas Activist Fights Fluoridation »

August 10, 2005

Activists Turn up the Heat on DuPont's Teflon Chemical

In the past week, activists have pressed Teflon maker DuPont to clean up its act on two fronts. As the Fayetteville Observer reports, environmental groups demanded that the company monitor groundwater around its local plant, the only one in the US that makes this indestructible, cancer-causing chemical that goes by many names (C8, PFOA, APFO to name a few).

Workers at the Fayetteville plant have levels of this Teflon chemical in their blood that far exceed the national average. According to the Observer story, workers ranged from 20 parts per billion (ppb) to 2,200 ppb; the national average is 5.6 ppb.

Also, members of the steelworkers' union urged carpet and clothing retailers and fast food companies to warn consumers that their products may be coated with chemicals that break down into DuPont's toxic Teflon chemical. Their letter went to well-known companies such as the GAP, Sears, McDonald's, Stanley Steemer and others.

EWG also asked 9 fast food companies in 2003 to disclose whether they use Teflon chemicals in their packaging. Read that letter and more at http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5014.

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