Beware of Teflon: Carcinogenic affects newborns.

[Guest guest]

Seattle Times, Feb,08.

Suspected carcinogen found in cord blood

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/health/D8FJTIRO7.html

 

BALTIMORE — A suspected carcinogen used to make Teflon was found in nearly

all the umbilical cord blood samples tested by researchers at Johns Hopkins

Hospital. The researchers are now trying to determine whether it has harmed the

newborns.

Of the 300 newborns tested, perfluorooctanoic acid, was found in the cord

blood of 298.

" It's very clear that PFOA is being released into the environment, and it's

pretty much ubiquitous. But we don't know if it's toxic to people at these

levels, " said Dr. Lynn Goldman, one of the Hopkins researchers.

A review panel advising the federal Environmental Protection Agency has found

PFOA is a likely carcinogen.

Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont is the sole North American producer of PFOA,

which is a processing aid used in the manufacturing of fluoropolymers, which

have a wide variety of product applications, including nonstick cookware

coatings such as Teflon. The chemical also can be a byproduct in the

manufacturing of fluorotelomers used in surface protection products for

applications such as stain-resistant textiles and grease-resistant food

wrapping.

In December, DuPont agreed to pay $10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million

for environmental projects to settle the EPA's allegations that the company

withheld information about the potential health and environmental risks of PFOA.

DuPont also agreed in September 2004 to fund a two-phase health screening to

settle a 2001 class-action lawsuit filed by Ohio and West Virginia residents who

receive their water from six water districts. The lawsuit claimed PFOA releases

from DuPont's Washington Works plant near Parkersburg, W.Va., contaminated

public water supplies.

The company has maintained the chemical does not represent a human health

risk.

 

 

 

" Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest

of life by the power of the spirit. " - Aurobindo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brings words and photos together (easily) with

PhotoMail - it's free and works with Mail.