Subject: Can Non-Stick Make You Sick

[Guest guest]

Can Non-Stick Make You Sick?

 

 

ABCNEWS.com

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/Living/Teflon_investigation_03111

4.html

 

2003

 

 

Can Non-Stick Make You Sick?

EPA Studying Whether Teflon Poses Health Risks

By Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz and Maddy Sauer

 

Nov. 14 -- For Bucky Bailey's parents, the 22-year-old's wedding day

in

August of this year was one they feared might never come, given how

their son started life. Bucky was born in January of 1981 with only

one

nostril and a deformed right eye.

 

" The doctors told us not to get attached to him because he probably

wouldn't make it through the night, " Sue Bailey, Bucky's mother,

told

20/20. " They didn't know what to say. I mean, they had never seen a

baby

like this before. I cried so many tears I couldn't cry another

tear. "

 

 

Today, two decades later, scarred from more than 30 surgeries, Bucky

is

coming forward and telling 20/20 he wants to know who or what is

responsible for a life that has not been easy.

 

" I've never, ever felt normal. You can't feel normal when you walk

outside and every single person looks at you. And it's not that look

of

he's famous' or 'he's rich,' " Bucky said. " It's that look of 'he's

different.' You can see it in their eyes. "

 

Chemicals Widely Detected in Blood

 

The Bailey family and others lay the blame at the place where Sue

worked

when she became pregnant with Bucky -- the huge DuPont plant in

Parkersburg, W.Va., where workers mix the chemicals for Teflon, the

famed non-stick substance used on pots and pans.

 

Teflon, a product advertised as making life easy, is also used in a

different form to keep stains off carpets and clothing. DuPont calls

these products the housewives' best friend.

 

Teflon and the chemicals used in its production have grown into a $2

billion-a-year industry. This includes ammonium perfluorooctanoate,

known as C-8, which has been linked to cancer, organ damage and

other

health effects in tests on laboratory animals.

 

For Web resources on the Teflon health debate, go to:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/Living/Teflon_Internet_resources_

031114.html

 

 

The same chemical, C-8, was found not only in the blood of Sue

Bailey

when she became pregnant but, it turns out, is in the blood of

virtually

every American, in much smaller but still detectable levels. This

discovery make this a story that reaches far beyond what happened in

one

small town in West Virginia.

 

" In retrospect, this may seem like one of the biggest, if not the

biggest, mistakes the chemical industry has ever made, " said Jane

Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working

Group, an activist organization.

 

" And how could they not be in our blood? " Houlihan said. " They're in

such a huge range of consumer products. We're talking about Teflon,

Stainmaster, Gore-tex, Silverstone. So if you buy clothing that's

coated

with Teflon or something else that protects it from dirt and stains,

those chemicals can absorb directly through the skin. "

 

Houlihan and her colleague, Kris Thayer, senior scientist at EWG,

have

been poring over 20 years of confidential DuPont papers and other

industry documents on Teflon.

 

Highest C-8 Levels Found in Children

 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, some of the

highest

C-8 levels were found in some of the children tested. Even DuPont

says

that it cannot rule out that Teflon-connected products, such as

Stainmaster carpet treatment, give off the chemical, although at

blood

levels the company says are far too small to be a problem.

 

" We are confident when we say that the facts, the scientific facts,

demonstrate that the material is perfectly safe to use, " Uma

Chowdhry,

Dupont's vice president of research and development, told 20/20.

Chowdhry is the DuPont executive chosen to defend Teflon, and she

claims

that the substance is completely safe, despite the fact that the key

chemical, C-8, is in everyone's blood.

 

" We do not believe there are any adverse health effects, " she said.

" There are lots of chemicals that are present in our blood. "

 

Now the unexpected discovery of the almost universal contamination

of

Americans' blood from C-8, combined with worrisome laboratory

studies,

has led to a high priority investigation by the EPA of the

chemical's

risks.

 

" It's a potential threat, " said Houlihan. " And the EPA's moving fast

in

studying this. Human blood levels are too close to the levels that

harm

lab animals. That's why they're moving too fast. "

 

The 'Teflon Flu'

 

There is another more immediate health problem from Teflon,

according to

the Environmental Working Group. Cooking with Teflon can make a

person

sick with a temporary flu if a non-stick pan gets overheated.

 

 

" It feels like the flu, " said Houlihan, " headaches, chills,

backache,

temperature between 100 and 104 degrees. "

 

DuPont says that fumes are released from the pan when it is

overheated,

which they say occurs at temperatures that are not reached during

normal

cooking.

 

As the Environmental Working Group showed 20/20 in a kitchen

demonstration, however, a pan can reach that temperature in just a

few

minutes.

 

" At 554 degrees Fahrenheit, " said Houlihan, " studies show ultrafine

particles start coming off the pan. These are tiny little particles

that

can embed deeply into the lungs. "

 

The hotter the pan gets, the more chemicals are released. " At 680,

toxic

gases can begin to come off of heated Teflon, " Houlihan said.

 

It turns out, DuPont has known about the " Teflon flu " for years.

 

" You get some fumes, yes, " said Chowdhry, " and you get a flu-like

symptom, which is reversible. " Chowdhry said the flu is temporary

and

lasts at most for a couple of days. She also added that a warning

about

the flu, while not on the pans themselves, is on the DuPont Web

site.

 

In the demonstration for 20/20, a piece of bacon was just getting

crisp

when the Teflon pan went beyond the initial warning point of 500

degrees.

 

" I've never cooked bacon, " said Chowdhry. " I can't comment. "

 

The Environmental Working Group has tried without success to get the

government to order that warning labels be put on non-stick pans.

 

Bird Owners Beware

 

One consumer warning DuPont does issue about Teflon fumes involves

not

humans, but birds. The fumes from overheated Teflon pans can be

lethal

to them.

 

Shelby Greenman told 20/20 that her pet cockatoo keeled over in its

cage

down the hall from the kitchen after all the water boiled out of a

Teflon pan.

 

" I didn't smell anything, I didn't see any smoke, " she said. " As

soon as

they inhale it, it's over. There's nothing they can do to help

them. "

 

Bird owner groups say thousands of birds have been killed by Teflon

fumes. DuPont says this occurs because birds have small and

sensitive

lungs.

 

" People should not have birds in an unventilated kitchen, " said

Chowdhry.

 

Long-Term Effects?

 

The greatest concern about C-8 is that it may cause possible long-

term

harm to a generation that has grown up using Teflon products.

Scientists

say that if there are any long-term effects, the first place they'd

look

for them would be in the people who have had the greatest exposure

to

the chemicals -- the people who work, live and drink the water near

the

Teflon plant in West Virginia.

 

" With neighbors like DuPont, you don't need no enemies, " said Earl

Tennant, a local resident.

 

Now a lawsuit brought by local residents, including the family of

Bucky

Bailey, accuses DuPont of trying to cover up what the company knew

about

Teflon's risks.

 

" We have alleged in the lawsuit that DuPont has been well aware of

these

problems for many years, " said Cincinnati attorney Robert A. Bilott,

who

filed the case.

 

Perhaps most telling is an internal DuPont document, only now made

public, that shows the company knew that of eight women working on

the

Teflon line in 1981, two had children with birth defects -- not just

Sue

Bailey, but a second mother whom 20/20 was able to locate.

 

The other mother, Karen Robinson, gave birth to a son who also had a

defect involving his eye. " DuPont should be held accountable for

their

actions in keeping all this secret from the public, " Robinson told

20/20.

 

Now a grade school principal, Robinson said she only recently found

out

that she had an extremely high level of the Teflon chemical C-8 in

her

blood. She fears that her second child, a daughter, has also been

affected.

 

" I gave birth to a daughter. Two years ago we discovered that she

has a

birth defect that affects her kidneys. One kidney did not grow. One

kidney grew to three times its normal size, " she said.

 

DuPont denies that it was trying to cover up what happened to the

children of Karen Robinson and Sue Bailey. It says the reason that

the

company did not disclose the birth defect study to the government

for 22

years was because there was nothing to connect the defects with the

chemical C-8. DuPont continues to insist that Teflon and the

chemicals

used in it are safe for its workers to handle.

 

Chowdhry said that in the general population incidences of birth

defects

are " not uncommon. "

 

" We have had scientists pore over the data. In the realm of

scientific

fact, this is not considered a statistically significant sample, "

she

said. " All the other children were normal. And since then we have

not

seen a preponderance of birth defects. "

 

Chowdhry acknowledged that DuPont has not done a subsequent study to

examine birth defects among its workers.

 

More studies of Teflon chemicals are now happening, but Bucky and

others

wonder why it has taken so long. What happened to Bucky Bailey has

become part of the federal government's high priority review of

whether

Teflon and its chemicals are safe.

 

" I have to think about if I want to have children or not. And I

cannot

put them through what I went through, " Bucky said.

 

Pending its review, the EPA says it is not now advising consumers to

stop using Teflon products. The results of the agency's review of

the

safety of C-8 and of Teflon-related products that may release it are

expected in coming months.

 

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