Fwd: Can teflon make you sick?

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Can Teflon make you sick? For Bucky Bailey's parents, the 22-year-old's wedding day in August ofthis year was one they feared might never come, given how their sonstarted life. Bucky was born in January of 1981 with only one nostriland a deformed right eye. 'The doctors told us not to get attached to him because he probablywouldn't make it through the night,' Sue Bailey, Bucky's mother, told20/20. 'They didn't know what to say. . I mean, they had never seen ababy like this before. . I cried so many tears I couldn't cry anothertear.' Today, two decades later, scarred from more than 30 surgeries, Bucky iscoming forward and telling 20/20 he wants to know who or what isresponsible for a life that has not been easy. 'I've never, ever felt normal. You can't feel normal when you walkoutside 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'sdifferent.' 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 workedwhen she became pregnant with Bucky - the huge DuPont plant inParkersburg, W.Va., where workers mix the chemicals for Teflon, thefamed non-stick substance used on pots and pans. Teflon, a product advertised as making life easy, is also used in adifferent form to keep stains off carpets and clothing. DuPont callsthese products the housewives' best friend. Teflon and the chemicals used in its production have grown into a $2billion-a-year industry. This includes ammonium perfluorooctanoate,known as C-8, which has been linked to cancer, organ damage and otherhealth effects in tests on laboratory animals. The same chemical, C-8, was found not only in the blood of Sue

Baileywhen she became pregnant but, it turns out, is in the blood of virtuallyevery American, in much smaller but still detectable levels. Thisdiscovery make this a story that reaches far beyond what happened in onesmall town in West Virginia. 'In retrospect, this may seem like one of the biggest, if not thebiggest, mistakes the chemical industry has ever made,' said JaneHoulihan, vice president for research at the Environmental WorkingGroup, an activist organization. 'And how could they not be in our blood?' Houlihan said. 'They're insuch a huge range of consumer products. We're talking about Teflon,Stainmaster, Gore-tex, Silverstone. So if you buy clothing that's coatedwith 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, havebeen poring over 20 years of confidential DuPont

papers and otherindustry documents on Teflon. Highest C-8 Levels Found in Children According to the Environmental Protection Agency, some of the highestC-8 levels were found in some of the children tested. Even DuPont saysthat it cannot rule out that Teflon-connected products, such asStainmaster carpet treatment, give off the chemical, although at bloodlevels 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 claimsthat the substance is completely safe, despite the fact that the keychemical, 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 ofAmericans' blood from C-8, combined with worrisome laboratory studies,has led to a high priority investigation by the EPA of the chemical'srisks. 'It's a potential threat,' said Houlihan. 'And the EPA's moving fast instudying this. Human blood levels are too close to the levels that harmlab animals. That's why they're moving too fast.' The 'Teflon Flu' There is another more immediate health problem from Teflon, according tothe Environmental Working Group. Cooking with Teflon can make a personsick 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 normalcooking. As the Environmental Working

Group showed 20/20 in a kitchendemonstration, however, a pan can reach that temperature in just a fewminutes. 'At 554 degrees Fahrenheit,' said Houlihan, 'studies show ultrafineparticles start coming off the pan. These are tiny little particles thatcan embed deeply into the lungs.' The hotter the pan gets, the more chemicals are released. 'At 680, toxicgases 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-likesymptom, which is reversible.' Chowdhry said the flu is temporary andlasts at most for a couple of days. She also added that a warning aboutthe 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 crispwhen the Teflon pan went beyond the initial warning point of 500degrees. 'I've never cooked

bacon,' said Chowdhry. 'I can't comment.' The Environmental Working Group has tried without success to get thegovernment to order that warning labels be put on non-stick pans. Bird Owners Beware One consumer warning DuPont does issue about Teflon fumes involves nothumans, but birds. The fumes from overheated Teflon pans can be lethalto them. Shelby Greenman told 20/20 that her pet cockatoo keeled over in its cagedown the hall from the kitchen after all the water boiled out of aTeflon pan. 'I didn't smell anything, I didn't see any smoke,' she said. 'As soon asthey 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 Teflonfumes. DuPont says this occurs because birds have small and sensitivelungs. 'People should not have birds in an unventilated kitchen,' saidChowdhry. Long-Term Effects? The greatest concern about C-8 is that it

may cause possible long-termharm to a generation that has grown up using Teflon products. Scientistssay that if there are any long-term effects, the first place they'd lookfor them would be in the people who have had the greatest exposure tothe chemicals - the people who work, live and drink the water near theTeflon plant in West Virginia. 'With neighbors like DuPont, you don't need no enemies,' said EarlTennant, a local resident. Now a lawsuit brought by local residents, including the family of BuckyBailey, accuses DuPont of trying to cover up what the company knew aboutTeflon's risks. 'We have alleged in the lawsuit that DuPont has been well aware of theseproblems for many years,' said Cincinnati attorney Robert A. Bilott, whofiled the case. Perhaps most telling is an internal DuPont document, only now madepublic, that shows the company knew that of eight women working on theTeflon line in 1981, two had

children with birth defects - not just SueBailey, but a second mother whom 20/20 was able to locate. Click here to see the company document on birth defects. The other mother, Karen Robinson, gave birth to a son who also had adefect involving his eye. 'DuPont should be held accountable for theiractions in keeping all this secret from the public,' Robinson told20/20. Now a grade school principal, Robinson said she only recently found outthat she had an extremely high level of the Teflon chemical C-8 in herblood. She fears that her second child, a daughter, has also beenaffected. 'I gave birth to a daughter. Two years ago we discovered that she has abirth defect that affects her kidneys. One kidney did not grow. Onekidney grew to three times its normal size,' she said. DuPont denies that it was trying to cover up what happened to thechildren of Karen Robinson and Sue Bailey. It says the reason that thecompany

did not disclose the birth defect study to the government for 22years was because there was nothing to connect the defects with thechemical C-8. DuPont continues to insist that Teflon and the chemicalsused in it are safe for its workers to handle. Chowdhry said that in the general population incidences of birth defectsare 'not uncommon.' 'We have had scientists pore over the data. In the realm of scientificfact, this is not considered a statistically significant sample,' shesaid. 'All the other children were normal. And since then we have notseen a preponderance of birth defects.' Chowdhry acknowledged that DuPont has not done a subsequent study toexamine birth defects among its workers. More studies of Teflon chemicals are now happening, but Bucky and otherswonder why it has taken so long. What happened to Bucky Bailey hasbecome part of the federal government's high priority review of whetherTeflon and its

chemicals are safe. 'I have to think about if I want to have children or not. And I cannotput them through what I went through,' Bucky said. Pending its review, the EPA says it is not now advising consumers tostop using Teflon products. The results of the agency's review of thesafety of C-8 and of Teflon-related products that may release it areexpected in coming months. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=4716 "Get off your ass and take your government back." ~Rocky Ward

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