Teflon and the government cover up

[Guest guest]

This is from an email from another group, back in February 2006:

 

 

ALERT: GOVERNMENT COVER-UP... TEFLON BYPRODUCT POLLUTING

THE

MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Hi,

I came across this news item and action alert and thought you might

be interested. It's from the Organic Consumers Association:

2/24/2006

A government scientist has been forced to resign, after discovering

dangerous levels of a toxic chemical in the Mississippi River. The toxin,

specifically known as perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), is a byproduct of

the manufacture of a number of products including Teflon. In late 2005,

Dr. Oliaei Fardin found dangerous levels of PFC's in the Mississippi

River downstream from a 3M Corporation's dumping site in Minnesota.

3M had been dumping 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical in the river

every year, in a heavily populated metropolitan area, where the river

serves as the main drinking water source. PFCs have caused birth defects

and deaths in animal studies and are considered a likely human

carcinogen. Fardin, a scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control

Agency, found levels of PFCs in the area's fish that were the highest

ever discovered in the world. Following her discovery, she was unable to

get the state to issue a public health advisory, as would normally be

required by law.

After she filed a federal whistleblower's lawsuit against the agency,

Fardin was forced to resign by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's

Commissioner, a former Executive of the 3M chemical company. Her

research, which has now been halted, would have helped assess how far

downstream the chemical contamination had traveled in the Mississippi

River, one of the nation's largest waterways and municipal water sources.

Please send a letter to the EPA, MPCA, and Governor Pawlenty demanding

the 3M Corporation be fined for chemical cleanup costs.

Learn more and take action here:

 

http://www.organicconsumers.org/rd-pfc.cfm