Papers: DuPont Hid Chemical Risk Studies

Papers: DuPont Hid Chemical Risk Studies

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

Wed Nov 16

WASHINGTON -

DuPont Co. hid studies showing the risks of a

Teflon-related chemical used to line candy wrappers, pizza boxes,

microwave popcorn bags and hundreds of other food containers,

according to internal company documents and a former employee.

The chemical Zonyl can rub off the liner and get into food. Once in a

person's body, it can break down into perfluorooctanoic acid and its

salts, known as PFOA, a related chemical used in the making of

Teflon-coated cookware.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to decide

whether to classify PFOA as a "likely" human carcinogen. The Food

and Drug Administration, in a letter released Wednesday evening by

DuPont, said it was continuing to monitor the safety of PFOA chemicals

in food.

The DuPont documents were made public Wednesday by the Environmental

Working Group, a research and advocacy organization.

At the same time, a former DuPont chemical engineer, Glenn Evers, told

reporters at a news conference at EWG's office that the company long

suppressed its studies on the chemical.

"They are toxic," Evers said of the PFOA chemicals. "They get into

human blood. And they are also in every one of you. Your loved ones,

your fellow citizens."

From 1981 to 2002, Evers helped DuPont develop new products. He lost

his job in 2002 in what DuPont described as a company restructuring.

Evers had a different view: "It is my belief DuPont pushed me out of

the company" because he started raising concerns about the chemicals'

safety.

Evers said he decided to talk publicly about the PFOA problem after

filing a civil suit against DuPont this month in a Delaware court.

Evers' aim is mainly to "set the record straight" about the chemical

and his own career, said Herb Feuerhake, Evers' lawyer.

But Evers said he also hoped to influence the outcome of an EPA

hearing later this month on whether DuPont had withheld from EPA the

study on PFOA and possible birth defects. The company could be fined

millions of dollars.

After EWG tracked down Evers — who had provided expert, unpaid

testimony in two lawsuits against DuPont — the 47-year-old Delaware

resident said he talked it over with his priest, who told him, "`You

can't dance with the devil.'"

DuPont denied allegations that PFOA posed a health risk, saying the

Food and Drug Administration had approved the products for consumers.

"These products are safe for consumer use," the company said in a

statement. "FDA has approved these materials for consumer use since

the late 1960s, and DuPont has always complied with all FDA

regulations and standards regarding these products."

The company said Evers "had little if any direct involvement in PFOA

issues while employed at DuPont. ... Evers expressed a wide range of

personal opinions that are inaccurate, counter to FDA's findings, and

which DuPont strongly disputes."

The environmental group on Wednesday gave the FDA and the EPA copies

of DuPont-sponsored internal studies indicating higher dangers from

Zonyl than the government knew, including its ability to migrate into

the food.

One of the documents, a 1987 memo, cites laboratory tests showing the

chemical came off paper coating and leached into foods at levels three

times higher than the FDA limit set in 1967. Another document, a 1973

Dupont study in which rats and dogs were fed Zonyl for 90 days, said

both types of animals had anemia and damage to their kidneys and

livers; the dogs had higher cholesterol levels.

"What makes this worse is that DuPont knew at that time that Zonyl

breakdown-products, such as PFOA, in food were very persistent in the

environment and were contaminating human blood, including the fetal

cord blood of babies born to DuPont female employees," EWG Senior Vice

President Richard Wiles wrote to FDA and EPA officials.

Wiles asked the agencies to determine whether DuPont should be

penalized for withholding the studies. Last year, based on another

DuPont document that the environmental group obtained, EPA alleged the

company had repeatedly failed over a 20-year period to submit required

data about PFOA. The document referred to a study that suggested

possible links between PFOA and birth defects in infants.

EPA spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said Wednesday the agency "has an

extensive effort under way to determine the sources of PFOA, how the

public is being exposed, and whether these exposures pose a potential

health risk."

Evers' decision to go public with his concerns may have already had an

impact.

In August, he told a Mississippi court that all three of DuPont's U.S.

plants were releasing "massive amounts" of dioxin — a class of organic

chemicals that EPA studies have shown pose a possible cancer risk in

humans. In that case, an oyster fisherman who claimed dioxin from a

DuPont plant caused his rare blood cancer was awarded $14 million in

actual damages and his wife received $1.5 million.

He also testified last year in a West Virginia case in which DuPont

agreed to a $107.6 million settlement of a class-action suit.

Residents around a plant near Parkersburg, W.Va., had said that PFOA

contaminated their drinking water supplies. DuPont also remains the

target of another class-action suit over PFOA seeking $5 billion.