Sludge Watch ==> Resend: NJ Probe Urged - Presence of Teflon Chemical in Drinking Water (sludge)

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin

The USA EPA have now acknowledged this chemical is a probable human 
carginogen.
This information is in the second story on this page.
Cast iron frying pans are great...last a few lifetimes...and add needed iron 
to your diet.

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Steelworkers, Enviros Urge Probe of Teflon Chemical in Drinking Water

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, June 16, 2006 (ENS) - Samples of tap water from 
two homes, the public library, and a local business in Parlin, New Jersey 
were found to contain trace levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a 
chemical used to make Teflon and other products. PFOS, a related 
perfluorochemical, was found in tap water and stream samples.
Representatives of the United Steelworkers Union (USW) took the samples in 
May as part of its ongoing investigation into PFOA contaminated sites around 
the country.

The union believes the PFOA emissions are from the DuPont Company's Parlin 
plant where PFOA was used in the manufacturing process. The USW has 
discovered elevated levels of PFOA in the blood of its members and other 
workers at DuPont plants.




The USW is calling on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Quality and 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a full 
investigation at the site in Parlin, including the monitoring of groundwater 
and wastewater discharges.

State investigators with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality 
have informed the USW and the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club that a 
channel pouring contaminated water into the James River from DuPont's 
wastewater discharge area probably originated from groundwater seeping to 
the surface from near the company's wastewater basin.

In their June 12 letter to the EPA and VDEQ, the USW and Sierra Club 
criticized DuPont's plan for a voluntary investigation as "inadequate" and 
"designed to delay." The groups also expressed disappointment over the 
agencies' failure to analyze their own samples for PFOA contamination.

DuPont admits that it has known about the channel for years, but has never 
analyzed it for PFOA.

"They can't find what they don't look for," said Joe Drexler of the USW 
Strategic Campaigns Department. "Clearly, DuPont cannot be trusted to clean 
up its act, and the public needs regulation and not voluntarism."

PFOA was labeled a likely human carcinogen by EPA's Science Advisory Board 
in January 2006. In April, a lawsuit was filed against DuPont due to PFOA 
contamination from its plant in Deepwater, New Jersey.

Sampling conducted jointly and independently by the USW, the Sierra Club, 
and the Riverkeepers has uncovered PFOA surface water and/or drinking water 
contamination in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, and 
Deepwater.

PFOA contamination has also been confirmed in Circleville, Ohio and 
Parkersburg, West Virginia.

In January, the EPA called on DuPont to work toward eliminating PFOA from 
its products. However, DuPont only agreed to reduce emissions, and, in some 
cases, the amount of perfluorochemicals in products. DuPont is now the only 
U.S. manufacturer of PFOA and has resisted calls for the company to stop 
manufacturing the chemical.

"The discovery of contamination in Parlin is further evidence of DuPont's 
failure to keep this chemical out of the environment," said Gerald 
Fernandez, director of USW Strategic Campaign.


* * *





* * *

EPA admits C8 may be unsafe for humans
Agency says chemical used by DuPont also poses a risk to the environment
March 09, 2006

Jeff Montgomery, Delaware News-Journal

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Federal officials have quietly admitted that chemicals used to make popular 
nonstick, nonstain products may be unsafe to humans and the environment.

The acknowledgement came in a proposed requirement to test any new products 
that rely on controversial chemicals already used in materials like DuPont's 
flagship "Teflon" coating.

"Based on recent information, EPA can no longer conclude that these polymers 
will not present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment," 
the Environmental Protection Agency said in the proposal -- published 
without fanfare in a federal legal register Tuesday.

The proposal -- and its conclusions -- surfaced as The DuPont Co. faces new 
scrutiny over the handling of those chemicals at its Chambers Works plant on 
the Delaware River, near the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The compounds have been labeled as a likely cause of cancer.

DuPont and the EPA both have said that Teflon is safe for consumers, but 
have agreed to a phase-out plan for some fluorine-containing chemicals used 
in its production.

One of those chemicals -- perfluorooctanoic acid, also called PFOA or C8 -- 
is used by DuPont Co. in the production of Teflon and other products.

PFOA-related products are a $1 billion a year business for DuPont. The 
company sells the materials to other businesses for use in thousands of 
products ranging from cookware to fabric coatings, food packaging, denture 
cleaners, shampoo, electronic goods and fire-fighting foams.

In a prepared statement, DuPont said it believes its products are safe and 
that it was studying the EPA's plan for testing of new products.

"We do not believe the rule has a significant impact on our business," the 
statement noted.

DuPont, the only producer of PFOA in the United States, and several major 
producers worldwide, already have agreed to phase out the chemical under an 
EPA-sponsored program.

Tim Kropp, a senior scientist for Environmental Working Group, said the 
EPA's latest proposal indicates that products are reaching consumers without 
adequate study of potential health hazards.

"As the proposal clearly lays out, the reason they're worried about the new 
formulations is that they're worried about the old ones," said Kropp, whose 
group pressed the EPA to act for years on PFOA. "The EPA doesn't have the 
power to take on old chemicals very well.

"I think this document, combined with the proposed phase out, is really sort 
of a vindication for the concerns that have been raised over the past couple 
of years," Kropp said.

The proposal, he said, "will give an extra measure of confidence that the 
alternative that the companies have agreed to move to are safer."

Chemical found in N.J. well

In Pennsville Township, N.J., near the Chambers Works site, officials have 
confirmed that low-level traces of PFOA -- which has been labeled as a 
likely cause of cancer -- have turned up in one well used to supply public 
taps.

Similar results are under study in Carneys Point and Penns Grove, according 
to the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, a nonprofit group that discovered the 
contamination during house-by-house testing.

"This is going to become a big issue," said Tracy Carluccio, a Riverkeeper 
staffer. "It's already found in so many places in the environment that any 
new source is of concern."

In mid-December, DuPont agreed to pay $16.5 million in fines and 
compensatory spending to settle EPA charges the company failed to report 
PFOA releases and human exposures, and information about possible toxic 
effects. The terms require the company to spend $5 million studying how a 
wider variety of related chemicals and consumer products behave and break 
down in the environment.

The company established a $108 million reserve last year to cover 
class-action lawsuit settlements involving water pollution claims by West 
Virginia and Ohio residents.

Exposure studies have found the chemicals "at low levels in the blood of 
humans and wildlife throughout the United States, providing clear evidence 
of widespread exposure," the EPA noted in its announcement Tuesday.

The agency listed several ways the chemical could potentially be getting 
into humans," including consumption of food packaged in treated papers, 
inhalation of chemicals from treated products or pollution from 
manufacturers."

Although blood concentrations in most people are low, its widespread 
presence and its potential to accumulate in blood and tissue is a concern, 
the EPA notice said.

DuPont officials have meanwhile revealed that they hope to begin shipping 
some PFOA-related chemicals from Chambers Works to a proposed $20 million 
facility in Pascagoula, Miss., for treatment prior to use in New Jersey. The 
treatment is designed to reduce impurities in the product and create more 
environmentally friendly products, David McMellon, manager of the company's 
First Chemical plant, told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

"What I'm getting from our folks is: 'If there wasn't anything wrong with it 
before, why are they taking it down there for treatment and sending it 
back?' " said John Rowe, president of a United Steelworkers union local at 
Chambers Works.


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