Nonstick Chemicals
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was widely used to make non-stick cookware until it was linked to cancer, liver disease and other risks. Learn how EWG’s research helped get industry to phase it out.
This week, EWG released two reports.
New research from EWG and Northeastern University in Boston uncovered highly fluorinated toxic chemicals, known as PFCs or PFASs, in the drinking water of 15 million Americans in 27 states, and from more than four dozen industrial and military sources nationwide.
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The known extent of the contamination of U.S. communities with PFCs – highly fluorinated toxic chemicals, also known as PFASs, that have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, weakened immunity and other health problems – continues to expand with no end in sight. New research from EWG and Northeastern University in Boston details PFC pollution in tap water supplies for 15 million Americans in 27 states and at more than four dozen industrial and military sources from Maine to California.
Read MoreLegislation introduced today would make California the first state to ban perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, from fast food wrappers and takeout containers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on any given day one in three American children – no matter their age, race or family income – eat fast food. Hamburgers, french fries, burritos, pizza and other fast food items are often served in paper wrappers or boxes coated with grease-repellent perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, that may harm children’s health.
Banning or restricting toxic chemicals one at a time is like fighting the mythical hydra: For each head cut off, multiple replacements appear that may be just as hazardous. There's no better example than PFCs, the nonstick chemicals used in DuPont's Teflon and many other consumer products.
Read MoreDuPont and its spinoff company Chemours agreed today to pay $671 million to settle about 3,500 lawsuits from West Virginia and Ohio residents whose drinking water was poisoned by a cancer-causing chemical used to make Teflon. Although the settlement closes the most infamous case involving the chemical PFOA, its toxic legacy lingers worldwide, said EWG President Ken Cook.
Read MoreThis morning EWG released a report, which showed that many fast food chains nationwide still use food wrappers, bags and boxes coated with highly fluorinated chemicals.
Read MoreNew research based on nationwide tests shows that many fast food chains still use food wrappers, bags and boxes coated with highly fluorinated chemicals. EWG’s report supplements a new peer-reviewed study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, which shows some of the test samples contained traces of a notorious and now-banned chemical formerly used to make DuPont's Teflon.
Fluorine-based chemicals that can cause cancer, developmental toxicity and numerous other detrimental health effects have contaminated the drinking water of millions of Americans, and the blood of people and animals worldwide. But how did these chemicals get there – and what happens when they’re passed on to future generations?
A federal jury ordered DuPont to pay more than $5 million to an Ohio man who alleged he contracted testicular cancer from drinking water contaminated with a toxic chemical formerly used to make Teflon. Jurors found that DuPont acted with malice in dumping an industrial chemical into the Ohio River, clearing the path for DuPont to be assessed additional punitive damages.
One in every four American newborns consumes formula from birth. Around two-thirds of these babies drink some formula by the time they are three months old.
Drinking water supplies serving more than 5.2 million Americans may be contaminated with two perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, at levels higher than the Environmental Protection Agency now deems safe, according to an EWG analysis of EPA test data.
Today the Environmental Protection Agency issued a long-awaited drinking water health advisory for the perfluorinated chemicals PFOA and PFOS. But EPA’s advisory falls far short of what’s needed to fully protect public health, and it is not a legally enforceable limit.
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The Environmental Protection Agency was first alerted 15 years ago to contamination of drinking water by PFOA, a chemical used to make Teflon that has since been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, heart disease and other serious health problems. Since then, PFOA pollution has grown from a regional problem to a national crisis. Yet EPA still has not set a legal limit for the compound in drinking water, even in the face of repeated appeals from state officials and representatives of the public interest community.
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On this day in 1938, a DuPont chemist named Roy J. Plunkett in Deepwater, N.J., accidentally discovered polytetrafluoroethylene, a slippery substance remarkably resistant to water, grease and stains. DuPont patented PTFE as Teflon. To honor Plunkett’s discovery, April 6 is National Teflon Day, according to nationaldaycalendar.com, which tracks such things. We won’t be celebrating.
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The bad news about a toxic chemical used to make Teflon keeps getting worse.
Read MorePerfluorinated compounds, or PFCs – the class of chemicals used in DuPont’s Teflon, 3M’s Scotchgard and many other products – pollute the bodies of people and animals in every corner of the world. In the latest findings, Canadian scientists have detected PFCs in virtually all of the eggs of herring gulls sampled in the Great Lakes region.
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Under pressure from EWG and other environmental and health groups, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is banning three grease-resistant chemical substances linked to cancer and birth defects from use in pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags, sandwich wrappers and other food packaging. The FDA’s belated action comes more than a decade after EWG and other advocates sounded alarms and five years after U.S. chemical companies stopped making the chemicals. It does nothing to prevent food processors and packagers from using almost 100 related chemicals that may also be hazardous.
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