Of Interest..................

Thought some might be interested in this.......


Teflon Law Suit - Long
Posted By Scott Warrington on 7/22/2005 at 11:25 AM
This is long, Marty but no P.S.

I continue to hear from cleaners with concerns about using fluorochemical carpet protectors. The accusations being made do not involve carpet protecors but chemicals used in manufacturing Teflon cookware.
Below are two articles on the topic that appeared in newspapers recently. One from a respected writer, the other from a scientist.

Teflon® accusation doesn't stick
Michael Fumento

July 21, 2005


Teflon® has long been a godsend in the kitchen. It’s easier to cook with, since foods don’t stick. It’s easier to wash – and easier on the environment – since it requires less detergent and no dishwasher energy. And it’s easier on the heart and the waistline, since it eliminates the need for cooking in lots of oil, butter or margarine.


Yet Teflon® has recently gone from the frying pan into the fire, thanks to some money-hungry lawyers. They’ve cooked up a scary story, adding a dollop of hyperbole for good measure. Unfortunately, they left out common sense and science.


Two law firms filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday (July 19) on behalf of consumers regarding a chemical used to make Teflon® called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The lawyers claim PFOA may be hazardous and want DuPont, Inc, the maker of Teflon®, to pay $5 billion. If the suit pans out, whatever is left after attorneys’ fees would go to replace everyone’s cookware, impose a warning label on other Teflon® products, and pay for medical monitoring and more research.


"I don't have to prove that it causes cancer,” one of the slick attorneys told the Associated Press. “I only have to prove that DuPont lied in a massive attempt to continue selling their product."


But the greasy lawyers’ charges against Teflon® just don’t stick.


Here’s the real story. An EPA advisory panel draft report last month concluded PFOA is a "likely" human carcinogen based on massive-dose rodent studies. Experts have disagreed with the recommendation, noting that such studies have historically been extremely poor indicators of human carcinogens. That’s in part because rodents aren’t just little people with little people physiology, but mostly because it appears it’s the high dose given the animals that makes their DNA-repair systems go haywire and form tumors.


Be that as it may, the new report has nothing to do with the Teflon® on your cookware. PFOA doesn’t come as a side order with your eggs and bacon because the chemical is destroyed in the manufacturing process.


This has been tested repeatedly. Most recently, a study in the June 1 issue of Environmental Science & Technology confirmed that Teflon®-coated products, including cookware and clothing (such as Gore-Tex), cause no exposure to PFOA.


Yes, DuPont funded the study; but somehow it seems unfair to force – say, the Girl Scouts – to foot the bill. Moreover it was conducted by an independent research firm, Environ, and a panel of three researchers led by Harvard Center for Risk Analysis executive director George Gray rigorously evaluated it. "Even when cookware coated with Teflon® was abraded [scratched] with a knife, no PFOA was detected” said toxicologist F. Jay Murray, one of the three reviewers.


Earlier studies by the China Academy of Inspection and Quarantine and the Danish Technological Institute also showed no exposure to PFOA from the use of non-stick cookware. The Chinese researchers found no traces of PFOA in 28 different Teflon®-coated pans from 18 different manufacturers.


So Teflon® is safe for humans, but some have also accused it of harming our feathered friends.


For reasons having nothing to do with PFOA, Teflon® can hurt birds if a pan is extremely overheated. In fact, fumes from any type of cookware, not just non-stick, cause avian angst if you leave a pot burning on the stove. Because they have highly sensitive lungs, birds are also at risk from burning butters or oils, aerosol sprays, and cleaning solvents.


“Any type of cookware, not just non-stick, can be dangerous to your pet birds if food is left to burn in pots and pans,” notes University of Pennsylvania veterinarian Karen Rosenthal. “Long before non-stick material presents a concern, fats, oils and butter will begin to smoke in a pan at 400-degrees Fahrenheit and can produce gases harmful to birds. This temperature is well below the point at which non-stick cookware could release fumes.”


So never leave any heated pot or pan unattended, no matter what it’s made of. And matey, don’t ye be lettin’ Polly perch on yer shoulder while ye cook.


But if your only claim to a “beak” is an oversized schnoz, you have more to fear from fear mongering loot-seeking lawyers than from your cookware.


Michael Fumento (mfumento@pobox.com), is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service, senior fellow at Hudson Institute, and author of Science Under Siege: Balancing Technology and the Environment.

©2005 Michael Fumento

The New Litigation Against Teflon® Won't Stick

By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.


Only in America: today, a group of Florida attorneys filed a $5 billion class action suit against DuPont claiming that the company has for decades failed to notify consumers of the health risks posed by "Teflon® chemicals."


The plaintiffs want DuPont to spend $5 billion to replace the cookware that is allegedly dangerous and provide medical monitoring for the plaintiffs who used the cookware. The suit also demands that Teflon®-coated products in the future carry health warning labels.


The suit charges that the "Teflon® chemical" PFOA is a" carcinogen" -- defined here as a chemical that causes cancer in rodents.


This lawsuit and its charges are ludicrous on two different levels:


First, PFOA, a chemical used to create Teflon®, poses no known hazard to human health. Myriad chemicals -- both of natural and synthetic origin -- are carcinogenic when fed at high doses to rodents. Such laboratory observations are of no relevance in predicting human cancer risk.


Second, Teflon®-coated cookware does not even contain PFOA.


So the lawsuit is based on the allegation of a risk that is not a risk. And this nonrisk does not even exist in the targeted products (Teflon® cookware).


It is easy these days to scare consumers by telling them that there are invisible, nefarious, chemical components seeping into their air, water, food, and consumer products. Indeed, the publicity around this lawsuit may cause considerable anxiety among consumers, who get only one take home
message: cancer-causing chemicals in my pots and pans are putting me and my family at risk.


There is no scientific basis to support such an anxiety. Teflon® cookware poses no known health risk -- and the chemicals used to produce it (which do not show up in the final product) are themselves safe.


Ever since DuPont's Dr. Roy J Plunkett accidentally discovered Teflon® in his laboratory in 1938, it has proven to be an extremely useful substance. It was first used in machine and military applications in the 1940s and dramatically changed cooking and cleanup in the 1960s when used as a nonstick surface for pots and pans. It is the success story of Teflon® that makes it such a ripe target for those who spew chemical-phobia in their campaign to eliminate the tools that modern industrial chemistry has given us (pesticides, pharmaceuticals, food additives, and more).


Let's hope that the trumped-up charges against Teflon® do not pan out in court. But don't count on it. Those in the environmental camp, who still tenaciously argue that a rodent is a little man, could insist that all such "carcinogens" be purged no matter what the cost -- even when the "carcinogen" is not there.


Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan is president of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com).

Scott Warrington

WE ALL NEED EVELYN WOOD'S READING DYNAMICS COURSE TO READ KENNY'S POSTS.

                               Nightrider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, sorry. Did I miss something