October 19, 2005
Nonstick Teflon may need some Teflon protection of its own now that a $5 billion class action lawsuit against DuPont claims that the popular non-stick product exposes consumers to perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
The suit, filed in June, names 14 plaintiffs, but claims that the class of potential plaintiffs "could well contain almost every American that has purchased a pot or pan coated with DuPont's nonstick coating," according to attorney Alan Kluger.
The suit demands replacement cooking utensils, medical monitoring of plaintiffs, research funding, and a warning label.
The allegations echo concerns about the impact of PFOA's release into the air or water. An Environmental Protection Agency advisory panel issued a draft report classifying PFOA as a likely carcinogen.
DuPont, however, disputes the connection, and a recent University of Pennsylvania study found no link between PFOA and several diseases.
While consumers living near a DuPont plant might be concerned about chemicals released into the air or water, most health authorities see no danger to other consumers because studies have found no PFOA release from cooking with Teflon-lined pans.
Many companies use PFOA to produce a wide variety of products, including auto fuel systems, clothes, computer chips, firefighting foam, phone cables, as well as Teflon. Despite such wide use for decades, there are no known cases of consumers suffering long-term harm, noted Doug Bandow in a recent Cato Institute research paper.
If using PFOA posed a danger, then many people using products containing PFOA should have suffered ill effects, when in fact there is no record of harm resulting from PFOA products.
In fact, far from being harmful, there are those who argue that Teflon has positive health effects. It makes it possible to use less fat, grease and oil when cooking, thereby creating a more healthful diet.
EPA, though concerned about the presence of PFOA in the environment, has officially announced that it "does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using any consumer or industrial related products" because of PFOA. If cooking doesn't cause the harmful PFOA escape of Teflon of pots or pans, there is no health risk.
That's the conclusion of a peer-reviewed study earlier this year in the Environmental Science & Technology journal. Ten researchers looked at the use of PFOA in cookware, as well as carpets, cleaners, clothes, paints, and other products.
They concluded that PFOA exposure "during consumer use of the articles evaluated in this study are not expected to cause adverse human health effects in infants, children, adolescents, adult residents or professionals, nor result in quantifiable levels" of the chemical in people's blood.
