From: "Rich Gauszka" 


"Randy H"  wrote in message
news:41164cf3$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> You have to wonder what they're really testing for, and at what percentage
> they've
> claiming to identify.
>
> Note the absence of any specifics.
>
>
The Brits have Prozac - we have Teflon?

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2004/08/08/2003197953

A study that appeared this month in Environmental Science & Technology,
published by the American Chemical Society, found varying levels of PFCs,
including PFOA, in the blood of people living on four continents. The
researchers postulated that prolonged use of products containing PFCs --
like paper products, packaging, carpet treatments and stain-resistant
textiles and cleaners -- could be a major source of human exposure.

In the 1980s, a DuPont study of female workers exposed to the substance
found that two out of seven women gave birth to babies with facial defects
similar to those observed in the offspring of rats that had been exposed to
PFOA in another study. In its complaint, the EPA charged that DuPont had
also detected PFOA in the blood of at least one of the fetuses and in
public drinking water in communities near DuPont plants, but did not report
that it had done the tests.

There is no federal requirement for companies to test unregulated chemicals
like PFOA, but if companies have reason to believe a substance poses a
threat, they are required by the Toxic Substances Control Act to notify the
EPA. The agency also said DuPont was in violation of another federal
environmental law for not providing all of the toxicological data it had
gathered about the chemical after a 1997 request from the agency.

"We've been exposed since at least 1984," said Robert Griffin,
general manager of the Little Hocking Water Association, which serves about
4,000 homes in rural Washington County, Ohio, directly across the Ohio
River from DuPont's Washington Works plant. "The community could have
dealt with it back then, but DuPont saw fit not to inform us."

In June, Griffin included a warning in his annual water quality report to
customers. It stated, in bold capital letters, that until the issue was
resolved, "You are drinking this water at your own risk."

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