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Major Study of Teflon Chemical in People Suggests Harm To Immune System, Liver, Thyroid
WASHINGTON – A chemical used to make Teflon, food wrappers and dozens of other products may harm the immune system, liver and thyroid and cause higher cholesterol in children, according to the initial findings of a study of 69,000 people in West Virginia and Ohio who live near a DuPont manufacturing plant. The health effects […]
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Teflon chemical linked to increased cholesterol levels
WASHINGTON – A chemical used to make Teflon, food wrappers and dozens of other consumer products is linked to higher levels of cholesterol, according to the latest findings of a multi-year study of 69,000 West Virginians and Ohioans whose drinking water was contaminated by a DuPont manufacturing plant in Washington, W.Va, along the Ohio River. […]
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Bush Administration Moves to Okay Toxic Teflon Pollution in Tap Water
January 14, 2009. In its final days, the Bush administration appears poised to issue an emergency health advisory for tap water polluted with the toxic Teflon chemical PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) effectively allowing a significant level of pollution and discouraging cleanup of PFOA contamination in tap water in at least 9 states. The level of permissible […]
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California: Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bill to Ban Cancer-Causing Teflon Chemicals in Food Packaging
SACRAMENTO – On the same day Gov. Schwarzenegger touted himself as the leader of a comprehensive chemical reform program, he vetoed a bill that would have made California the first state to ban toxic chemicals known as PFCs – a family of compounds including Teflon – from food packaging. On Monday, Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill […]
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DuPont’s Teflon Dilemma
Since the early 1900s, the Tennant family had raised cattle over rolling hills in the far western reaches of West Virginia, near the Ohio River. But in the late 1980s, Wilbur Earl Tennant’s herd began to die off-280 Hereford cows in all. The Tennants suspected it had something to do with the black, odorous water […]
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It’s National Teflon Day – But Hold the Celebration
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. Teflon […]
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DuPont Found Liable for Cancer from Teflon Chemical – $1.6 Million in Damages
A federal jury on Wednesday (Oct. 7) found DuPont liable for causing a West Virginia woman’s kidney cancer by poisoning her drinking water with a chemical used to make Teflon. The jurors ordered the company to pay $1.6 million in damages. The jury in Columbus, Ohio, held that DuPont was guilty of negligence and infliction […]
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People Are Still Exposed To the Teflon Chemical At Unsafe Levels, Group Says
An EWG report finds that chemicals, already shown to disrupt functioning of the endocrine system, are still present in cookware products It’s been more than a decade since investigations revealed that Teflon contained a consumer chemical called PFOA that was linked to birth defects, heart disease and other health issues, but the safety of the […]
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The Teflon Toxin. DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception
KEN WAMSLEY SOMETIMES DREAMS that he’s playing softball again. He’ll be at center field, just like when he played slow pitch back in his teens, or pounding the ball over the fence as the crowd goes wild. Other times, he’s somehow inexplicably back at work in the lab. Wamsley calls them nightmares, these stories that […]
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Perfluorinated Chemicals
What do we know about perfluorinated chemicals? We know that their breakdown into the environment has to be measured in geologic time frames, that some have been classified as carcinogens, and that they are now found in human blood and wildlife across the globe. These chemicals were made for decades by large corporations such as […]