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• Bush to issue last-minute PFOA water rule

  CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Less than a week before leaving office, the Bush administration appears ready to issue an emergency health advisory for drinking water polluted with the toxic chemical C8. The surprise move comes as federal scientists quietly investigate concerns that C8 contaminated the food chain through beef, after tainted sewage sludges were dumped on […]

• EPA’s C8 advisory does not address long-term risks

  Federal officials said Friday that a new C8 health advisory is not intended to address long-term exposure, drawing criticism that the action does nothing for Americans who have for years been drinking water contaminated with the toxic chemical. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is advising people to reduce consumption of water that contains more than […]

• DuPont gets more time for C8 studies

  DuPont Co. will have three additional years to complete key tests of whether the toxic chemical C8 is leaching out of consumer products, under a deal finalized during the final month of the Bush administration. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawyers agreed to extend DuPont’s deadline – originally set for Dec. 27, 2008 – for three […]

• DuPont gets more time to test PFOA

  DuPont Co. has been given a last-minute pass on a federal deadline to complete testing on products thought to be a source of a controversial chemical in the environment. The Environmental Appeals Board has given the company another three years to finish the testing, the second federal action taken in the waning days of the […]

• EPA Report Raises Concerns About PFOA

  A draft EPA report has raised concerns about developmental and other health effects associated with perfluoro-chemicals, which are widely used in DuPont’s Teflon products, as well as electronics and aerospace applications. EPA’s Office of. Pollution Prevention and Toxics has been studying perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts following the discovery of unexpected bioaccumulative properties of […]

• Another Fast-Food Fear

  The extra ingredient? Government agencies and environmental advocacy groups are questioning the safety of a chemical in food packaging materials. Some toxic chemicals may appear where consumers least expect them: on fast-food packaging, says Lauren Sucher, communications director of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) of Washington, D.C. Fluorinated telomers, a type of very small […]

• EPA Calls for Expedited Review of PFOA Data

  EPA released its risk assessment for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) last week, but it called for more research into PFOA’s effects on human health before deciding whether stricter regulations are warranted. Manufacturers and other groups that have studied PFOA will be required, through “enforceable consent agreements,” to submit any additional health effects data on an expedited […]

• Chemical Might Pose Health Risk to Younger Women and Girls

  A common industrial chemical used to produce Teflon might pose health risks for young girls and women of childbearing age, an internal report by the Environmental Protection Agency has found. Agency scientists are concerned because the chemical, ammonium perfluorooctanoate, accumulates in human blood and demonstrates toxic properties. In September, the agency initiated a priority review […]

• E.P.A. Orders Companies to Examine Effects of Chemicals

  Scientists and regulators are raising concerns about the potential health and environmental effects of an important family of industrial chemicals. Those concerns were highlighted yesterday when the Environment Protection Agency announced it was forcing the chemical industry to do further research on perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, one member of that family. The broader group of […]

• DuPont’s troubled chemical

  A little-known manmade chemical is found in the tissue of living things around the globe. It is in the flesh of dolphins and cormorants off the Italian coast. It is in 5 percent of the bread, green beans and ground beef sampled in supermarkets in southern states. It is in the blood of up to […]