Washington, DC, July 8--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused DuPont & Co. (DD) of violating federal reporting requirements related to the potential health risks of a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon.
The EPA filed an administrative complaint against DuPont Thursday and will seek an unspecified penalty against the company.
EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said it is likely the agency will seek penalties in the millions of dollars.
DuPont denied the allegations and said in a press release it will file a formal denial to the EPA complaint within 30 days. The company said it has fully complied with federal reporting requirements, and it disputes any association between the chemical and harmful effects on human health or the environment.
The chemical in question is a synthetic compound called perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, also known as C-8. It is used in the manufacturing process for fluoropolymers, including some of DuPont's Teflon products, at the company's Washington, W.Va., plant, according to the EPA.
The EPA has identified potential human-health concerns from exposure to PFOA and its salts, it said in the complaint. PFOA has been found to be a liver toxin in animals, the EPA said.
In April 2003, the EPA announced it would review PFOA, and has worked cooperatively with DuPont and other companies to gather information to better understand the substance. The EPA will use this review to determine whether it should regulate the substance to protect human health and the environment.
According to the EPA, in 1981 DuPont was getting its PFOA from 3M Co. (MMM), the St. Paul, Minn., industrial conglomerate. 3M advised DuPont about the potential for PFOA to cause birth defects in laboratory rats, particularly what appeared to be damage to the eye lenses of some rat pups, the EPA said.
3M officials couldn't immediately be reached. 3M no longer makes the chemical, EPA's Bergman said. The EPA and 3M have entered into an agreement to address potential violations by 3M, and the process is ongoing, she said.
In 1981, according to the EPA, DuPont observed PFOA in blood samples taken from pregnant workers at its Washington, W.Va., plant. At least one woman had transferred the chemical to her fetus, the EPA said, though the child was described as "normal."
Later in the 1980s, DuPont detected PFOA in public water supplies in communities near the plant, in both West Virginia and Ohio, the agency said. It also found that levels of PFOA in water supplies exceeded the company's own guidelines, the EPA said.
The EPA accused DuPont of never submitting to the EPA data showing that PFOA was passed from a mother to her child. Under law, DuPont was supposed to immediately inform the EPA. DuPont later provided the data to an attorney representing residents of Ohio and West Virginia in a class-action lawsuit alleging DuPont contaminated the water supplies in their communities, the EPA said. The attorney then passed the data on to the EPA in 2001.
DuPont did report some data to the EPA's waste program about the presence of PFOA in drinking water supplies in 1990, but the EPA said in its complaint the notification was misleading because it suggested DuPont had resolved the matter.
In a written statement, DuPont described PFOA as "an essential processing aid used to produce fluoropolymers."
"DuPont has provided substantial information to EPA supporting our conclusion that we have followed the law," General Counsel Stacey Mobley said in the press release.
Mobley said the matter "is not about the safety of our products. It is about administrative reporting."
DuPont said there is no legal basis for the EPA's allegations. DuPont also noted that when the EPA announced its review of PFOA, the agency said it didn't believe there was any reason for consumers to stop using any products while the review was underway. DuPont said PFOA was an unregulated substance.
