Posted on 02/06/2006 11:49:12 PM PST by neverdem
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALTIMORE -- A suspected carcinogen used to make Teflon was found in nearly all the umbilical cord blood samples tested by researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The researchers are now trying to determine whether it has harmed the newborns.
Of the 300 newborns tested, perfluorooctanoic acid, was found in the cord blood of 298.
"It's very clear that PFOA is being released into the environment, and it's pretty much ubiquitous. But we don't know if it's toxic to people at these levels," said Dr. Lynn Goldman, one of the Hopkins researchers.
A review panel advising the federal Environmental Protection Agency has found PFOA is a likely carcinogen.
Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont is the sole North American producer of PFOA, which is a processing aid used in the manufacturing of fluoropolymers, which have a wide variety of product applications, including nonstick cookware coatings such as Teflon. The chemical also can be a byproduct in the manufacturing of fluorotelomers used in surface protection products for applications such as stain-resistant textiles and grease-resistant food wrapping.
In December, DuPont agreed to pay $10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million for environmental projects to settle the EPA's allegations that the company withheld information about the potential health and environmental risks of PFOA.
DuPont also agreed in September 2004 to fund a two-phase health screening to settle a 2001 class-action lawsuit filed by Ohio and West Virginia residents who receive their water from six water districts. The lawsuit claimed PFOA releases from DuPont's Washington Works plant near Parkersburg, W.Va., contaminated public water supplies.
The company has maintained the chemical does not represent a human health risk.
Previous studies have found PFOA in the blood of most Americans, but the Hopkins study is the largest independent research to look at newborns. Newborns may be more vulnerable to the chemical, which can affect hormone levels, researchers say.
In the Hopkins study, the researchers collected umbilical cord blood samples over a five-month period beginning in late 2004. They are now working with researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a commercial laboratory to analyze the samples further. They are hoping to determine whether the newborn infant's thyroid hormone levels are normal, among other things, researcher Rolf Halden said.
The Hopkins researchers also are comparing other factors, including the birth weight of the babies and the rate of premature birth. The findings are expected in a few months, Halden said.
How PFOA, which has been found in many places worldwide, including polar bears, gets into the bloodstream is not known.
"It's a mystery right now," said Dr. Frank Witter, medical director of labor and delivery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a partner in the study. "At some point, with more research, we may be able to say something more than 'it's just there.' But we have not finished that analysis yet."
On the Net:
DuPont: http://www2.dupont.com/PFOA/en-US/
EPA: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/pfoa/
Information from: The Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com
NEWS FLASH!! Somebody please tell these wackos that carcinogens are a natural product of our environment.
It wouldn’t make any difference, they already know.
The EPA is no longer about protecting the environment or public health.
The EPA is now in business to generate income and power.
In December, DuPont agreed to pay $10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million for environmental projects to settle the EPA's allegations that the company withheld information about the potential health and environmental risks of PFOA.
It still blows my mind that this unelected body, EPA, was established by Executive Order by President Nixon. The EPA is a total waste of taxpayer dollars but bureaucrats will continue to support it in order to push their enviromental agendas.
Stock up on non-stick cookware before it's too late!
Make’s me wonder why Nixon hasn’t achieved Liberal Sainthood.
We need to protect babies from Umbilical cords.
This is peanuts to Du Pont.
True.
But it is just one of many fines. And the publicity that it produces for the EPA is priceless.
I notice that Teflon pans are still on the market. What, doesn't this stuff come off of the Teflon into the food being cooked in the pan? Must be so jolly small an amount that even the chicken littles in the alphabet soup agencies haven't stopped it.
It's sounds like these researchers are searching for a problem that don't exist. Our tax dollars at work.
The problem with the article is is does not say what the concentrations are. With today's measuring devices, you can read well below parts per billion, and if you really wanted to, you could identify single molecules.
If the onion or garlic were created today and submitted to the FDA for approval as a food, they would be banned. Same with broccoli, but many would agree with that. All of them contain carcinogens. All of them are touted as being great for good health.
Cooking their seals in teflon coated pans, no doubt.
Our “esteemed” media loves to scare people. I remember the Great Saccharin Scare of the early 70’s. It turned out that to induce cancer in mice they had to eat the equivalent of several cases of diet soda every day for years.
The EPA uses political science in its studies, the hard left kind that used to be called Marxism.
A prescient congressman warned back in the 1970s that the EPA would be used by the leftists to destroy private property rights.
Yeah. Leaves me wondering how much other trash the GOP keeps hush hush from it's constituents in order to put on a game face.
With O’Donnell as Foil, Democrat Plays It Safe
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/us/politics/12coons.html
His mother married Robert Gore, whose family founded W. L. Gore & Associates, makers of
Gore-Tex fabric, and Mr. Coons went to high school at Tower Hill, a prestigious private academy
where he ran cross-country, wrestled and “read a lot of books,” said Charles Chesnut,
a close friend since elementary school.
In the mid-1990s, he moved back to Delaware; married (he and his wife now have three children);
and went to work as a lawyer for the Gore corporation, a position he kept
while serving in the part-time, elected position of president of the New Castle County Council from 2000 to 2004.
O’Donnell foe’s career marked by political shift
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gUtvkBP2jO_RMHJnCZTYN0ywMgRAD9IDRJ683
In 1996, Coons returned to Delaware and took a job as in-house counsel for W.L. Gore & Associates,
which was founded by his stepfather, Robert Gore, and is the maker of Gore-Tex fabrics.
Christine O’Donnell’s ads buy national attention to Delaware Senate race
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20101017/NEWS02/10170371/O-Donnell-s-ads-buying-national-attention
On Oct. 7, O’Donnell re-appeared with the same dark background as in the “I’m not a witch” ad, but this time
the focus was on Coons, a graduate of Amherst and Yale whose stepfather, Robert Gore,
is president of W.L. Gore, maker of Gore-Tex fabrics.
“I didn’t go to Yale. I didn’t inherit millions like my opponent. I’m you,” she says,
bathed in soft light. “I know how tough it is to make and keep a dollar.”
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