DuPont Still Hiding Teflon Hazard Study

[Omaha Steve]

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3972


DuPont Still Hiding Teflon Hazard Study
by Catherine Komp

Dec. 13 – Nearly two months after DuPont claimed to have evidence that a chemical it uses in the Teflon-manufacturing process is safe for workers, the chemical giant still refuses to release its full findings to the public.

Now unions have joined in pressuring DuPont to release the study and other information on the health effects of PFOA, a chemical used to make Teflon that the Environmental Protection Agency says is potentially harmful to humans.

The company announced the results of the study in October; it examined mortality rates of employees over a 50-year period. While DuPont claimed its scientists found no increased mortality in workers exposed to PFOA, the company refused to release the full study, including information about its authors, to the public.

The United Steel Workers (USW) requested a copy of the study almost two months ago, but said they received no response from DuPont. USW filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last Friday in order to compel DuPont to release the full study, along with raw data, statistics and workers’ medical histories. The union says DuPont is preventing them from protecting the health and safety of its membership.

"We don’t understand at all why there’s such secrecy around this if in fact DuPont’s statement that PFOA has no harmful effects is correct," USW’s Joe Drexler, manager of strategic planning and research, told The NewStandard.

Dupont spokesperson Daniel Turner said the company was not aware of the NLRB complaint. He said DuPont planned to hand the study over to USW "today or tomorrow." But Turner reiterated that DuPont will not release the study to the public until it is published in a scientific journal, and he said the USW will be bound by company copyright rules stating they cannot distribute the study without DuPont’s permission.


FULL story at link.

[AnnieBW]

1. Cleaning Products!

Did you know that Teflon is now in cleaning products, like toilet bowl cleaner? Bad enough that we're cooking with this stuff. Now it's getting into the waste stream.