They don't sell Scotchguard anymore - Democratic Underground

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Thu Jul-12-07 01:06 PM
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They don't sell Scotchguard anymore

I spent an hour going from store to store looking for Scotchguard and it seemed so strange that no stores had it that I came back and Googled it. This is what I found:

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/02/22_edgerlym_3mscience/

Chemical contamination found in wells and landfills in Washington County (Maplewood, MN) has been linked to substances made by 3M. 3M's announcement in 2000 that it was phasing out its popular Scotchgard product led to a major investigation by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. The anti-stain spray contained chemicals toxic to lab animals. The chemicals had also turned up in the blood of 3M workers, though the company said its employees were not harmed.

On the state level, an investigation by Minnesota Public Radio and American Radio Works found that even after 3M said it would no longer make the chemicals, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency let two years pass before it began any inquiries.

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On Jan. 25, 2005, Oakdale residents (St. Paul MN) learned their drinking water was contaminated with chemicals formerly made by 3M.

At the news conference, health department scientists joined Oakdale's mayor and some of his staff at city hall to get out the word -- tests of six city wells showed that five of them were contaminated. But the amounts of the chemicals –- called PFOA and PFOS -- were small.

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These chemicals are present around the world, including in the U.S. blood supply, the blood of 3M plant workers, as well as fish, birds and animals living far from chemical factories. Until 2000, 3M was the sole manufacturer of this family of chemicals, which went into Scotchgard.

Scotchgard is made from a chemical that breaks down into PFOS. It was primarily made at 3M's plant in Decatur, Alabama. PFOS was produced at 3M's plant in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, and sold to customers like DuPont for use in its Teflon brand of non-stick coatings.

<snip>

In fact, scientists say, perfluorochemicals like PFOS and PFOA don't break down at all in the environment. Scientists are still studying how they enter humans, but it's thought to be through air and water. Once the chemicals are in the body, 3M's medical director Dr. Larry Zobel says they hitch a ride with protein in the bloodstream, and circulate through the body.

They're very unlike other materials that get in the body and stay a long time, which might go to fat or to bone. These materials don't. They're actively moving around the body," explains Zobel. "They bind to protein in the blood. The liver removes them and actually excretes them in the bile. So they get into the intestine, and as they're moved down the intestine they are re-absorbed again. So they come back through the circulation back to the liver, they re-attach to protein and they circulate some more."

:wow: