DuPont Rebuffs Efforts to Learn Results of Teflon-Chemical Study

By William Murphy

Published on December 15, 2006

At issue is perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a chemical that the Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has named as a probable cancer-causing agent. On November 14, DuPont reported to United Steelworkers that union-represented employees at DuPont's Deepwater, New Jersey, plant had PFOA blood levels as high as 6,330 parts per billion (ppb). Normal PFOA levels in the general population average 5 ppb.

In October, DuPont released a portion of the results of a study that examined employee mortality rates over a 50-year span. However, the company has been unwilling to release certain data it collected on Parkersburg, West Virginia, employees. United Steelworkers filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an effort to get DuPont to release the full results of the study.

A DuPont spokesman denied any knowledge of the complaint. He said that DuPont will provide the full study to United Steelworkers soon, with the stipulation that United Steelworkers will not be able to distribute the study without DuPont's permission.

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