DuPont Co. officials confirmed Tuesday that they plan to greatly reduce the amount of the toxic chemical C8 in some of their products.
DuPont Co. officials confirmed Tuesday that they plan to greatly reduce the amount of the toxic chemical C8 in some of their products.
By the end of 2006, DuPont has agreed to cut by 90 percent the C8 that is left as a residue in the liquid version of the chemicals it makes for uses such as non-stick cookware, company officials said.
The move is far from a wholesale phase-out of C8 like the one 3M -- the original maker of the chemical -- announced five years ago.
DuPont officials also insisted that their reduction pledge does not indicate a reversal of the company's long-held position that C8 is not harmful.
"We are doing it because of the perception," said DuPont spokesman R. Clifton Webb. "We're not concerned about a health effect. We still believe there are no adverse health effects."
The company declined to say how much the changes would cost.
The promised reduction by DuPont and several other companies was announced in early February during U.S. Environmental Protection Agency meetings about C8, EPA records show.
It was not widely reported by the media until Tuesday, after DuPont began a series of press briefings on the subject. C8 is another name for perfluorooctanoate, and is also know as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
At its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg, DuPont has used C8 for more than 50 years in the production of Teflon and other "fluoropolymers."
The liquid form of these chemicals represents only about 15 percent of DuPont's market.
No changes were announced in how the company handles the solid forms of fluoropolymers, which account for the other 85 percent of the market. DuPont officials say that any C8 in the solid forms is heated out before it can end up in consumer products.
For years, C8 -- and DuPont's emissions of it -- have been basically unregulated. But in the past few years, C8 has come under increasing scrutiny. Fueled in large part by internal DuPont documents uncovered by lawyers for Wood County residents, the EPA has begun a detailed study of the chemical and sued DuPont for allegedly hiding information about the C8's dangers.
Last month, a Wood County judge approved a $107.6 million settlement of a lawsuit filed against DuPont on behalf of thousands of residents whose drinking water was allegedly poisoned with C8.
Also last month, members of the EPA's Science Advisory Board urged the agency to elevate its cancer-causing classification for the chemical and do a more thorough review of the substance.
In a draft study, EPA had characterized C8 as a "suggestive" carcinogen. But advisory board members said that the evidence may indicate that the chemical is a "likely" carcinogen.
The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group said that EPA's draft study ignored evidence that links C8 to heart attacks, breast cancer, testicular cancer and other ailments.
Tim Kropp, a senior scientist with that group, said that DuPont's announcement does not solve all of the problems surrounding C8.
Kropp said that researchers are concerned that people around the world are exposed to C8 by the breakdown of products made with a related chemical, fluorotelomers. No plans for addressing that have been announced, Kropp said.
"It's like they are making a lot of noise about the good they are doing at Site A, when they know the problem is really at Site B," Kropp said.
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