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Whistleblower Claims DuPont Failed to Act on Food Contamination Danger

November 20, 2005
A former DuPont Company employee charges the company knew for years about higher than expected food contamination from one of its non-stick coatings, but failed to act.

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Appearing at a news conference with the Environmental Working Group, Glenn Evers claimed DuPont covered up the risks from a chemical the group says is now found in the blood of most Americans.

According to the group, Evers was a DuPont employee for 22 years, working as one of the company's top technical experts and the chairman of an invitation-only committee of its 40 best scientists and technical experts. He reportedly holds six patents, and his work has, to date, made the company an estimated $250 million in after-tax profits.

He also worked in chemical engineering, involved with designing and developing new uses of grease-resistant, or perfluorinated, chemical-based coating for paper food packaging.

“Breakdown chemicals from these coatings and related sources are now in the blood of 95 percent of Americans, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spent the last several years trying to determine how they get there,” the group said in a release.

DuPont has denied the claims of both the Environmental Working Group, and Evers. Evers was fired from the company in 2002.

But Evers charges his former employer hid for decades that it was polluting Americans' blood with a hyper-persistent chemical associated with the grease-resistant coatings on paper food packaging. The environmental group released a set of documents it says are internal DuPont documents that back up Evers’ account.

Evers said that in the mid-1960s, the company negotiated with the Food and Drug Administration for a weak standard for how much of the paper chemical coating, which is applied to give packaging grease or liquid resistance, could contaminate food. The FDA at the time normally required a two-year study for chemicals it wasn't familiar with, but agreed to base DuPont's approval on a 90-day test with a 1,000-fold safety factor added.

Evers said that standard, which remains in effect today, was based on the premise that the chemical would leave the body quickly.

But Evers said the company knew, at least by 1981, that another class of perfluorinated chemicals -- PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) -- accumulates in people. It is unclear whether or not the company ever provided the FDA this information, but Evers said the company continued to worry about this information throughout the 1990s.

Documents released by the group purport to show that:

• DuPont conducted a toxicological study in 1973 in which it was unable to find a safe level of exposure in lab animals, and that the chemicals were toxic to the kidneys, liver and blood.

• A 1984 internal company memorandum raised the question of which of these crucial findings, if any, from the 1973 study were provided to the FDA.

• In 1987, DuPont's Dr. Richard Goldbaum found that the company's marquee paper packaging coating chemical, Zonyl RP, could contaminate food at over three times the federal safety standard, while two effective alternatives contaminated food at half the federal maximum level.

Evers said he realized with time that the company had not ordered a standard, internal process hazards review to find out why the chemical was above FDA approved levels. He said the company did not provide the information to customers, federal health officials or the public.

EWG said it has sent the documents to the FDA's acting commissioner, as well as the inspector general of its parent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), requesting the officials act on the new information. The group is also referring documents to relevant EPA officials.

"These documents indicate a failure to disclose critical public health information about a toxic chemical that never breaks down, that gets into our bodies and stays there," said EWG Senior Scientist Tim Kropp.

"If we ever needed a reason to reform the nation's toxic chemical laws, every American now has one, courtesy of DuPont."

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