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Teflon Suit Slides Off DuPont

Cookware contains likely carcinogen

By Jon Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 19, 2009

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A federal court in Des Moines, Iowa on May 1 dismissed a group of consolidated cases against chemical and housewares company DuPont. The 22 suits, consolidated from 15 states, alleged that DuPont knew for more than 20 years that cookware containing the company's non-stick coating, popularly known as Teflon, could make consumers sick, but concealed evidence of this from the public.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Longstaff found that individual issues differing among the plaintiffs would each require their own inquiry, making the suits improper. In his order, the judge wrote that "the only common factor binding together all of the present plaintiffs is use of nonstick-coated cookware ... Each of [the other] issues will require an individualized inquiry, which the court believes will render each class action unmanageable."

The actions alleged that, when heated to normal cooking temperatures, Teflon-coated pans release toxic particles that pose a health risk to consumers. The suits claimed that DuPont had a duty to warn consumers of the dangers of Teflon but failed to do so.

The suits specifically singled out perflourooctanoic acid, colloquially known as PFOA, as the culprit of the emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that PFOA is likely a cancer-causing agent in humans. This concern originated with an EPA study showing the chemical to be present in the bloodstream of 90% of Americans.

Millions of consumers were covered by the actions and, had they been successful, damages would have likely reached into the billions. At the time the suits were filed, attorney Alan Kluger said the class "could well contain almost every American that has purchased a pot or pan coated with ... Teflon."

A whopping 70% of cookware sold in the United States contains a non-stick coating. The equipment is far more popular than traditional stainless steel cookware, which is generally preferred by chefs but harder to clean. Teflon was approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1960 after the agency found elevated levels of flourinated compounds on a hamburger cooked in a Teflon-coated pan but judged them to be of little significance.

The suits sought damages, the cost of replacement cookware, and labeling warning consumers of the the possible dangers posed by Teflon. It also asked for the creation of two funds: one to monitor the health of class members, and another to fund scientific research to further study the potentially damaging effects of Teflon use.

DuPont insists that no studies have ever shown Teflon to be dangerous. Indeed, DuPont's website has a prominently featured section devoted solely to the cookware's professed safety. DuPont notes that the EPA, on its own site, asserts that it "does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using any consumer or industrial related [non-stick coated] products." Further, DuPont points out that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) rejected a petition to require warning labels for the cookware.

However, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) notes that the EPA has never extensively tested the safety of Teflon. Indeed, in 2006 a group of scientific advisors to the EPA unanimously recommended that PFOA be considered a likely carcinogen.

In that recommendation, the board members questioned why the EPA had ignored certain unpublished studies, and noted that the EPA itself had conceded that animal studies had provided "suggestive evidence" that PFOA is a possible human carcinogen.

A study from the 1980s, which was never published, found tumors in lab rats linked to the chemical. A rebuttal study, conveniently funded by DuPont and 3M, questioned the former study's veracity.

DuPont is the world's largest chemical company, second only to BASF. The company is responsible for the creation of a number of popular chemicals, including Teflon, Corian, Kevlar, and Lycra.

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