WASHINGTON - January 30 - Today, a panel of outside experts gave draft comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saying that an indestructible, toxic chemical that pollutes nearly every American’s blood is a “likely human carcinogen.” The panel urged the agency to adopt stricter guidelines to protect human health, according to a majority of its members. This announcement follows news just last week that the EPA signed a voluntary agreement with the chemical’s maker, DuPont, and seven other companies to reduce the chemical’s use in products by 95 percent over the next five years and aim for total elimination of its use by 2015.
 
 “This indestructible nonstick chemical meets the government’s criteria of a ‘likely human carcinogen,’” Tim Kropp, senior scientist at Environmental Working Group (EWG), said. “We should err on the side of precaution with any industrial chemical that ends up in human blood, but especially chemicals like PFOA that are toxic and indestructible. We applaud the EPA for reaching an agreement with industry to dramatically lower the amount of this chemical in popular consumer products, and we urge the agency to adopt a similarly strong stance to protect the public from possible health risks associated with this chemical.”
 
Specifically, the EPA’s outside expert panel told the agency to:
 
* Consider immune and nervous system effects on animals in its study of possible human health risks; and
 
* Use a more health-protective and scientifically valid approach to studying human health risks from the chemical.
 
Most of the experts on the panel called PFOA a “likely human carcinogen,” not a “suggested human carcinogen,” as the EPA had proposed.
 
Teflon and other nonstick cookware; clothing and carpeting that have stain-repellent coatings; fast food packaging that repels grease and oil; cleaning products; cosmetics and many other consumer products are made with chemicals that break down into PFOA in our bodies.
 
This chemical pollutes over 95 percent of Americans’ blood, including a study EWG commissioned last summer in which all 10 babies surveyed were born contaminated with it and related chemicals before they left the womb. PFOA never breaks down in the environment, so every molecule of it produced since the 1950s or earlier will forever be in our air, water and bodies. In animals, PFOA causes cancer, birth defects and other health problems.

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