medpundit |
||
|
Thursday, June 30, 2005The Environmental Protection Agency's own scientific advisory panel has identified perfluorooctanoic acid, a chemical compound used to make Teflon, as a "likely carcinogen" in a report it plans to submit to the agency next month. The draft report, which EPA posted on its Web site yesterday, is significant because it could prompt agency officials to regulate the processing agent -- known as PFOA or C-8 -- for the first time. Until now, the EPA has classified PFOA as a "suggested" carcinogen, which requires fewer health precautions. The "likely" label is based on studies showing the processing agent causes cancer in small mammals. No one knows if it causes cancer in humans - especially by the time the Teflon has become a coating on a pan. DuPont says it doesn't even cause cancer in workers who use it to make the Teflon, but in this day and age, corporations are believed guilty of obstruction until proven innocent. Will this be the end of Teflon as we know it? Will we all be reduced to cooking with PAM? Or, horror of horrors, butter? posted by Sydney on 6/30/2005 08:58:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|