Enviros Urge Probe of Teflon Chemical in Drinking Water

There are more than 7 million PFAS and over 21 million fluorinated compounds listed in PubChem (2023).
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Enviros Urge Probe of Teflon Chemical in Drinking Water

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Steelworkers, Enviros Urge Probe of Teflon Chemical in Drinking Water

Environment News Service - June 16, 2006

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, June 16, 2006 (ENS) - Samples of tap water from two homes, the public library, and a local business in Parlin, New Jersey were found to contain trace levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical used to make Teflon and other products. PFOS, a related perfluorochemical, was found in tap water and stream samples.

Representatives of the United Steelworkers Union (USW) took the samples in May as part of its ongoing investigation into PFOA contaminated sites around the country.

The union believes the PFOA emissions are from the DuPont Company's Parlin plant where PFOA was used in the manufacturing process. The USW has discovered elevated levels of PFOA in the blood of its members and other workers at DuPont plants.

The USW is calling on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a full investigation at the site in Parlin, including the monitoring of groundwater and wastewater discharges.

State investigators with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality have informed the USW and the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club that a channel pouring contaminated water into the James River from DuPont's wastewater discharge area probably originated from groundwater seeping to the surface from near the company's wastewater basin.

In their June 12 letter to the EPA and VDEQ, the USW and Sierra Club criticized DuPont's plan for a voluntary investigation as "inadequate" and "designed to delay." The groups also expressed disappointment over the agencies' failure to analyze their own samples for PFOA contamination.

DuPont admits that it has known about the channel for years, but has never analyzed it for PFOA.

"They can't find what they don't look for," said Joe Drexler of the USW Strategic Campaigns Department. "Clearly, DuPont cannot be trusted to clean up its act, and the public needs regulation and not voluntarism."

PFOA was labeled a likely human carcinogen by EPA's Science Advisory Board in January 2006. In April, a lawsuit was filed against DuPont due to PFOA contamination from its plant in Deepwater, New Jersey.

Sampling conducted jointly and independently by the USW, the Sierra Club, and the Riverkeepers has uncovered PFOA surface water and/or drinking water contamination in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, and Deepwater.

PFOA contamination has also been confirmed in Circleville, Ohio and Parkersburg, West Virginia.

In January, the EPA called on DuPont to work toward eliminating PFOA from its products. However, DuPont only agreed to reduce emissions, and, in some cases, the amount of perfluorochemicals in products. DuPont is now the only U.S. manufacturer of PFOA and has resisted calls for the company to stop manufacturing the chemical.

"The discovery of contamination in Parlin is further evidence of DuPont's failure to keep this chemical out of the environment," said Gerald Fernandez, director of USW Strategic Campaign.

SOURCE:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2006 ... -16-09.asp
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