Congress must take decisive action to address the PFAS problem, including: DuPont and Chemours must respond quickly to Rouda’s inquiry and account for their ongoing discharges of PFOA. And some companies that are not subject to those agreements have admitted they still use PFOA. Chemours is now challenging DuPont … Even if the ongoing discharges in Ohio and West Virginia can be attributed to legacy discharges, that’s little comfort. The EPA has identified just over 200 PCBs, and there are far more PFAS chemicals. Chemours claims it has “never made or used PFOA.” Yet data from the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online database shows ongoing discharges from both the Circleville and Parkersburg facilities. Even if DuPont and Chemours are being honest with regulators about their use of PFOA, we should be alarmed at its continued presence in discharges as legacy contamination, because it underscores how merely ending the use of a toxic substance like PFOA will not make the contamination disappear. Legal Disclaimer updated April 2016 | Privacy Policy updated October 2019. DuPont replaced C8 with a new chemical called Gen-X, which is already turning up in waterways. History shows that even decades after being banned, some chemicals’ ongoing impact continues to be deeply harmful to health and the environment. The Big Bang of the nationwide “forever chemicals” crisis was the revelation in 2001 that PFOA, a toxic compound used to make Teflon, had contaminated the drinking water for 70,000 people near a DuPont factory in West Virginia. The continued releases could be an indication that the two companies are still using PFOA, despite their assurances otherwise. Manufacturers have agreed to phaseouts of only a handful. Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Legal Disclaimer | Reprint Permission Information Last week, Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to DuPont and Chemours asking why they’re still discharging a highly toxic substance they claim not to have used in years. Very small doses of PFOA and some other PFAS have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid issues, high cholesterol, reproductive and developmental harms and reduced effectiveness of vaccines. (A fourth company called Chemours, which spun out of Dupont in 2015, now owns and produces Teflon itself.) Copyright © 2020, Environmental Working Group. Just this summer, Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, agreed to pay $650 million to 2,500 cities, counties and ports to clean up PCB contamination. They were widely used for a myriad of industrial purposes, until they were banned as a class by Congress, in 1976. Teflon off gases 6 toxic gases from reaching about 680F, including carcinogens, global pollutants and a lethal chemical MFA. Monday, October 26, 2020. DuPont has been awarded the National Medal of Technology four times: first in 1990, for its invention of "high-performance man-made polymers such as nylon, neoprene rubber, " Teflon " fluorocarbon resin, and a wide spectrum of new fibers, films, and engineering plastics"; the second in 2002 "for policy and technology leadership in the phaseout and replacement of chlorofluorocarbons ". There could be PFOA in products or mixtures used at the facilities. Donate, The latest from EWG’s staff of experts >>. There are no federally enforceable limits on any PFAS in drinking water, groundwater or soils, or any requirements to clean up PFAS under the federal Superfund law. DuPont agreed to casually phase out C8 by 2015. If they have misled the public about ongoing use of this toxic chemical, they should be held accountable. Or “legacy” PFOA remaining in water used at the facilities could be showing up – an alarming reminder of the chemical’s persistence in the environment. It takes a pan about 3.5 minutes to reach 738F on an electric stove top with your average non stick pan. DuPont had known for 20 years that the PFOAs in Teflon technology was harmful to people, yet they remained silent. For decades, DuPont dumped PFAS into the Ohio River in West Virginia, killing farm animals and poisoning the water of surrounding communities. PFAS discharged over the past 50 years by companies like DuPont and 3M – which knew it was dangerous as early as the 1950s – will stay in the environment until it’s actively remediated. PFOA is the most notorious of the thousands of fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS, which have contaminated drinking water for an estimated 200 million-plus Americans. Facebook Twitter Amazon Youtube Instagram Pinterest RSS Sign Up! For example, regulators in New Jersey have found that the manufacturer Solvay has replaced PFNA, a PFAS chemical it phased out in 2010, with a new PFAS chemical that is toxic to the liver at potentially even lower doses than PFNA or PFOA.