FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – For 20 years one of the nation’s biggest chemical companies covered up findings that superheated Teflon, the nonstick cookware coating dubbed “the housewife’s best friend,” can make people sick, a series of federal lawsuits charged Tuesday.
Suits filed in eight states claim Teflon’s maker, E. I. DuPont de Nemours Co., told the public the product was safe “for conventional kitchen use” when it knew Teflon heated above 680 degrees emits toxic chemicals and gases linked to birth defects, tumors and cancer in lab animals.
A chemical known as PFOA, or C-8, is responsible for Teflon’s nonstick quality. When exposed to high heat, it breaks down into toxins, the lawsuit states. The toxins have been linked to ailments ranging “Polymer Fume Flu” to intestinal and testicular cancer.
DuPont maintained Tuesday that Teflon is safe. The company “will vigorously defend itself against the allegations raised in this lawsuit,” spokesman R. Clifton Webb said in an e-mailed statement. He noted that anything cooked at such high heat would be inedible.
Although questions about the safety of Teflon have lingered for years, a scientific review panel last month advised the Environmental Protection Agency in a draft report that the chemical is “likely” to cause cancer in humans.
DuPont is disputing the finding. Nonetheless, it provided the impetus for the spate of civil suits, attorneys said. They added that lawsuits would be filed in nearly all 50 states within a few weeks.
DuPont also faces a criminal inquiry.
A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., subpoenaed company records this month. The probe is being conducted by the U.S. Justice Department’s economic crimes section, the suits state.
The lawsuits accuse DuPont of deceptive and unfair trade practices and seek class-action status as well as warning labels and a large fund to notify consumers, replace their cookware, monitor their health and conduct research.
“We’re simply telling them to do the right thing,” said Fort Lauderdale lawyer Roy Oppenheim, who represents 11 people from Broward County, Fla. “I grew up with Teflon being a revered name,” he added. “Everybody who bought these pots and pans should be given a choice to buy others.”
The first of the suits was filed in Miami early Tuesday and has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Shelby Highsmith. Others followed in California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Teflon, DuPont’s trademark for the chemical polytetrafluoroethylene, was invented in 1938. First sold in 1946, Teflon is now a $2 billion-a-year industry.
According to the suit, DuPont may have suspected PFOA’s toxic effect as early as 1961. And, the company has known about widespread PFOA blood contamination since a 1981 worker study – a link the lawsuits claim was not passed on to the EPA.
If the plaintiffs prevail, the impact would be immense. As DuPont boasts on its Web site: “Teflon is really everywhere.”
But the plaintiffs’ lawyers see it as a matter of corporate accountability.
“I believe the American consumer has the right to be notified, said Miami lawyer Alan Kluger. “I don’t have to prove that it causes cancer. I only have to prove that DuPont lied in a massive attempt to continue selling their product.”
Meanwhile, the scientific review panel is expected to submit its report to the EPA by the end of the month. EPA already has concluded that DuPont failed to meet federal reporting requirements on PFOA between 1981 and 2001, but the company disputes that in court. No agreement has been reached yet.
Earlier this year, DuPont settled a 2001 class-action suit workers filed over PFOA. DuPont set aside $70 million in February to pay for medical screenings for many of the 80,000 Ohio and West Virginia residents who live near one of the company’s plants. PFOA was found in the water supply.
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AP-NY-07-19-05 1931EDT
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