DuPont Settles in Teflon Case on "Failure to Report"

[cyberpj]

Company accused of not reporting health risks
By JEFF MONTGOMERY / The News Journal
05/07/2005

The DuPont Co. and the Environmental Protection Agency have tentatively agreed to a multimillion dollar settlement of charges that the company failed to report health and pollution risks from a chemical used to make Teflon and other nonstick and stain-resistant products. Although both sides declined to release details Friday, DuPont set aside $15 million to cover penalty costs in the case, the company disclosed. DuPont's potential liability had been estimated at more than $300 million when the complaint first surfaced. EPA officials ruled out a push for the maximum penalty last year.

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PFOA, also sometimes labeled C-8 by DuPont, causes cancer in laboratory animals and lingers in the environment. Intensive government and industry studies are under way to determine if exposure increases human cancers, reproductive problems or other health disorders.

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The EPA in July accused DuPont of “multiple failures” to report information about substantial risk to human health or the environment from June 1981 through March 2001. All of the complaints involved delays or omissions in disclosures about PFOA and indications of the compound’s potential toxicity.

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“The EPA’s allegations are about administrative reporting and not about the safety of products that use PFOA in their manufacture,” a DuPont quarterly statement filed on Wednesday said.

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“Fifteen million is not a slap on the wrist, it’s a pat on the back for the company,” said Lauren Sucher, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit consumer group. “DuPont should be fined the fullest possible maximum, first for polluting a baby’s blood and then covering up for 20 years their pollution of a baby’s blood with their cancer-causing, indestructible Teflon chemical.”

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