| Teflon has been found in well water and city water supplies. This
article discusses where it come from and how water testing
has detected it. If Teflon is in your water, you should install
the right water filter to remove it.
Hard to believe, it's been almost 70 years since Teflon was
first introduced. Since its creation in 1938 by the DuPont
Company, it has been added to countless household and personal
care products under the sun besides non-stick cookware.
To name a few:
• Clothing (Gore-Tex jackets and other apparel)
• Carpets
• Upholstery
• Nail polish removers
• Eyeglasses
• Pizza boxes
Because it was first introduced so many years ago, Teflon
gained wide distribution before scientists could determine
its impact on our health.
Teflon in Drinking Water
Dupont manufactured Teflon one time or another at various
chemical plants in the United States. And, while it was clear
to everyone that a component of Teflon known as perfluorooctanoic
acid (PFOA) was found in drinking water supplies near their
chemical plant in West Virginia, no one seemed to know about
any contamination to public water supplies surrounding their
Ohio chemical plant.
In fact, Ohio's state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
publicly announced that PFOA was not found in drinking water
supplies surrounding the Dupont Ohio chemical plant. Yet,
amazingly, just one day after their announcement, federal
EPA officials said they had indeed found PFOA in that same
drinking water.
Even worse, a federal EPA official involved with the discovery
of that PFOA-contaminated water said she was just not confident
the feds would get all the information they needed to pursue
the matter completely. And, to top it all off, despite all
the warnings, Ohio's EPA continues to tell residents they
should not be concerned with the PFOA that is in their water.
Why Don't We Know More About the Health Effects of PFOA?
The federal EPA claims that for decades DuPont knew that PFOA
was being dumped into areas surrounding their plants and it
was leaching into water supplies, but they neglected to report
it. On the other hand, DuPont says it was unnecessary to report
their findings to the EPA under the law. That's why it wasn't
until five years ago that the feds started investigating the
risks of PFOA. What they are discovering is pretty worrisome.
For example, they now know that once PFOA is released into
the environment, it doesn't quickly break down and disappear.
Even when a person exposed to PFOA cuts off all future exposure,
it still takes another 20 years for the body to get rid of
that toxic substance, says Tim Kropp, a toxicologist with
the Environmental Working Group.
DuPont may be starting to see the light. Before the discovery
of the latest contamination, they settled one class-action
lawsuit involving PFOA contamination by agreeing to pay for
tests to measure the level of PFOA in blood samples of residents
who live near their Teflon manufacturing plants in the United
States. They expect to spend $70 million on that testing.
And depending on what's found, the company may have to spend
hundreds of millions of dollars more to find out exactly how
PFOA is impacting people's health.
To settle another lawsuit, DuPont agreed to build a $100-million
water treatment plant to remove PFOA from the drinking water
near one of their facilities.
In yet another town, DuPont is now providing bottled water
to 4,300 residents until they can install the right treatment
systems to remove PFOA from their water supply.
What We Do Know About PFOA
Based on tests performed on lab animals, an advisory panel
of the federal EPA has recommended PFOA be classified as a
likely human carcinogen.
A recent study has also found that people exposed to PFOA
had a 10 percent increase in cholesterol levels and most of
that was due to a rise in bad (LDL) cholesterol.
Amazingly, there is no federal safe drinking water standard
for PFOA and the state EPA of West Virginia has set a lax
standard that's based on little meaningful research. In fact,
the EPA of West Virginia claims if the level of PFOA in your
water supply is less than 150 parts per billion (ppb), it
is safe for consumption.
But a recent study of 326 people who had been using water
contaminated with PFOA levels of only 2-7 ppb, had PFOA levels
in their blood of 298–369 ppb.
How did that happen? As I mentioned before, once the PFOA
toxin gets into your system, it stays in your system. The
more water you use, the more PFOA that accumulates in your
body!
Make Sure Your Water is Safe
This Teflon report is not an isolated incident. Our country
is littered with contaminated water supplies. And, in most
cases, local water companies tell their customers not to be
concerned: "The water is perfectly safe ... It meets all EPA
standards ..." Often, however, the water really isn't safe.
Time and again, the safety standards they reference are based
on poor research and driven by big business. In other cases,
standards are non-existent.
Case in point, the threat posed by PFOA merits no federal
safe drinking water standard, even though the EPA believes
PFOA is a likely carcinogen.
Take time to find out what is in your water supply. If specific
contaminants are identified, you can install the right water
treatment system to care for your particular problem. You
can then also meet with your health care practitioner about
treating any damage it has done to your body.
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