Teflon in fast food packaging! Why are they only mentioning popcorn!!!!

[tonka023]

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Teflon/Zonyl-DuPont-Risk17nov05.htm



"DuPont has hidden and suppressed the data so they wouldn't draw further government scrutiny," Evers said at the Washington headquarters of the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog organization that persuaded him to speak publicly. "The issue is, are you going to play by the rules?"

DuPont is paying $107.6 million to settle claims that PFOA, also known as C8, from its West Virginia factory polluted the drinking water of 60,000 people.

International Paper Co. uses DuPont's Zonyl RP to make clamshell boxes for McDonald's Corp. hamburgers. Also, ConAgra Foods Inc. uses Zonyl to make bags for microwave popcorn, Evers said in an interview. Spokesmen for those companies were not immediately available to comment.

>>>snip<<<<

Evers, who was a chemical engineer in charge of fluorotelomer paper coatings at DuPont's Chambers Works site in Deepwater, N.J., said he tried to persuade his colleagues at DuPont to notify customers and regulators after he received a September 1987 study that found Zonyl leaches from paper coatings into food at 0.62 part per million. The FDA safety standard of 0.2 ppm was set in 1966.

DuPont subsequently learned that Zonyl breaks down into PFOA in the blood, and that PFOA accumulates and persists in people, he said.

DuPont would not market safer packaging alternatives because they were more expensive to produce, and Zonyl was the company's best seller, Evers said.

"I pushed as hard as I possibly could for eliminating blood contamination chemicals that are retained in the blood," Evers said.

Evers was fired in 2002 as part of a company restructuring, and he filed a wrongful-termination suit this year. He said he had no financial interest in speaking out.

[SoCalDem]

1. If I could be alive 50 years from now, I bet I would read in the papers

how Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and so many other diseases were "caused/contributed to" by food packaging/processing/storage/preparation of food, over a long period of time.

When you look back at how foods used to be stored....glass jars/...prepared-cast iron skillets, enamel pots/...served- china dishes (not teflon coated boxes..


makes me wonder

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. So, as long as he was paid a salary, he kept quiet.

He knew in 1987 and kept quiet until after they fired him in 2002.

[tonka023]

3. I agree entirely

but I also think that there has been such a culture
of corporate crime that we have to also embrace
the whistle blowers who come forward to a certain
extent too. We need them, and it's going to take
a little work to create a culture of honesty. I don't
think we're going to find many perfect whistleblowers
until we breed that culture more.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. My children were born about that time.

Although I instinctively limited their exposure to teflon, we've become lax in the last year. My son has been cooking special breakfasts for himself for lacrosse training all on teflon for the last month.

So, I think there's room for a desire for bad things to happen to people who keep their mouth shut because they're profitting from everybody else's ignorance.

[tonka023]

5. who's going to come forward when we crucify them for not doing it sooner?

I understand your feelings, but I believe that we have to do a little more to
support the few who stand up, even if it is late. At least they haven't waited
5 more years. We can't expect people to do the right thing if the corporations
and dickwads can point to the treatment that whistleblowers get from us
when they do say something. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this person
is a hero, but in these troubled times we should handle these people who
come forward with a little more grace. I have no doubt that thousands of
other companies are poisoning our children too. We need their workers to
out them, even if they've known about it for years.