h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Teflon has been proven to have deadly effects on animals. It has been proven that humans have elevated levels of it in their blood. It may cause cancer and birth defects. The EPA says its not safe but refuses to ban it.

http://www.braytonlaw.com/news/mednews/050203_teflon.htm

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental researchorganization, has charged that Dupont, 3M, and other PFOA manufacturers knew decades ago that PFOA was present in human blood, and that it could have serious health consequences. The group issued its
own report based on a review of 50,000 pages of regulatory studies and government documents obtained from the EPA; internal documents from DuPont and 3M; and an examination of a growing body of independent studies on the toxicity and environmental occurrence of PFOA.

Meanwhile, residents of Wood County, West Virginia, have sued Dupont, claiming that the company’’s plant released ammonium perfluorooctanoate, a salt in the PFOA group, into the community’’s drinking water (Charleston Gazette & Daily Mail, April 19, 2003). Judge George Hill of the state’’s 4th Circuit Court ordered Dupont to pay for the blood tests of residents who are concerned about PFOA exposure and their health.


The fumes from teflon, during normal use, kills birds.
http://www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon/es.php
In two to five minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown
number of human illnesses each year, according to tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG).

EPA says it is a hazard to children.
http://www.ewg.org/news/story.php?id=1916
The chemical used to produce Teflon coating on cookware may be hazardous to children and women of child-bearing age, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).


The Chicago Tribune had a good article On Jan 18 2005 . Excerpts below.

"More than 50 years after DuPont started producing Teflon near this Ohio River town, federal officials are accusing the company of hiding information suggesting that a chemical used to make the popular stick- and stain-resistant coating might cause cancer, birth defects and other ailments.

Environmental regulators are particularly alarmed because scientists are finding perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the blood of people worldwide, and it takes years for the chemical to leave the body. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported last week that exposure even to low levels of PFOA could be harmful.

"The fact that a chemical with those non-stick properties nonetheless accumulates in people was not expected," said Charles Auer, director of the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.

The long and mostly secret history of PFOA began to unravel down the road from DuPont's Teflon plant in a West Virginia courtroom, where a Parkersburg family began asking questions in the late
1990s about a mysterious wasting disease killing their cattle.

Jim and Della Tennant suspected the culprit might lurk in a froth-covered creek that meandered past a DuPont landfill near the Teflon plant before spilling into their pasture. Their lawsuit ended with
a monetary settlement that avoided assigning blame for the dead cows, but the legal battle uncovered a trove of industry documents about PFOA.

One document detailed how DuPont scientists started warning company executives to avoid human contact with PFOA as early as 1961. Industry tests later determined the chemical accumulates in the
body, doesn't break down in the environment and causes ailments in animals, including cancer, liver damage and birth defects."

It goes on and on but you get the drift. Dupont knew for years about the health hazards of the nonstick stuff, but covered it up. Just like the tobbaco industry.


A list of other links here.
http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice/news.htm?topic=Teflon

A certain well known supermarket chain sold dental floss with teflon - but only for a short while.

A coullegue working at boscom down tells of a co worker who squirted some teflon into an apparatus someone was making out of glass - according to him the maker had a myocardial infraction in three minutes and the ambulance came in 6.

It is now 2011 - over the new year there were alarming reports of bird deaths from all over the world. The "fallout" was discovered after christmas and new year celebrations - Ptfe produces a gas estimated at 10X stronger than Phosgene, when burnt.
This gas is in section 2 of the war chemicals register as the article declares - fireworks have ptfe in them now.

If the ptfe on a frying pan is enough to kill birds some distance away(in a house) and as du pont themselves say, affect the user with flu like symptoms, then what is the effect of several kilos of the stuff being burnt along with magnesium and other metals over towns and villages in fireworks.
This stuff dosent show up in ordinary vetrinary autopsies either -

Come on you lot - this stuff is deadly - why do i seem to be the only one campeigning about this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TAmraFc7u8

Ive been talking to journalists, biologists and news organisations - the impression im getting is that this is too big - is it really?
I find myself ingesting this stuff in many ways - it is against my wish - you are too, just check it out - from frying pans in a restaurant, to water in the house, to furniture textile anti stain spray, to clothing, to carpets - to dental implants, to dental floss, printers ink - and why???
We dont need it - its pure corporate greed -

I dont suppose a single person will ever read this - but here goes anyway.
My little battle with Teflon is showing some results. Yes you can conduct a campeign on your own.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F2124165?thread=8136901