AS concern grows over the safety of Teflon-coated pots and frying pans, China's product quality watchdog said the country did not have the technology to test the cooking utensils and could not give a definitive answer on whether they posed a danger to health. The giant multinational company DuPont has been accused of making and selling products containing the chemical Synthetic Chemical Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) which is used in the production of Teflon and which is said to pose a potential threat to health.
A worldwide debate has started about whether the chemical remains in the Teflon and whether DuPont revealed all details about the manufacturing process.
The chemical in dispute is often employed in the production of non-stick cookwares and in the packaging of fast food. The 3M company, the first to produce the chemical, reported to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it was harmful to humans as well as the environment and stopped its production of PFOA.
The EPA has confirmed that PFOA may be harmful to humans and on July 8 moved to charge DuPont which was said to be continuing to use the chemical in Teflon production.
Internal tests conducted by DuPont showed that in 1981, at a North Virginia factory operated by the company, PFOA was found to have been transmitted from at least one pregnant worker to her baby. In 1991, the chemical was also found in drinking water near the factory. The EPA said that according to the law, DuPont was supposed to have reported that information to the agency but they had not done so.
DuPont denied the charge and said its Teflon production process conformed with the EPA's statutory reporting requirements.
The company disputed any link between PFOA and health hazards as well as any environmental pollution. DuPont said it would file a formal denial within 30 days to the EPA's multiple allegations.
The DuPont China website cites the manager of the company's production department as saying that PFOA has been used safely for about 50 years. He said that PFOA functions as a catalyst in the production of Teflon, which is totally got rid of during the manufacture process of burning with high temperature. Thus, there is no PFOA in its Teflon products.
In China, Teflon-coated non-stick cooking utensils are widely used and many companies in the domestic market manufacturing the products used materials provided by DuPont. The news about the potential danger in Teflon non-stick pots and frying pans was only revealed in China when the EPA published their allegations against DuPont. The media reported that any PFOA in Telflon products could be released at high cooking temperatures and this may cause cancer.
A staff member from the Ministry of Health said that in 1989, the nation had set a strict standard regarding cooking temperatures for non-stick pans to prevent any decomposition of poisonous substances. However, it found that most manufacturers did not notify customers of the standard.
A public relations official from DuPont's Beijing office said that although the company did not inform customers of the regulation concerning maximum cooking temperatures, it did remind them never to put an empty pan on the stove.
Two senior DuPont staff members from the company's Beijing office took part in a talk show on www.sina.com on July 15. They said that PFOA was totally vaporized during the production process and the non-stick pans would not pose any risk to health even when cooking temperatures exceeded 260 degrees Centigrade as prescribed by Chinese health authorities.
They said that the key issue was not about the safety of Teflon products but about the administrative reporting requirements in the US which had led to a misunderstanding about the quality of the products in China.
On July 20, DuPont held a formal conference in Beijing reaffirming the safety of the Teflon non-stick pans. David Boothe, the director of DuPont's Global Strategic Planning Department said that their lots of experiments and investigations show PFOA contains low percentage of poison.
Some factories in East China's Zhejiang Province have been hard hit by the controversy because they use material and technology from DuPont in their production processes.
(Star News)
