Some of us have suspected this for a long time; it's why I own a lot of cast iron and no teflon anything: An independent panel advising the EPA says a chemical used in making nonstick products should be considered a "likely" carcinogen.
The recommendation included in the panel's final draft report is consistent with its preliminary finding, which went beyond the EPA's own determination that there was only "suggestive evidence" from animal studies that perfluorooctanoic acid [PFOA] and its salts are potential human carcinogens.
"The predominant panel view was that the descriptor 'likely to be carcinogenic' was more consistent with currently available data, while a few panel members reached the conclusion that the current evidence fails to exceed the descriptor 'suggestive,' of carcinogenicity," the panel said in a draft report released Monday.
Not surprisingly, DuPont, the makers of PFOA, disagree, saying it would continue to support the initial EPA in-house risk assessment. A spokesman pointed out that the tests cited in the advisory panel's report were on animals, not humans.
"The real outcome of this is the panel going back and saying `You've got to include this extra stuff here; it wasn't really a rigorous analysis," said Tim Kropp, senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization whose work has prompted increased government scrutiny of PFOA.
While the EPA is free to accept or reject the panel's recommendations, Kropp said it rare for the EPA to dismiss an advisory board's advice.
"They've asked them to do a more rigorous analysis, to do a more scientific method of determining risk, and you can't argue with that," he said. "That's just good science."
I guess we'll see whether the EPA puts protecting people above protecting industry.
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