A Corporate Commitment

The need for truly sustainable options for 21st century life remains one of the most critical challenges facing the global community. DuPont - one of the first companies to publicly establish environmental goals 17 years ago – is committed to making better products that help people have a safer, healthier life, as well as sustainable solutions that help protect the environment they live in.

DuPont Corporate 2015 Sustainability Goals span every sector of DuPont operations, and are aligned with global regulatory agencies, customers and the markets they serve. Going beyond traditional footprint reductions, DuPont goals tie business growth even more directly to the development of safer and environmentally improved products for the many global markets the Company serves.

New Fluorotelomer Products – Just Introduced 

To that end, DuPont is introducing new fluorotelomer products for repellents and surfactants that deliver maximum performance with a minimal environmental footprint. These products protect clothes from stains, improve the performance of paints. They also produce more effective fire fighting foams that ultimately help save lives.

Just as importantly, Capstone™ products meet key environmental goals.

Background

PFOA is persistent in the environment and has been detected at low levels (average 5 ppb) in the blood of the general population. PFOA has been extensively studied in an occupational setting where potential exposure can be significantly higher than that of the general population.

Occupational exposure to PFOA has been associated with small increases in some lipids (e.g. cholesterol). It is not known whether these are causal associations. These associations were not observed in a community study. Based on health and toxicological studies, DuPont believes the weight of evidence indicates that PFOA exposure does not pose a health risk to the general public. To date, there are no human health effects known to be caused by PFOA, although study of the chemical continues.

Nonetheless, DuPont believes it is sound environmental practice to reduce PFOA in the environment. That is why in January, 2006 DuPont voluntarily committed to the U.S. EPA 2010/15 PFOA Stewardship Program. Key elements of the DuPont commitment to the EPA included reducing PFOA content and any residual impurities in fluorotelomer products that could break down to PFOA.

It is important to note that, fluorotelomer chemistry is not made with PFOA, nor is PFOA added during the manufacture of DuPont fluorotelomer-based products. However, PFOA is found at trace levels in some fluorotelomer products as an unintended byproduct of the manufacturing process.

Launching LX Platform products

On Feb. 5, 2007, DuPont announced that it had successfully commercialized a new, patented manufacturing process to remove greater than 97% of trace levels of PFOA, its homologues and direct precursors from its fluorotelomer products. This milestone met key elements of the EPA voluntary stewardship program for product content two years ahead of schedule. The new “LX Platform products” were drop-in replacements for current DuPont products.

To accomplish the removal of these impurities from its fluorotelomer products, DuPont invested $22 million with subsidiary First Chemical to manufacture LX Platform products. The facility uses an innovative technology - developed and patented by DuPont - to reduce nearly all trace levels of PFOA at a key intermediate step in the production.

Continuing to Move ahead – Capstone™ products

Now DuPont is introducing new fluorotelomer products for repellents and surfactants that deliver maximum performance with a minimal environmental footprint. New DuPont™ Capstone™ products are based on short chain chemistry, and provide a step-change reduction in trace impurities of PFOA below the limit of detection*, offering customers the same or better performance as their predecessors without a compromise in fluorine efficiency.

Capstone™ products meet the goals of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2010/15 PFOA Stewardship Program, and will be registered on global inventories in all countries where they are sold.

DuPont™ Capstone™ products are commercially available for home furnishings, fire fighting foam, fluorosurfactants, and leather end uses. Additional products will be introduced over the next 18 months for paper packaging, textiles, and other end use markets. These products reflect the DuPont commitment to provide high-performance sustainable alternatives the industry demands.

Making short chain products

As the largest global manufacturer and supplier of fluorotelomer products, DuPont is also the largest manufacturer of short chain products - which DuPont defines as substances where the fluorochemical portion is made up of six or fewer perfluorinated carbons. In comparison, traditional fluorotelomer-based products are substances where the fluorochemical portion is made up of a mixture of perfluorinated chain lengths that range in length from 6 to 16, with the majority of that mixture containing the chain length of 8.

Capstone™ products represent a step-change improvement in impurities utilizing the DuPont technology for LX Platform products. Capstone™ products are based on short chain molecules that cannot breakdown to PFOA in the environment. This change, when combined with the technology for LX Platform products, yields fluorotelomer products with negligible PFOA and PFOA precursor content.

Marketing Claims

Regarding marketing claims, DuPont believes that no one can substantiate statements that
fluorotelomer products are “PFOA Free” or have “Zero PFOA” even if test results are below the limit of detection. DuPont feels such a claim must be made with scientific accuracy, and analytical methods continue to advance to ever-lower detection limits.

About DuPont

The global leader in fluorotelomer sales, DuPont supports its Surface Protection Solutions business customers with 150 experienced global sales, marketing, communications and technical professionals. The team is supported with an infrastructure that includes R&D/application laboratories in Asia, Europe and the United States, along with manufacturing facilities in Europe and the United States.

DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.

* Below the limit of detection for PFOA based on the published analytical method found in the Journal of Chromatography A (2006) 117-124.

Contact: Carolmarie C. Brown
302-892-8268 – Office
302-353-8917 - Cell
carolmarie.c.brown@usa.dupont.com
Mark Pankowski
202-296-0263 x107
mpankowski@dezenhall.com