An independent, peer-reviewed study, published in April 2005 in Environmental Science & Technology,  has confirmed that consumer products sold under the Teflon® brand are safe to use. The study concluded that use of these commercial or consumer products would not result in any quantifiable exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in blood. The full text of the study is available at nr04_20_05a.pdf .

DuPont initiated the $1 million study to better understand the potential for consumer exposure and to determine what risk there is, if any, from PFOA, also known as C-8. Environ, an independent research firm, conducted the study, and a panel of scientists, moderated by Dr. George Gray, during his tenure as executive director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, evaluated it to ensure it was scientifically valid.

The study examined a wide variety of ways consumers could be exposed to PFOA, including through the skin, in the air, and orally. All ages of consumers, from infant to adult, as well as adult trade professionals, were considered. To assure accuracy and provide the most reliable test results, dozens of consumer articles were assessed using extremely conservative exposure models. The margins-of-safety for all articles tested ranged from 30,000 to over 9 billion, which dramatically exceeds the margins-of-safety of 100 to 1,000 typically used by government agencies to judge the safety of chemicals.

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• Comprehensive Scientific Study Confirms Consumer Articles with DuPont Materials are Safe for Consumer Use (04/20/05)