I’ve been getting a lot of calls lately about PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, an ingredient in Teflon. Apparently DuPont used this toxic ingredient and it has ended up in the water supplies of a number of cities. Most of my calls are coming from Montclair, NJ.
This is an interesting article about how a local farmer discovered the toxicity of this chemical and DuPont’s disposal methods when his cattle started dying:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html?_r=0
DuPont sold off a subsidiary that manufactures the Teflon and just lost a jury trial to a woman who suffered kidney damage:
There are two chemicals involved in this situation, those being perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Apparently PFOS is a substitute for PFOA, but I could have that wrong.
EPA classifies these two chemicals as ‘emerging contaminants’ and you can find a discussion of them here, including suggestions on how to remove them from your drinking water:
In short, EPA appears to be saying that either carbon filters or reverse osmosis will remove these.
Update:
It now appears that the presence of PFOA and PFOS is much more widespread than previously thought. I spotted this article today (June 4),
