Toxic Reporting - Teflon

Claims that Perflurooctanoic Acid (PFOA), a chemical used to bond Teflon coatings to cookware, is a threat to public health caused a firestorm. In a series of articles, STATS examined how the media kept getting the story wrong and why you don't need to throw out your frying pan.

The articles run in chronological order

Nora Ephron is a Threat To Your Health
The risks from Teflon have been debated ad nauseum by scientists and regulators – and even lawyers – over the past year. There is a rich trove of scientific literature, including reams of risk analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - and none of it reaches the conclusion that you are at risk from eating food cooked in Teflon pots and pans... June 14, 2006

New York Times' Teflon Errors
[T]he Food and Drug Administration actually found that flurotelomers migrate from packaging as flurotelomer compounds and NOT as PFOA. As the FDA noted in a letter made available to the media in November 2005... February 08, 2006

Finally, A Journalist Puts the Risk from Teflon into Perspective
TheWashington Post turns to "Food 101" columnist and chemistry professor Robert L. Wolke, who, quoting the EPA's view that consumer's have no reason to fear using products made with PFOA, signs off by saying "So please excuse me while I go fry an egg in my Teflon pan"... February 03, 2006

Did the EPA Move the Goalposts to Fine DuPont?
DuPont was fined not because they failed to disclose information that showed an actual risk to the public, but because there was a "significant change in the agency's position as to the scope of the statutory duty to disclose 'substantial risk' information," according to the authors of the New York Law Journal article, Philip E. Karmel and Peter R. Paden, who are partners at Bryan Cave LLP... .January 31, 2006

More Crazy Teflon Coverage
Based on the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control, we can expect some 680,000 people to die from heart disease in the United States in 2006. Cancer will claim around 550,000 lives; stroke, 150,000; chronic lower respiratory diseases, 120,000; diabetes, 70,000, influenza and pneumonia, 65,000; liver disease and cirrhosis 27,000. Many more people will die of other illnesses, and many more still will succumb to life-threatening diseases. What is unlikely – so highly unlikely as to be incredibly unlikely – is that anyone will suffer any ill effects from being exposed to Perflurooctanoic Acid (PFOA)... January 27, 2006

Media Ignore Activist Warnings Over Alleged Chemical Threat
The latest attempt by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to indict chemical giant DuPont for unloading supposedly carcinogenic chemicals into the environment was a media washout. On Tuesday, the group staged a press conference to warn about pollution from a DuPont plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that produces Perflurooctanoaic Acid (PFOA, also known as C8), which is used in the production of Teflon and other coatings... January 18, 2006

Media Sticks Poisonous Popcorn Bags to Teflon Chemical
Here’s how ridiculously easy it has become to spin the press. Two weeks ago, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which has a long history of scare-mongering and releasing statistically-invalid studies, unveiled Glenn Evers, a “whistleblower” who once worked for DuPont as a chemical engineer, and who claimed the company was derelict in addressing the risk from papers coated with chemicals related to Teflon...November 28, 2005

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