EPA wants non-stick cookware compound level reduced

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators asked companies on Wednesday to voluntarily commit to reduce releases of a potentially hazardous compound used to make non-stick cookware by 95 percent by 2010.

Under what it calls a global stewardship program, the Environmental Protection Agency is asking producers of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), to slash releases and levels of the compound in products by 95 percent, using 2000 as the basis year.

It also encourages the companies that make PFOA, such as DuPont Co., to work toward the elimination of all releases of PFOA by 2015.

Last month, DuPont agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle with the EPA over reporting data about the compound.

EPA said it is continuing to study PFOA's impact on human health to see if it needs to take more action on the compound.

"The science on PFOA is still coming in," Susan Hazen, EPA's acting assistant administrator in the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, told reporters on a conference call.

PFOA can remain in the human body for up to four years, according to the EPA, and small amounts of the chemical are found in a large portion of the general public.

DuPont said its studies and those of independent researchers confirm that cookware and other consumer products made with DuPont materials are safe. In addition, it said, PFOA to date has had no known health effects on humans.

Although its case with the EPA is settled, DuPont still faces class-action lawsuits, filed last July, charging that the chemical producer hid the potential health hazards of PFOA.

The plaintiffs are calling for DuPont to pay damages to class members, create a fund for medical monitoring of consumers who purchased products containing PFOA, and put warning labels on cookware.

Tests by 3M Co., the original manufacturer of PFOA, have shown high levels of exposure to the chemical may cause liver damage and reproductive problems in rats.