Critics attack new US guidelines on chemical-contaminated water

Less than a week before the Bush administration leaves office, US environmental regulators are issuing a controversial health advisory on drinking water contaminated with a toxic chemical used to make Teflon and other non-stick coatings. The US Environmental Protection Agency is advising people to reduce consumption of water containing more than 0.4 parts per billion of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA - a level critics say is too weak. Studies have shown the chemical, which is linked to cancer, liver damage and birth defects, has built up in human blood throughout the world. It is unclear how many cities might exceed the new limit because the EPA doesn't require water treatment plants to test for PFOA. Critics called the EPA's advisory a last-minute gift from the Bush administration to DuPont and a handful of other companies that make PFOA. Some scientists have proposed limits as low as 0.02 parts per billion. President-elect Barack Obama's pick to lead the EPA in his administration, New Jersey environmental commissioner Lisa Jackson, set an advisory level of 0.04 parts per billion in her state - 10 times stricter than the new federal limit. "This is essentially legalizing unsafe exposure levels," said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization that has pushed the EPA to regulate PFOA. "Nobody should have to drink a cancer-causing Teflon chemical in their water." The EPA's sudden decision to issue national guidelines comes amid rising concerns about PFOA, which has been dumped into water and air with virtually no oversight for more than a half-century. The company 3M stopped making PFOA in 2000 under pressure from the EPA. DuPont still uses PFOA to make Teflon and related coatings, but agreed to stop manufacturing the chemical by 2015 after the EPA declared two years ago that it likely causes cancer. The agency's advisory, dated January 8 but released publicly this week, appears to be linked to the recent discovery of contaminated beef from cattle that grazed in an Alabama pasture fertilized with PFOA-laden sewage sludge. "We are issuing a scientific drinking water health advisory to provide guidance and reduce potential risk to public health if local situations occur," Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA's assistant administrator for water, said in a prepared statement. Efforts to reach a DuPont spokesman for comment were unsuccessful. The company has insisted repeatedly that its own research shows PFOA is not harmful to humans at levels found in the environment. PFOA and related chemicals concern other scientists and regulators because the compounds don't break down and they stay in human blood for at least four years. They have also shown up in foods such as apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. Little was known about PFOA outside of DuPont and a handful of other companies until 2002, when internal company documents started to be made public as part of a class-action lawsuit. The suit was filed on behalf of thousands of people living near a Teflon plant along the Ohio river near Parkersburg, West Virginia. As part of a legal settlement with its neighbors in that area, DuPont agreed to provide alternative sources of drinking water or upgraded treatment equipment when PFOA levels exceed 0.05 parts per billion, a far more stringent limit than the EPA's new advisory. In Little Hocking, Ohio, across the river from the Teflon plant, water tests found PFOA levels as high as 7.2 parts per billion.