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PFOA (perfluoro-octanoic acid) is being used in the manufacture of stain resistant fabrics and carpets, all weather clothing and non-stick surfaces. An advisory panel EPA has identified it as a likely human carcinogen, and it is found in the blood of almost all of us - even though it is supposedly a mystery how it got there because in theory it should not turn up outside the manufacturing process. Now, a research team at the national Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown, West Virginia, has shown that mice exposed to it and an allergen produced stronger allergic reactions than those poor little creatures exposed to the allergen alone. DuPont, which also makes Teflon coatings, of course says that it is unlikely that PFOA increases susceptibility to allergies, even though they have no studies backing up their argument.

[source: New Scientist]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 1:20 am and is filed under natural sciences, various health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.