Monday, August 06, 2007

PFOA and Heart Disease?

Latest PFOA Health News from DuPont


"DuPont conducted a two-phase employee health study on PFOA at its Washington Works site. Results from the first phase of this study for more than 1,000 workers indicate no association between exposure to PFOA and most of the health parameters that were measured. The only potentially relevant association is a modest increase in some, but not all, lipid fractions, e.g. cholesterol, in some of the highest exposed workers.

"The second phase was a mortality study that involves the examination of all causes of death in more than 6,000 employees who worked at the Washington Works site during its more than fifty years of operation. Based on the observation of a modest increase in some lipid fractions in the study’s first phase, the second phase included a more detailed analysis of heart disease. No overall increase in deaths related to heart disease was found. After additional analyses of the data using different models, one analysis showed a slight increase in heart disease with increased exposure. This observation could be the result of random occurrence or it could mean a small increase in workers more heavily exposed. DuPont intends to pursue additional analyses to fully understand this statistical observation." - From DuPont's 10Q (pp. 34 - 35, emphasis added)