DuPont sued over Teflon chemical - $5 billion lawsuit

DuPont sued over Teflon chemical
Cookware users file $5 billion lawsuit
By JOHN HEILPRIN / Associated Press
07/20/2005

WASHINGTON -- A $5 billion class-action lawsuit is being filed against DuPont Co. saying the chemical giant long failed to warn consumers of the dangers of a Teflon chemical.

Two Florida law firms said Tuesday they were filing the suit in federal courts in Pennsylvania and seven other states on behalf of 14 people who bought and used cookware with the nonstick Teflon. It is made using perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts, known as PFOA, or C-8.

The plaintiffs want DuPont to spend $5 billion to replace the cookware, impose a Teflon warning label and create two funds to pay for medical monitoring and more scientific research, said Alan Kluger of Miami-based Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, P.L.

PFOA also is used in many of the company's most popular products, such as auto fuel systems, firefighting foam, phone cables and clothing.

"DuPont has known for over 20 years that the Teflon product and the PFOA chemical it contains causes cancer in laboratory animals," Kluger said. "I don't have to prove that it causes cancer. I only have to prove that DuPont lied in a massive attempt to continue selling their product."

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