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3M to Pare Scotchgard Products


One Long-Lasting Compound Is Cited


By David Brown and Caroline E. Mayer
"The WASHINGTON POST" goto washingtonpost.com for the full story

3M Co. yesterday announced it would stop making many of its well-known Scotchgard stain-repellent products after finding that one of the chemical compounds used to make the products persists in the environment and is found widely in the bloodstreams of people worldwide.


The substance, perfluorooctane sulfonate, is released in minute quantities by products as various as water-repellent coatings and fire-suppressing foams. It is made almost entirely by 3M, the huge St. Paul-based company known formally as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.

"We have tested it pretty widely--not only in this country but in other countries, as well--and it's found in very low levels everywhere we test," said Bill Coyne, 3M's senior vice president for research and development

PFOS has been used since the 1950s, and 3M health officials have been measuring its concentrations in its workers since the 1970s, as well as monitoring their health.

In tests of stored blood from the United States, Japan, Europe, and China PFOS was found at levels of 10 to 100 parts per billion (PPB). When the same ultra-sensitive test was performed on blood samples from the 1980s, the compound was absent. This suggested PFOS had begun to accumulate in human tissue at some time in the last decade or so.

That finding led the company to do further toxicological studies on laboratory animals. In one, massive doses were given to rats, whose offspring subsequently showed high death rates soon after birth. (Previous studies, at lower doses, had shown no birth defects or high death rates in the animals.)

The company notified the EPA of the latest rat study in September 1998, and met with agency officials several months later, Zobel said. In March, the company and the EPA reviewed the data again, and the company decided to cease production of PFOS by the end of the year.

There are no immediate substitutes for the compound, although the company is searching for them, Coyne said.

The company will also stop making a second, related compound, called perfluorooctanoic acid, which is used in industrial processes and does not appear in consumer products. A small amount of PFOS may continue to be manufactured for use in fire-retardant foams, he added.

Innumerable consumer products contain PFOS in trace amounts. The compound is given off by coatings made by 3M and put on furniture fabric, carpets, car upholstery and food packaging to repel oil and water. These coatings can be applied by the manufacturer of the finished product or sometimes by consumers themselves.

"The surprise wasn't that it was in our workers--that's something we've known for some time," said Charles Reich, 3M's executive vice president of specialty material markets. " It was a complete surprise that it was in the blood bank supplies."

Judge extends settlement talks in wax suit

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CHICAGO -
According to court records for the case of Garner vs. Healy, which is being heard in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, settlement conferences started in August and have been continued several times, with the next session scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 14 2000.

Meanwhile, the judge hearing the case against Simoniz, Turtle Wax and Blue Coral is still considering summary judgments filed by attorneys for the defendants who have asked to have the case dropped because it lacks merit.

"Summary judgments are still pending and there have been settlement negotiations between the parties involved," said Steven Greenspan, corporate counsel for Simoniz.

In the case, John A. Garner of Racine, WI and Steven G. Grant of Chicago seek to represent all consumers who purchased Turtle Wax, Blue Coral or Simoniz products at carwashes between 1993 and 1997. The plaintiffs argue that the chemical manufacturers advertise many of their products as "waxes" when in fact they actually contain no natural wax such as carnauba or bee's wax.

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