Document BRD4RK00YO2m1XLdQOQq8kJmm

---"-v, uuu ounucjjf uu6iness sections, will be on Channel 5 's "Eyewitness News Midday" at about 11:45 a.m. f C FRIDAY, MAY 1 9 , 2 0 0 0 !S showroom il store in i its origieling, 111., 32 shows ict Minn. It has ties area, rill occunty Road : Factory is from 'xchange la tlo n a l, 1book a lpproxi: second al Corp., f Wells oard of 2 repures of its Pacific- venture a Holdbecomeading reb site nation sed in Kong, il percompa- Preml:ensing market Stream REPORTS f chain, federal solving it had ! -- of iement : other Id pay ill not so is irazil, adewHllon, ve of Iden: jrgest iscal lt TOP OF THE NEWS E P A says it pressured 3M over Scotchgard chem ical DAVID BARBOZA new york tim es sequences to human health. r- T CHICAGO he Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it had pressed 3M Co. to come up with a solution after the company's own teste had shown that a chemical compound used in Scotchgard products could pose a risk to human health and the environment The EPA account differs from that of 3M, "This isn't a health issue now, and it won't be :-v a health issue," said Larry Zobel, the medical I director at 3M, which is based in Maplewood, Minn. ^ "To the question of whether this builds up in "f humans, it would have to be a long time, like '; hundreds of thousands of years to he a threat," he said. . -J' which said earlier this week that it had decided The EPA said its decision to press 3M rested . 'f. to stop making the chemical used in Scotchgard on four concerns: the compound is persistent in .'t and many other products by the the environment; it appears in , *.; end of the year because the wildlife and human tissue around ,.? teste showed that the chemical the world; it appears in human ^ compounds failed to decompose blood samples taken from around in the environment. the world; and, based on the Officials of 3M say they have study of laboratory rats, it has no evidence that the chemicals the potential to harm humans. pose a long-term threat to The EPA said it was first - human health. alerted to the study dflaboratory The company said it negotiat rate shortly after it was conduct- ed with the EPA but its decision ed in 1998. was voluntary and there was In that study, male and female .- never a discussion of a recall of rats were given doses of the1 the products. chemical and then mated. When a - On Tuesday, Charles Reich, a pregnant rat continued to get v 3M's executive vice president regular doses of about 3.2 mil- for specialty material markets, said, "Our decision to phase out fobric Protector ligrams per kilogram of body , weight, most of the offspring i production is based on our prin died within four days. ciples of responsible environ "With all that information, we mental management." finally talked to 3M and said ; The EPA confirmed that the agency had not issued an ulti matum to 3M. that raises a number of concerns. What are you going to do?" said Johnson at the EPA. v 9; While the EPA said it did not see an immediate safety risk for consumers using products now on the market, agency officials said they grew concerned about potential long-term health risks to humans after a 3M study showed that the chemical, perfluorooctanyl sulfonate, lingered There is still a difference of -v: interpretation, however. ~A~ Officials of 3M said the doses given to the rate were extremely > high, but EPA officials said that few other chemicals would have 11" as severe an effect *n "This is fairly toxic stuff in rats," one EPA official said. 9>-T- for years in human blood and animal tissue and that high "There's clear evidence it sents a problem in rats." pre 10 3' doses were known to kill labora But 3M said it had not yet tory rate. determined the cause of death in,,,, "The results raised a number of concerns," said Stephen John son, who works in the office of prevention, pesticides and toxic substances at the EPA. "What it suggests to us is that there are potentially long-term consequences. But we don't have 3 M Co. said Tuesday th at It would pull som e Scotchgard products off the m arket because of concerns over a key Ingredient. EPA officials said they grew concerned about potential long-term health risks the rats nor how humans o^ani-f mais ingested the chemicals so3 that it appeared in tissue orS f blood samples. "That's a very interesting *1 question," Zobel said. "We can't ^ say how it gets into anybody's blood." % evidence it is unsafe now." to humans after a 3M study As a result of that uncertainty, Officials of 3M, however, say showed th a t the chem ical, per- and the persistence of the com they are absolutely confident fluorooctanyl sulfonate, lin pound in the environment, 3M . that their products are safe, and gered for years In human blood said it would do away with the that there are no long-term con- and animal tissue. chemistry by the end of the year. 3M MN03112642