Looks like it's time to rat on my namesake: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating the chemicals that the DuPont corporation uses to make Teflon. (Your fearless blogger Adam Dupont has no relation to the rich, corporate DuPont's; none that I know of, at least.) While the focus of the EPA will be on the chemical C-8 (perfluorooctanoic acid), they will also investigate claims by a group named Environmental Working Group, " that DuPont failed to report observations of birth defects in employees. The employees at a West Virginia plant handled the chemical, known as C-8, in the early 1980s."

To further quote the linked article, "Industry studies have linked C8 to a variety of health problems, including cancer and liver damage, in rats, but regulators don't know whether those findings are relevant to humans." The EPA says that judging C-8's health risk to humans is "premature", but they are wondering how they have been able to direct this chemical in humans from ages 2-96. They will explore the possibilities of this chemical being released from Teflon pans since they are constantly heated. Now, I'm just a layman, but I have to reply with a great big "DUH" to that last sentence.