Welcome to www.PFOA-facts.com, a resource for information about the industrial chemical known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) has created this web site to address questions you may have about PFOA and the products made with it. We invite you to explore the site and its resources.

Though not widely known to the general public, PFOA is an important chemical - essential to the manufacture of materials that are used to make products that span the entire U.S. economy.

Its primary use is to help manufacture high-performance, heat- and chemical-resistant materials known as fluoropolymers.

Because of their unique qualities - including great strength and versatility, durability and heat resistance - fluoropolymers are used to make products which, among other things, improve the performance and safety of aircraft, automobiles and shipping, reduce fire risk in high-rise buildings and reduce industrial and automotive pollution.

Fluoropolymers have many important uses in defense and national security, telecommunications, electronics, computers and other high-tech areas. Because of their versatility and heat resistance, they also are used to make protective clothing and equipment for astronauts, the military and firefighters, as well as for consumers. In short, they have become integral to many key areas of the nation's economy, the safety and security of the public, reductions in air and water pollution and improvements in the quality of life.

The PFOA used to help make fluoropolymers is largely removed during the final steps of polymer production and by the high-temperature processing used when most fluoropolymers are made into finished products.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been engaged in an investigation of the health and environmental effects of PFOA. As part of that effort, EPA has prepared a draft risk assessment. The results of the EPA risk assessment released January 12, 2005 provides added assurance to the public regarding the safety of PFOA. The risk assessment used a margin of exposure (MOE) approach, sometimes referred to as a margin of safety. Under this methodology, higher MOE values represent lower levels of risk. The values in EPA's report - ranging from 398 to greater than 10,000 - represent substantial protection of the general population.

The fluoropolymers industry has worked and is continuing to work closely with EPA and other stakeholders to identify and reduce potential exposures to PFOA.

The principal fluoropolymer producers have each committed to a minimum 50-percent reduction in total global emissions by 2006 (using 2000 as the baseline year).

SPI and its member companies continue to fully participate with EPA in its efforts to better understand the routes of exposure to this compound. This involves extensive study of potential routes of exposure and continuing voluntary industry efforts on additional reductions in PFOA emissions.

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