Teflon And DuPont Under Fire

Nice article. <p>I just read a related story in the most recent <a href="http://www.harpers.org">Harper's Magazine</a>. It was about pesticide spraying over a World Bank-supported cashew plantation in India. The endosulfan got into the drinking water and many villagers are dying of cancer. <p>Also in the same issue is a discussion of the gasoline additive MTBE contaminating drinking water. <p>And with <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1278793,00.html">Prozak getting into the mix now</a>, who knows what'll happen! <p>Mike

It's Viagra that worries me.

While I believe in innocent until proven guilty, stories like these can't help but make the baser part of one yearn for the good old days when you could take a buggy-wip to irresponsible corporate curs. Better yet, choose a few randomly and line them up front of a firing squad.

Crude and uncivilized but, probably motivate the remainder towards more responsible business practises.

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"When we are in the middle of the paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm" (Adam Smith).

I have a big tree in my backyard and an air-nailer in my garage...crucifixion is always an option.

Really though, we need to find suitable and effective deterents to keep things like this from happening. There aren't too many houses on this continent that don't have a teflon pan or two kicking around. Most of us use them until the teflon is gone.

If there are potential long-term health effects that the company knew about and has covered up, then they need to be severely punished. If they've been polluting to the extent it appears they have, then a separate punishment needs to instituted for that. The $300 million would be a good start, but that isn't really much in the general scheme of things when you consider DuPont's profits...little moer than a slap on the wrist.

Yes, it is horrible that this big corporation did this to the people, but I think that we also have some personal responsibility in the choices we make. I'm one of those few households without a nonstick pan because I avoid plastics.