Teflon chemical found in the blood of everyone on Earth; scientists puzzled

• A chemical used to make Teflon somehow got into the blood of everybody on earth.
• What does this mean for our health?
• These are very important questions, says the Environmental Protection Agency.
• To find out, the EPA has assembled a distinguished panel of outside experts.
• But they don't start work until next month.
• Meanwhile, the long-lasting chemical continues to accumulate in the environment -- and in our bodies.
• Toxicologist Tim Kropp, PhD, senior scientist with the watchdog group Environmental Working Group, finds the situation alarming.
• It is the most persistent synthetic chemical known to man," Kropp tells WebMD.
• "It would take your body two decades to get rid of 95% of it, assuming you are not exposed to any more.
• It's used to make Teflon - made by DuPont -- and many, many other products.
• But DuPont says PFOA is used only during the manufacturing process and that there's no PFOA in Teflon cookware or other Teflon products.
• How that happened, and what it means for their health, is a mystery, says Jennifer Seed, PhD, EPA chief of pollution prevention and toxics in the risk assessment division of the Existing Chemicals Assessment Branch.
• "PFOA is present in most people's blood in this country and beyond; it's even in wildlife," Seed tells WebMD.
• "We have absolutely no understanding at this point how it got there.
• So are data from animal studies showing that PFOA causes cancer, liver damage, growth defects, immune system damage, and death in lab rats and monkeys.
• How those relate to humans is the key question.
• That is the one we have been grappling with," Seed says.