Teflon

Aided by a cherry picker and a crane, construction workers began yesterday to install the first sections of a large fabric roof on the west side of the Columbus Center.The $160 million marine research and exhibit center is under construction on Inner Harbor Piers 5 and 6.In all, four outer sheets and four inner sheets of material are being attached to lozenge-shaped skylights that were recently put in place high above wharf level.The sheets are being stretched over a steel frame to enclose a five-story-high atrium that will contain public exhibits, training facilities and a Center for Marine Archaeology.

Another NFL player - this time, the Ravens' B.J. Sams - got busted the other day, but don't worry about it leaving any taint on the league's reputation. When all is said and done, the NFL's image will remain pristine. Meet the league's most valuable employee, its executive vice president in charge of Teflon. There has to be someone with that title in the league offices, right? This has been the Year of the Knucklehead in America's favorite sports league, but its position remains utterly unchallenged, while every other sport pays for player misbehavior in dollars and credibility.

Teflon is no longer just about pots and pans.This fall, the protective surface treatment developed by the chemical division of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. for kitchenware also protects fashion wear."

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital drew blood from the umbilical cords of 300 newborns and discovered something that would be deeply unnerving to many parents: Ninety-nine percent of the babies were born with trace levels of an industrial chemical - suspected as a possible cancer-causing agent - that is used in the manufacture of Teflon pans, computer chips, cell phones and dozens of other consumer products. Now Dr. Lynn Goldman, Rolf Halden and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are working with other scientists to determine whether the toxic chemical has harmed the infants, possibly by interfering with their thyroid glands and hormone levels.

Q: I recently heard that Teflon is being used to waterproof (and stain proof) neckties and raincoats. Is this really true?A: Today when someone in the clothing industry talks about Teflon, he isn't referring to politics or even pots and pans. This year Teflon tags are showing up on a variety of garments that benefit from its protective surface treatment. It is awfully good at repelling spots.According to E. I. du Pont de Nemours, the developers of the product, the coating has the further advantage of being totally undetectable by sight, smell or touch.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital drew blood from the umbilical cords of 300 newborns and discovered something that would be deeply unnerving to many parents: Ninety-nine percent of the babies were born with trace levels of an industrial chemical - suspected as a possible cancer-causing agent - that is used in the manufacture of Teflon pans, computer chips, cell phones and dozens of other consumer products. Now Dr. Lynn Goldman, Rolf Halden and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are working with other scientists to determine whether the toxic chemical has harmed the infants, possibly by interfering with their thyroid glands and hormone levels.

In a rare move to phase out a widely used industrial compound, the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that it is asking all U.S. companies to virtually eliminate public exposure to a toxic chemical used to make Teflon and thousands of other products. Although the effort is voluntary, the federal government has rarely taken such a sweeping, accelerated action against an industrial compound. The eight companies that use perfluorooctanoic acid to make an array of nonstick and stain-resistant products are expected to comply, cutting releases from their plants and products by 95 percent over the next four years and completely by 2015.

PHILADELPHIA - DuPont Teflon is famous for preventing food from sticking to your pans. Now, it's taking on a new role: keeping dirt from sticking to your floors. Mannington Mills Inc. will begin selling vinyl, hardwood and laminate floors with a coating that includes DuPont's Teflon surface protector. Mannington, based in Salem, N.J., hopes the widely recognized, 58-year-old Teflon brand will help spur sales - particularly of vinyl flooring, which has been losing market share for a decade to hardwood and other types of flooring.

John Gotti, who swaggered, schemed and murdered his way to the pinnacle of organized crime in America only to be toppled by secret FBI tapes and a turncoat mobster's testimony, died of cancer in a prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., yesterday while serving a life sentence. He was 61. Traditional Mafia leaders led publicity-shy lives. Not so Gotti, who reveled in media attention as the boss of the nation's largest and most influential organized crime group, the Gambino family. He cut a swashbuckling figure in New York City, wining and dining with show business celebrities in elegant restaurants and nightspots, surrounded by bodyguards.

PARKERSBURG, W. Va. - More than 50 years after DuPont started producing Teflon near this Ohio River town, federal officials are accusing the company of hiding information suggesting that a chemical used to make the popular stick- and stain-resistant coating might cause cancer, birth defects and other ailments. Environmental regulators are particularly alarmed because scientists are finding perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA, in the blood of people worldwide and it takes years for the chemical to leave the body.

In a rare move to phase out a widely used industrial compound, the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that it is asking all U.S. companies to virtually eliminate public exposure to a toxic chemical used to make Teflon and thousands of other products. Although the effort is voluntary, the federal government has rarely taken such a sweeping, accelerated action against an industrial compound. The eight companies that use perfluorooctanoic acid to make an array of nonstick and stain-resistant products are expected to comply, cutting releases from their plants and products by 95 percent over the next four years and completely by 2015.

BOSTON -- I am not one of those dyspeptic folks spending inaugural week in mourning. No black for this blue gal. I will leave it to the more ardent opponents to turn their backs in D.C., and "not spend one damn dime." I choose to cast my lot with the congenitally and cockeyed optimists. You know who you are. The 60 percent of Americans who describe themselves as "hopeful" as they look forward to the second Bush term. Of course, only 45 percent of Americans want the country to go in the direction the president is leading, but what the heck, count me hopeful.

PARKERSBURG, W. Va. - More than 50 years after DuPont started producing Teflon near this Ohio River town, federal officials are accusing the company of hiding information suggesting that a chemical used to make the popular stick- and stain-resistant coating might cause cancer, birth defects and other ailments. Environmental regulators are particularly alarmed because scientists are finding perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA, in the blood of people worldwide and it takes years for the chemical to leave the body.

Nestled among the many country estates in Green Spring Valley sits Fernwood, a restored and lovely 1885 wooden farmhouse. The old house, owned by investor Gary Gensler and his wife, artist Francesca Danieli, is so splendid, in fact, that it's garnered the attention of Elle Decor magazine. A 10-page spread in the magazine's August / September issue features color photos of the farmhouse's recently renovated exterior and interior, as well as a short article that delves into the steps a team of architects and interior designers took to renovate the property.

WASHINGTON - Once, after a news conference, Ronald Reagan returned to the Oval Office where his senior advisers were waiting to tell him he had gone too far in flatly ruling out a tax increase. He needed to leave himself some "wiggle room," they said, so he would have space to maneuver in the congressional battle then looming. Silently fuming, Reagan heard them out. One of the aides drafted a short statement backing off slightly from what the president had just told reporters. Reagan grabbed the paper from the aide and snatched a pen from his desk so fiercely that the inkstand went flying.

WASHINGTON - President Harry Truman's old desk sign, "The Buck Stops Here," would clearly have no place in the Bush administration, in which mistakes seldom occur, are even less often admitted and are almost never punished. So it's not surprising that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, his cocksureness undiminished, appears at least for now to have survived the uproar over the scandal of prison abuse in Iraq and critics' calls for his resignation. President Bush, who was in no hurry to apologize to the Iraqi people and the Arab world in general for the humiliating treatment portrayed in the photos from the Abu Ghraib prison, wasted no time declaring that Mr. Rumsfeld was "doing a superb job" and would remain in his Cabinet.

Roy J. PlunkettTeflon inventorDr. Roy J. Plunkett, the inventor of Teflon, died Thursday at 83 after a short illness at home in Corpus Christi, Texas, DuPont announced Friday.Teflon, the trade name for the polytetrafluoroethylene resin, is most commonly known as a nonstick coating for pans and other cooking surfaces, but it also has many industrial applications.The New Carlisle, Ohio, native was a research chemist at DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, N.J., in 1938 when he discovered the material.

BOSTON -- I am not one of those dyspeptic folks spending inaugural week in mourning. No black for this blue gal. I will leave it to the more ardent opponents to turn their backs in D.C., and "not spend one damn dime." I choose to cast my lot with the congenitally and cockeyed optimists. You know who you are. The 60 percent of Americans who describe themselves as "hopeful" as they look forward to the second Bush term. Of course, only 45 percent of Americans want the country to go in the direction the president is leading, but what the heck, count me hopeful.

In April 1996, Maryland schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick stood before the Baltimore City Council and promised to help solve the city school system's financial and academic problems, if the city would agree to give the state more authority. Eight years later, the city-state partnership she enthusiastically endorsed has improved academic performance. But financial management, which she singled out in 1996 as a cause for concern, has gotten much worse: a $58 million deficit. The system might be forced to cut teacher pay and lay off workers, in addition to the 800 dismissed in the middle of this school year.

PHILADELPHIA - DuPont Teflon is famous for preventing food from sticking to your pans. Now, it's taking on a new role: keeping dirt from sticking to your floors. Mannington Mills Inc. will begin selling vinyl, hardwood and laminate floors with a coating that includes DuPont's Teflon surface protector. Mannington, based in Salem, N.J., hopes the widely recognized, 58-year-old Teflon brand will help spur sales - particularly of vinyl flooring, which has been losing market share for a decade to hardwood and other types of flooring.