(中文大意)

　　美环境保护署（Environmental Protection Agency，EPA）周四称，它正准备对杜邦公司（DuPont）开出有史以来的数亿美元的最高罚款。

　　该机构在一项行政处罚令中指责杜邦自1981年以来，三次拒绝向该机构提供有关可对人类健康和环境造成巨大伤害的一种称为perfluorooctanoic acid（PFOA）的化学物质材料。PFOA是用以制造特弗龙（Teflon）、高尔泰克斯（Gortex）和Stainmaster地毯的一种原料。

　　EPA环境工作组（Environmental Working Group）的Ken Cook称，因PFOA在环境中不分解，持续存在下去，由此引起人们对PFOA给人类健康带来影响的关注。它还称，PFOA在动物实验中发现致癌。EPA正在研究PFOA是如何进入人体的，以及它潜在的健康风险。

　　杜邦直到2001年才报告EPA，公司在1981年发现孕妇血样中存在PFOA，并已转移到胚胎。公司1991年在公共水源中也发现这种物质。EPA1997年要求杜邦提供PFOA的化学毒性资料，但公司未予理睬。

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it is preparing to levy what could be its largest fine ever - potentially hundreds of millions of dollars - against the DuPont company.

The agency charges in an administrative action that the chemical manufacturer withheld information three times since 1981 about a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that poses "substantial risk of injury to human health or the environment."

PFOA is used in the manufacture of Teflon, Gortex and Stainmaster carpeting. There are health concerns about it because it does not break down but persists in the environment, says Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group.

"It causes cancer and birth defects in animals," he says "It's in 95% of people tested in the USA." The EPA is currently studying how PFOA enters the human body and its potential health risk.

The complaint states that DuPont did not tell the EPA until 2001 that the company found PFOA in blood samples taken in 1981 from its pregnant workers, in one case including evidence that the chemical had passed to the fetus.

In 1991, the company found the chemical in public water supplies in towns near its plant in West Virginia but did not tell the EPA until 2001. In 1997, the EPA requested all toxicological information that DuPont had about PFOA, but it was not provided until 2001.

The year 2001 figures prominently in the EPA complaint because that's when key information was supplied by documents from a lawsuit by residents who live near the West Virginia plant.

The agency can seek fines of up to $25,000 per day for each day DuPont failed to report the information prior to 1997 and up to $27,500 for those after that year.

Tom Skinner, head of the EPA's Office of Enforcement, was careful to point out that the agency does not consider Teflon, Gortex or Stainmaster dangerous.

Saying it has fully complied with reporting requirements, DuPont replied that it plans to file a formal denial of the EPA's complaint within 30 days.

The company disputes "any association between PFOA and harmful effects on human health or the environment." After 30 days, the complaint goes to an EPA administrative law judge.

"DuPont has provided substantial information to EPA supporting our conclusion that we have followed the law," said DuPont general counsel Stacey Mobley.

Mobley predicted the EPA action "would not prevail under the scrutiny of the courts."

The single largest fine to date by the EPA was for $30 million against Koch Industries in 2000 for claims related to oil spills in six states.