Huffpost Green   Bill Chameides Headshot  The Chemical
Marketplace: PFOA  Posted: Updated:  More than 80,000 chemicals
are produced and used in the United States. This is one of their
stories.  Microwave popcorn -- what's in your bag?  Today's
subject is another halogenated compound (others covered include
triclosan, PCBs and PBDEs): Perfluorooctanoic acid, also
affectionately known as PFOA, is perfluorinated, meaning that it
consists of a chain of carbon atoms with fluorine atoms
attached. It's sometimes called "C8" for short because of its
eight carbons; its chemical formula is C8HF15O2.  Microwave
popcorn bags are often designed with a coating of
fluorotelomers, which, when exposed to high temperatures, break
down into PFOAs, synthetic halogenated compounds that have been
linked to health issues.  First synthesized in 3M labs in 1947,
PFOA quickly became another "miracle" of modern chemical
science.  Within just a few years it was incorporated into the
manufacture of fluoropolymers whose special abilities