Concerns about the health risks of Teflon were heightened when the chemical used to produce it caused liver cancer in lab rats. But now, an independent study of people living near a plant that uses the chemical found no relationship to liver, kidney, or thyroid cancer. According to the Beacon Journal of Akron, Ohio, Dr. Edward Emmett of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine reviewed blood samples from nearly 400 Ohio residents who live across the river from a DuPont plant, and found no higher prevalence of cancer than that of residents in any other part of Ohio. Emmett says further testing could and should be done, but for now, this is one concern about Teflon that doesn’t appear likely to stick.