Makers of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ covered up the dangers, new report warns
Manufacturers of “forever chemicals” have been trying to cover up the dangers they posed for more than 30 years, a new report claims.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, who studied dozens of company documents, found that executives were first made aware of the health risks in 1961, but scientists said they didn’t raise the alarm until the 1990s.
Internal documents revealed that chemical manufacturers DuPont and 3M faced studies warning that the chemicals, dubbed per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), can cause liver enlargement, poisoning and birth defects in children.
But the executives would have sat on the evidence and allowed the chemicals to continue to be used in pots and pans, carpets, children’s toys and even period underwear. They are used in paints and fabrics to make articles non-stick or waterproof.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, reviewed dozens of corporate documents to discover that the risks of PFAS were covered up for years before the alarm was raised. They are used on items such as pots and pans because of their non-stick properties
There is also evidence that PFAS is present in menstrual underwear, despite studies warning that it increases the risk of infertility
Studies suggest that more than 97 percent of Americans now have PFAS chemicals in their blood.
But US states are only just waking up to the threat, with Minnesota ready to become the first to ban them fully by 2025.
Dr. Tracey Woodruff, a gynecologist, and others involved in the study compared the delay to the tobacco industry’s response to warnings that smoking can cause cancer.
The companies created the chemicals that were then used by other companies in items such as pans and fabrics to make them non-stick and give them a waterproof quality.
But a single scratch can release millions of these forever toxic chemicals that can then be absorbed through the skin into the blood.
They can then enter cells where they damage DNA, increase the risk of cancer, and disrupt vital organs such as the thyroid, affecting metabolism.
In the study, published last night in the Annals of Global Healthresearchers combed through documents about PFAS.
These had been acquired from Minnesota-based PFAS inventor 3M and major PFAS manufacturer DuPont, based in Wilmington, Delaware, in a Robert Billot lawsuit that began in 1998.
He eventually managed to obtain company documents covering the period 1961 to 2006, which were then donated to the UCSF Chemical Industry Documents Library.
The scientists used these documents to build a timeline of when manufacturers became aware of the risks of PFAS chemicals.
They then conducted further research to also establish a timeline of when warnings were issued to the public.
The results showed that warnings about PFAS chemicals and in particular the Teflon chemical coating were first issued in 1961.
DuPont’s chief of toxicology found in experiments that rats exposed to low doses of PFAS had “enlargement of the liver.” They warned that the chemicals should be handled with “extreme care” and that skin contact should be “strictly avoided.”
Concerns were raised internally again in the 1970s, when the DuPont-funded Haskell Laboratorie found that PFAS was “highly toxic by inhalation and moderately toxic by ingestion.”
Tests in dogs in the same decade showed that animals that took a single dose of PFAS died up to two days later.
In 1980, DuPont also learned that two of eight employees who had been pregnant while working in their factories gave birth to babies with malformations.
But the company did not disclose the findings, saying the following year that: “We know no evidence of birth defects caused by [PFAS] at DuPont.”
They then assured workers that PFAS was no more toxic than “table salt.”
Pictured above is the scientists’ timeline. Boxes above the timeline show studies that were in the public domain at the time of publication, while those below the line were only distributed internally within the companies. Boxes with blue borders show studies that have not been done by industry, while boxes with orange borders indicate those that have been done by industry
This is an extended timeline following five health effects of the chemicals on humans. These are toxicity (A), liver damage (B), reproductive problems (C), testicular cancer (D), and other cancer risks (E). Industry papers are shown in orange and non-industry papers in blue
The graph above shows how many studies have been published on the topic by date
In 1991, they again said in a press release that PFAS “has no known toxic or adverse health effects in humans at detected concentration levels.”
This was published in response to a research report that year which found PFAS to be a ‘probable risk to human health’.
In 1998 and 2002, the manufacturer faced lawsuits over the potential health risks of PFAS, prompting them to release studies on what the industry knew was not in the public domain.
Dr. Woodruff said: ‘These documents reveal clear evidence that the chemical industry was aware of the dangers of PFAS and failed to inform the public, regulators and even their own employees of the risks.
She added: ‘As many countries take legal and legislative action to curb the production of PFAS, we hope they are helped by the timeline of evidence presented in this document.
“This timeline reveals serious flaws in the way the US currently regulates harmful chemicals.”
The scientists drew parallels between the actions of PFAS manufacturers and those of tobacco companies in the 1950s and 1960s.
It was in the 1950s that the major British Doctors Study was published which warned of a link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.
The following decade, the U.S. Surgeon General published a report concluding that smoking did indeed cause lung cancer.
But in response to these findings, the tobacco industry sought to question the findings and downplay the risks.
Some documents suggest that tobacco companies were aware of the risks of smoking, but instead of warning, others discussed strategies to minimize or downplay them.
DuPont has previously denied this NBC news that it hid the risks of PFAS and said it has provided extensive information to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the risk over the years.
In 2021, the company agreed to share the $4 billion settlement costs for using “forever chemicals” with other company spinoffs.
In 2019, Daryl Roberts, DuPont’s chief operating and engineering officer, called for regulation of two specific types of PFAS.
For its part, 3M said earlier last year that it would stop using chemicals forever.
“We have already reduced our use of PFAS over the past three years through ongoing research and development, and we will continue to innovate new solutions for customers,” a spokesperson said.
So said Denise Rutherford, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs in 2019 that the chemicals pose no threat to human health at current levels.