Earlier we wrote about the so-called eternal chemical PFAS, i.e. about perfluoroalkyl compounds, which are extremely difficult to decompose, but their destruction is not an easy task, even with chemical means. Such materials are used, for example, to coat certain dishes, to create water- and stain-resistant materials, or to build aircraft engines, for example.

Many of these chemicals have accumulated in our environment, to such an extent that rainwater, for example, is no longer suitable for human consumption anywhere on the planet.

Now, however, it turned out that certain large chemical companies may have been aware of the harmful effects of these compounds for decades, but they deliberately hid them from the general public.

One about this in a recently published study American and Australian researchers reported. The documents they examined, marked as confidential, reveal that industry players have deliberately delayed the disclosure of health and environmental effects related to PFAS compounds, and have even circumvented the regulation of similar substances. The researchers came to this conclusion by analyzing documents made in the period from 1961 to 2006. Among the materials examined were some that certain industry leaders wanted destroyed. The researchers followed the methodology of previous investigations aimed at exposing the tactics of the tobacco industry.

Several documents came to light during a lawsuit initiated by a lawyer named Robert Bilott. Bilott was the first to successfully sue DuPont over PFAS contamination. The lawsuit was covered in the documentary The Devil We Know, and the filmmakers delivered the papers to the University of California San Francisco library.

These documents clearly prove that the chemical industry knew about the dangers of PFAS, but kept it from the public, regulatory authorities, and even their own employees.

– said Professor Tracey J. Woodruff from the University of California San Francisco, a former consultant to the US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA.

One of the documents comes from a 1961 study investigating the effects of Teflon on health, during which it was determined that the PFAS compound C8 is extremely toxic when inhaled and moderately toxic when swallowed. However, the investigation also revealed that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which we also know is carcinogenic, killed a dog two days after ingestion.

DuPont and 3M officials were also aware that two of their employees had children with birth defects. During an internal investigation, company representatives said they had no knowledge of C8 causing any birth defects at DuPont.

Later, in the 1980s, company employees were told that C8 was at most as toxic as table salt, even though they had had information to the contrary for at least a decade.

C8 has no toxic or negative health effects on humans

– wrote DuPont in a 1991 document, i.e. roughly 30 years after it was revealed to the contrary.

The company also tried to pressure the EPA to recognize the safety of Teflon coatings. In 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency fined DuPont $16.45 million for failing to disclose information about the dangers of PFOA compounds. At the time, it was the largest environmental fine in US history. Compared to this, one year later, in 2005, DuPont had an income of about one billion dollars from the distribution of C8 and PFOA.

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