The Chemical industriousness just like the tobacco and oil industries were cognizant of the danger of the product they were make but volitionally suppressed the knowledge as it would hurt their bottom assembly line , documents have revealed . antecedently orphic industry papers show that DuPont and 3 M , the great producer of PFAS , the so - called " forever and a day chemicals " , have been take apart reveal that the caller make love of adverse effects at least 21 year before it become publicly know .
“ DuPont had grounds of PFAS toxicity from intragroup fauna and occupational studies that they did not release in the scientific literature and fail to describe their finding to EPA as call for under TSCA . These text file were all mark as ‘ confidential , ’ and in some cases , manufacture executives are explicit that they ‘ wanted this memo destroyed , ’ ” the authors wrote in anew paper .
PFAS -Perfluorinated alkylated substances- have a vast range of uses , from non - stick pans to raincoat and stain - proof material , firefighting froth , and even blue jet engines . They are extremely resilient and do n’t demean , that ’s why they gain the cognomen " forever chemicals " . Since they do n’t cheapen they can accumulate in the environs and in our bodies , with ill consequence .
The industries hold up public cognizance of the wellness and ecologic consequence of PFAS , and they agitate back against regulations of these substances . The document in this survey were the first from the industry to have been study using methods design to exposetobacco industrytactics .
The documents span from 1961 to 2006 and were give away in a lawsuit filed by lawyer Robert Bilott . He was the first individual to successfully process DuPont for PFAS contamination . He give them to the producer of the documentaryThe Devil We Knowwho then donate them to the University of California San Francisco Chemical Industry Documents Library where they were break down .
“ These documents reveal clear evidence that the chemical diligence knew about the dangers of PFAS and failed to permit the public , governor , and even their own employees make love the danger , ” senior author Professor Tracey J. Woodruff , managing director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment ( PRHE ) , a former senior scientist and policy consultant at the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , said in astatement .
In 1961 , Teflon ’s Chief of Toxicology found that Teflon material could increase the size of the liver of crumb even in small doses and that " contact with the pelt should be rigorously forefend " . A 1970 intimate memoranda from the DuPont - funded Haskell Laboratory find C8 ( one of the thousands of PFAS ) “ highly toxic when inhaled and passably toxic when ingested . ” They also find oneself that a notorious PFAS called perfluorooctanoic acid ( PFOA ) would kill a dog two day after ingestion .
The evidence gets bad , DuPont and 3 M key out that two employee gave birth to child with birth defects ; they were two of eight meaning people who had turn in C8 manufacture . After an internal review , they exact “ We know of no evidence of birth defect make by C-8 at DuPont . ”
In 1980 they also told their employee that C8 had toxicity as low as mesa salt despite decade - old grounds to the opposite . A wardrobe freeing in 1991 from DuPont claimed that “ C8 has no do it toxic or ill health personal effects in humans at concentration levels notice . ”
The fellowship has also tried to pressure the US EPA to back its claims with an email stating : “ We demand EPA to speedily ( like first affair tomorrow ) say the following : That consumer products sold under the Teflon brand are secure and to date , there are no human health effect live to be due to PFOA . ”
The EPA fined DuPont in 2004 for not disclosing the dangers of PFOAs . The $ 16.45 million colonisation was the largest polite penalty obtained under US environmental statutes at the time . DuPont ’s revenue from C8 and PFOA in 2005 was $ 1 billion . Further bills for the company in terms of clean - ups and wellness costsmay be avoid by DuPontcompletely .
“ Having entree to these documents allows us to see what the manufacturers make love and when , but also how polluting industries keep critical public wellness information secret , ” added first writer Dr Nadia Gaber , who lead the enquiry as a PRHE familiar and is now an emergency medicinal drug resident . “ This inquiry is significant to inform policy and move us towards a precautionary rather than reactionist principle of chemic regulation . ”
Researchers have determine multiple ways to hit forever chemical from the environment , some even withlow - cost approachesthat could be apply
The study was published in theAnnals of Global Health .
