UC San Francisco researchers reveal that the chemical industry, particularly DuPont and 3M, suppressed information about the health risks of PFAS similar to tobacco industry tactics. The study highlights a delay in public and regulatory awareness about PFAS toxicity despite industry knowledge of the risks.
“Having access to these documents allows us to see what the manufacturers knew and when, but also how polluting industries keep critical public health information private,” said first author Nadia Gaber, MD, PhD, who led the research as a PRHE fellow and is now an emergency medicine resident. “This research is important to inform policy and move us towards a precautionary rather than reactionary principle of chemical regulation.
As early as 1961, according to a company report, Teflon’s Chief of Toxicology discovered that Teflon materials had “the ability to increase the size of the liver of rats at low doses,” and advised that the chemicals “be handled ‘with extreme care’ and that ‘contact with the skin should be strictly avoided.’”
Despite these and more examples, DuPont reassured its employees in 1980 that C8, “has a lower toxicity, like table salt.” Referring to reports of PFAS groundwater contamination near one of DuPont’s manufacturing plants, a 1991 press release claimed, “C-8 has no known toxic or ill health effects in humans at concentration levels detected.”
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Like Tobacco and Big Oil, Secret Docs Show Chemical Companies Knew PFAS Dangers'These documents reveal clear evidence that the chemical industry knew about the dangers of PFAS and failed to let the public, regulators, and even their own employees know the risks,' says TraceyJWoodruff, co-author of a new study.
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