Manufacturers of PFAS concealed the hazards of 'Forever Chemicals'

An investigation by researchers at UC San Francisco reveals that the chemical industry hid evidence of the health risks associated with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), similar to tactics used by tobacco companies.    

A study published on May 31, 2023, in the Annals of Global Health, scrutinizes documents from DuPont and 3M, the major producers of PFAS, and explores the techniques employed by the industry to delay public knowledge of PFAS dangers and the subsequent regulation of their use.    

PFAS, often called "forever chemicals," are widespread in clothing, household products, and food items and are highly resistant to degradation. They have become prevalent in both humans and the environment.  

According to Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, the study's senior author and director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), "These documents offer solid proof that the chemical industry was aware of the risks posed by PFAS and failed to inform the public, regulators, and even their own employees."    

This is the first time scientists have examined PFAS industry documents using methods designed to expose tobacco industry tactics.    

The concealed industry documents were discovered in a lawsuit led by attorney Robert Bilott, who was the first to successfully sue DuPont for PFAS contamination. Bilott passed the documents, which cover a 45-year period from 1961 to 2006, to the producers of the documentary "The Devil We Know," who then donated them to the UCSF Chemical Industry Documents Library.  Nadia Gaber, MD, PhD, the first author of the study and PRHE fellow, said, "Access to these documents allows us to understand what manufacturers knew and when, and how polluting industries withhold crucial public health information." She added, "This research is vital for informing policy and promoting a precautionary approach to chemical regulation."    

For the first 50 years of PFAS usage, little was known publicly about their toxicity, despite the fact that "industry had multiple studies showing adverse health effects at least 21 years before they were reported in public findings," according to the authors.    

The study indicates that DuPont possessed internal evidence of PFAS toxicity but did not publish or report these findings to the EPA as required under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).    

The study documents a timeline of industry knowledge versus public awareness, and analyzes the strategies employed by the chemical industry to suppress information or protect their harmful products.    

Some examples include:  
• Enlarged organs: As early as 1961, a company report revealed that Teflon's Chief of Toxicology found that Teflon materials could increase the size of rats' livers at low doses, and recommended handling the chemicals "with extreme care" and avoiding skin contact.  
• Animal deaths after ingestion: A 1970 internal memo from DuPont-funded Haskell Laboratory classified C8 (one of the many PFAS) as "highly toxic when inhaled and moderately toxic when ingested." A 1979 private report for DuPont found that dogs exposed to a single dose of PFOA died two days after ingestion.  
• Birth defects in employees' children: In 1980, DuPont and 3M discovered that two of eight pregnant employees working in C8 manufacturing had given birth to children with birth defects. The company neither published nor informed employees about the findings, and in 1981, an internal memo stated, "We know of no evidence of birth defects caused by C8 at DuPont."  

Despite these and other examples, DuPont assured employees in 1980 that C8 had "a lower toxicity, like table salt." DuPont claimed in a 1991 press release that C8 had "no known toxic or ill health effects in humans at concentration levels detected" in response to reports of PFAS groundwater contamination near one of its manufacturing plants.    

In 2004, the EPA fined DuPont for not disclosing their findings on PFOA. Although the $16.45 million settlement was the largest civil penalty obtained under U.S. environmental laws at the time, it was only a small fraction of DuPont's annual revenues from PFOA and C8 in 2005 ($1 billion).    

Woodruff hopes that the timeline of evidence presented in the study will aid countries in pursuing legal and legislative action to reduce PFAS production, stating, "This timeline reveals serious failures in the way the US currently regulates harmful chemicals."        

 

Source:    

Annals of Global Health