Have you ever been to your grandparents’ house and looked in their kitchen cabinets? As you dove through the clutter, maybe you found an old pan or pot made by Dupont that totes itself on being non-stick. This seemingly inconspicuous kitchenware harbors a dark secret though.
See these ‘Teflon’ pans were part of the many products Dupont produced using Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA or C8). PFOA makes up only one of around 4,700 similar compounds known as Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) or forever chemicals. Starting in the 1950s, Dupont began leaking these chemicals into surrounding water basins across their factory locations in West Virginia and Ohio.
No one knew how serious the damage these chemicals could cause would be until the lawsuits from cattle farmers and local citizens revealed rotten teeth, removed colons, and a high level of cancer diagnosis from those most affected by the PFAS pollution.
What about PFAS chemicals’ structure makes them so dangerous though, and was this a case of Dupont not knowing better or was this a sinister cover-up years in the making?
Let’s dive in.
The Structure of Forever
PFAS chemicals have the special properties of being non-stick, oil-repellent, and water-repellent, which led to their use in a wide array of consumer products such as Teflon non-stick pans, rain jackets, furniture, cleaning liquids, makeup, cars, pesticides, etc.
These special properties stem from their chemical structure: long chains of carbon-fluorine bonds, one of the strongest chemical bonds in existence. C-F are polar covalent bonds, where due to the high electronegativity of fluorine, electrons are unevenly shared between the carbon and fluorine. This uneven electron sharing creates an electrical dipole moment that increases the force of attraction between the two atoms thereby also increasing the energy needed to break the chemical bond apart. Because of this, only extreme heats are able to remotely possess the chance of tearing apart a PFAS. For example, in their documentation, GHD Group recommended 1100 °C (or 2012°F) for 2 seconds to break down fluorinated organic compounds.
What happens when you mix a forever chemical with human beings?
Starting in 2005, the C8 Science Panel began a study of possible health effects Mid-Ohio Valley communities suffered from Dupont C8 pollution into the waters of Parkersburg, West Virginia. The study concluded strong probable links between high C8 exposure:
- diagnosed high cholesterol
- ulcerative colitis
- thyroid disease
- testicular cancer
- kidney cancer
- pregnancy-induced hypertension
Many workers from the Dupont factories suffered from multiple of these diseases, with many female workers also giving birth to children with multiple birth defects during their time with the company.
You don’t have to be directly exposed to these factories though to have PFAS in your system. Because of its incredible resistance to chemical breakdown, PFAS lasts in water for years and there are few treatment plants that can fully filter the chemical from their drinking water. And like many other toxins, PFAS chemicals also bioaccumulate (increase in concentration) in the body as individuals drink more contaminated water and eat more contaminated fish/animals. Once a PFAS is in the water, it stays in the water and bioaccumulates across seas, lakes, and rivers. Levels of PFAS have even been found in the breast milk samples of women from Indonesia, India, and the Philippines, showing just how widespread the issue is and how many people might one day be at a serious risk.
Just a Mistake or a Malicious Cover-Up?
In the 1960s, Dupont scientists ran multiple tests on the effect of PFOA on the health of mice, dogs, and monkeys and proved that PFOA was an animal carcinogen and a possible human carcinogen. However, these toxicology reports were never shown to the EPA until the class action lawsuits in the 2000s forced these documents out of the shadows.
Even more disturbing though is that additional internal reports were later discovered from the 1980s showing that Dupont had by then fully proved that PFOA was a human carcinogen that caused infant birth defects for their female workers and needed up to 1.5 years to clear up only half of the C8 built up in the body. Dupont executives knew without a doubt for over 20 years that they were sabotaging the health of their workers and the surrounding communities, yet it took them their victims fighting tooth and nail just to so much as release this sensitive data to the public.
Yet at the time of the initial lawsuits, many Dupont workers and nearby communities still supported Dupont and did not believe they could purposely ignore such ominous health warnings as they saw the company as benevolent bringing jobs and prosperity to their towns. Blindness to a company’s intent can hinder reality though. Big companies such as Dupont and 3M are out to make a profit first and can hide data if that might hinder it. Dupont stole the act of choice for the consumer when their scientists and businessmen actively refuse to acknowledge that content with the public.
Sources:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/pfas-are-everywhere-what-can-we-do-to-change-that
https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained
