The High Price of 'Forever' Profits
This issue of 'forever chemicals' – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – is not a recent discovery. The narrative of belated action, while true, obscures a far more troubling history of deliberate obfuscation and a predictable blueprint of corporate denial. FIRST INSTANCE: The Cover-Up Begins (1960s-1970s). As early as the 1960s, 3M, a primary manufacturer of PFAS, had internal documents
indicating toxicity. DuPont, another major producer, started finding elevated C8 (a type of PFAS) in the blood of its workers in the early 1970s and conducted animal studies showing adverse health effects. Instead of public disclosure or cessation of production, these findings were largely kept internal. Which raises the question: Why were these critical health warnings suppressed? Records
obtained through class-action lawsuits confirm this timeline, showing 3M's internal memos from 1961 noting PFAS could 'contaminate blood' and DuPont's own reports detailing birth defects in animals exposed to C8 by 1981 (Blumenthal, The Intercept, 2017). REPETITIONS: A Predictable Playbook (1980s-2000s). For decades, the chemical industry deployed a familiar strategy: downplay risks, fund
conflicting research, and lobby against regulation. The tobacco industry perfected this playbook, as did asbestos manufacturers. In 1998, a class-action lawsuit against DuPont over C8 contamination in Parkersburg, West Virginia, exposed a trove of internal documents demonstrating the company's knowledge of the compound's dangers for decades. Yet, the chemicals continued to be widely used in