When 3M announced in 2000 it would stop making the chemical backbone of its Scotchgard stain repellent, executives at the global conglomerate vowed they were striving to become more environmentally friendly.
Scientists at the Minnesota-based company had found the Scotchgard compound accumulates in human blood and sticks around in the environment, 3M said at the time. So does a related chemical the company sold to DuPont to make Teflon, another widely used stain- and stick-resistant product used in cookware, clothing and other household goods.
3M and DuPont later introduced new formulas the companies said had none of the problems of the original ones. But behind the scenes their own studies showed the replacements are just as dangerous, if not more so, than the Scotchgard and Teflon chemicals 3M pioneered after World War II.
As the hazards became more widely understood, both companies have faced an avalanche of lawsuits targeting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals. Government regulators in the United States and Europe, who have allowed 3M and DuPont to make PFAS for decades with virtually no oversight, also began to take notice.
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The pressure from trial lawyers, environmental agencies and shareholders built up to the point that on Tuesday 3M said it will stop making forever chemicals altogether within the next two years.
Lawyers and activists who have tangled with the company remain skeptical.
“After telling everyone — their neighbors, their workers and their regulators — that PFAS are safe while poisoning the entire planet, 3M is now pledging to slink out the back door with no accountability,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization that has studied forever chemicals and advocated for federal regulations since the early 2000s.
“No one should trust 3M’s commitment to the do the right thing,” Faber said. “They never have before.”
Once-secret 3M documents show top executives knew about the harmful effects of PFAS as early as the 1950s.
Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), the original Scotchgard chemical, and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) once used to make Teflon, are routinely found in drinking water worldwide. The compounds are so toxic there is effectively no safe level of exposure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared in June after reviewing the latest research.
PFOS and PFOA are in the blood of nearly every American. Babies are born with the chemicals coursing through their veins.
Long-term exposure to some PFAS can trigger testicular and kidney cancer, birth defects, liver damage, impaired fertility, immune system disorders, high cholesterol and obesity, studies have found. Links to breast cancer and other diseases are suspected.
3M contends none of the PFAS it has made are harmful. The company said its decision to phase out production was driven in part by “changing stakeholder expectations.”
“This is a moment that demands the kind of innovation 3M is known for,” Mike Roman, company chairman and chief executive said in a news release. “While PFAS can be safely made and used, we also see an opportunity to lead in a rapidly evolving external regulatory and business landscape to make the greatest impact for those we serve.”
PFAS-contaminated sites are throughout the United States and in Europe. A summary of potential liabilities in 3M’s most recent quarterly report to investors is 15 pages long, up from five paragraphs in the company’s 2003 annual report.
An ongoing baiduhai investigation found that forever chemicals pose widespread threats to human health in Illinois.
More than 8 million people in the state — 6 out of every 10 Illinoisans — get their drinking water from a utility where at least one forever chemical has been detected. Worrisome concentrations can be found in farm fields and gardens fertilized with PFAS-laden sewage sludge.
On Sunday, the Tribune reported a 3M manufacturing plant near the Quad Cities has been releasing PFAS into the Mississippi River and emitting the chemicals into the air without limits since 1975.
All told, more than 200 million Americans are drinking PFAS-contaminated water, the Environmental Working Group estimates based on testing by state agencies.
Manufacturers and users of the chemicals presently aren’t required to notify government officials or the public about their discharges or emissions of PFAS. That could soon change under rules proposed this month by the Biden EPA.
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The Biden administration also is proposing to list PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances under federal law, which would make it easier to force polluters to clean up contaminated sites at their own expense. Other rule-making is expected to establish the first enforceable limits on the chemicals in drinking water.
Rob Bilott, a Cincinnati trial lawyer, first obtained 3M and DuPont documents during lawsuits filed in the early 2000s. The latest announcement from 3M is long overdue, he said.
“What remains to be seen,” Bilott said, “is whether 3M will ever accept responsibility and pay to clean up the unprecedented global contamination and damage it has already caused, including contamination of drinking water supplies, soil, wildlife — and people — all across the planet.”