A newly published scientific study in the United States, Large multinational companies in the chemical industry have deliberately concealed for years the serious health hazards of some of their products. These are the ingredients contained in it. PFASA family of chemical compounds that are ubiquitous in everyday objects (from non-stick pans to waterproof pans), and toxicity scientists have warned.
chemical industry, such as tobacco and petroleum, they were aware of the dangers of the product they produced, but they decided to hide this information from the public so as not to lose their profits., as internal documents now come to light reveal. Industry filings that were previously hidden include DuPont and 3M, the largest manufacturers of PFAS (also called ‘forever chemicals’ due to their long lifetime), they knew about its negative effects for at least 21 years before it was finally made public.
The research was led by Nadia Gaber of the University of California (USA) and was recently published. Global Health Annuals. The regulation governing these substances “DuPont had evidence of PFAS toxicity through internal animal studies that they did not publish and did not report their findings to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as required by the TSCA.” All these documents are classified as “confidential” and in some cases, industry executives state that the authors of the article “wants this memo destroyed.”
All kinds of tools and equipment
PFAS (perfluorinated substances) has a wide range of uses, from non-stick pans to waterproof and stain-resistant material, firefighting foam and even jet engines.. They are extremely durable and non-perishable, hence the nickname “eternal chemicals”. without humiliation, They can accumulate in the environment and our bodies with serious consequences.
As the researchers reveal, these industries have blocked disclosure of the ecological and health implications of PFAS and have refused to regulate these substances. The documents from this study were the first chemical industry documents to be analyzed by the same methods designed to reveal tobacco industry tactics.
These documents are from 1961 to 2006 and It came to light after a lawsuit filed by attorney Robert Bilott.. He was the first to successfully sue DuPont for PFAS contamination. Bilott handed over the documents to the producers of the documentary. The Devil We KnowHe explains the IFLScience portal, which then donates them to the Chemical Industry Document Library at the University of California, San Francisco for analysis.
Proven harm to animals and humans
“These documents make it clear that the chemical industry is aware of the dangers of PFAS and fails to inform the public, regulators, or even its own employees of the risks,” said Professor Tracey J. Woodruff, Director of the UCSF Reproduction Program. , policy advisor to the Health and Environment (PRHE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said in a statement.
in 1961 Teflon’s head of toxicology found that Teflon material can increase the size of mouse liver, even in small doses. and “skin contact should be strictly avoided.” A 1970 internal memo from the DuPont-funded Haskell Laboratory found C8 (one of thousands of PFASs in existence) to be “highly toxic by inhalation and moderately toxic if ingested.” They also found that a particularly dangerous PFAS called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) will kill a dog within two days of eating it.
The evidence got worse: DuPont and 3M companies discover that two of their employees have given birth to a child with birth defects; they were two of eight pregnant women working in the manufacture of the C8 compound. Following an internal investigation, company officials said: “We have no evidence of birth defects caused by C-8 at DuPont“.
In 1980, managers told their employees that the toxicity of C8 was as low as table salt, whereas for a decade there has been evidence that the opposite is true. A 1991 press release from DuPont claimed: “C8 has no toxic or harmful health effects in humans at detected concentration levels.”
pressure on the US government
The company also tried to pressure the US EPA to back up its claims with an email: “We urgently need (first thing tomorrow) for the EPA to say this: that consumer products sold under the Teflon brand are safe. and, to date, PFOA is not known to cause any effect on human health.
The EPA fined DuPont in 2004 for failing to raise awareness of the dangers of PFOA. The $16.45 million fine was the largest civil penalty ever imposed in the enforcement of environmental regulations in the United States. But, DuPont’s revenue from compound C8 and PFOA in 2005 was $1 billion.
“Our access to these documents allows us to see what manufacturers know when, and also how polluting industries keep critical public health information private,” added first author Nadia Gaber.
Researchers found Many ways to remove chemicals from the environment forever, even with low-cost systems It can be easily applied in many situations.
Reference work: https://annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.4013
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