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ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. It recently released an 8,000-word expose about how 3M knew its PFAS chemicals were in people's bodies.
The information in the article is too important to overlook, so here are the highlights.
In 1997, Jim Johnson gave a chemist from 3M Corporation, Kris Hansen, an unusual assignment: Hansen was to test human blood for chemical contamination. With a dissertation on small particles in the atmosphere, she was the right choice.
What was the reason for Hansen's assignment? Several of 3M's most successful products contain man-made compounds called fluorochemicals. The company's PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) tested positive in the bodies of 3M factory workers. Samples from the general population also appeared to contain the blood contaminants.
Were these results a laboratory error?
She used a mass spectrometer, which weighs molecules and allows identification. She and her team spent several weeks analyzing even more blood; every blood was contaminated. She informed Johnson of her team's findings. His answer was 'cryptic'. Without any feedback from her supervisors, she and her team ordered fresh blood samples from every supplier 3M worked with.
Each of the samples tested positive for PFOS.
Then her boss took early retirement.
Although Hansen had been told that PFOS was not harmful to factory workers, she wanted to be sure. She knew from her studies and previous field research that the most reliable way to measure the safety of chemicals is to study them over time, in animals and, if possible, in humans.
What Hansen didn't know was that 3M had been conducting animal studies since the 1970s. The studies had shown that PFOS was toxic, but the results remained secret, even to many within the company. Rats and monkeys died within weeks of exposure to PFOS.
In 1979, an internal company report deemed PFOS “certainly more toxic than expected” and recommended longer-term research. Hansen's bosses never told her that PFOS was toxic. Meanwhile, a superior advised that her laboratory testing equipment may have been contaminated. After careful cleaning, the results remained the same. 3M purchased three additional, very expensive mass spectrometers, and repeated its tests on different populations and in different locations.
Each sample contained PFOS. The chemical seemed to be everywhere.
On its website today, 3M describes fluorochemicals.
“3M helped pioneer the science of fluorochemicals more than 60 years ago – and we continue to find new ways to put these amazing materials into practice… 3M's fluorochemicals are designed for high purity, performance and durability – including our next-generation C4 chemistry, offering a favorable safety and environmental profile for its intended use.”
These compounds are now considered 'forever chemicals'. In 2023, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first tranche of test data for PFAS in drinking water. They discovered that hundreds of water systems are contaminated with the toxic 'forever chemicals'. About 8% of water systems serving approximately 14 million people detected two of the most common of these chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, in their drinking water at levels that exceed EPA's proposed drinking water limits.
A colleague gave Hansen more blood samples to test, which were positive for PFOS – but the samples came from a horse. Instead of succumbing to humiliation, Hansen wondered why PFOS ended up in animals.
Her answer was unnerving: the chemical had spread through the food chain and perhaps also through water. Hansen and her team eventually found PFOS in eagles, chickens, rabbits, cows, pigs and other animals. They also found 14 additional fluorochemicals in human blood, including some produced by 3M. Some of it was present in the wastewater from a 3M factory.
Hansen found no solution to the way senior colleagues continued to question her work. Instead, she devised an experiment that could locate blood without PFOS. She was successful: samples were found that showed no trace of PFOS in blood collected before 3M created PFOS. “Apparently, fluorochemicals had entered human blood after the company began selling products containing them,” says the ProPublica article explains. “They had leaked out of 3M's sprays, coatings and factories – and into all of us.”
Hansen met a scientist who revealed to her a paper written in 1981 by scientists at 3M. It outlined experiments and confirmed suspicions about the origins of PFOS at 3M, but 3M lawyers had urged the lab not to make their findings public.
A presentation Hansen was asked to give to 3M CEO Livio D. DeSimone “seemed to frame her commitment as a betrayal: her data could be damaging to the company.” The CEO fell asleep during the meeting. As she defended herself, she recalled other scientists before her who had failed to convince the upper echelon of 3M.
Shortly thereafter, Hansen's job description changed. Only experiments specifically requested by a supervisor are allowed. Her new role would be to analyze samples for studies that other employees were conducting – and do so without question.
Yet Hansen's research was not lost. The results of her research “quietly entered the files of the Environmental Protection Agency.” In 1998, 3M officials admitted that the company had measured PFOS in blood samples from across the US (Hansen's research), but did not believe its products posed a substantial risk to human health.
Hansen, meanwhile, was ostracized by her superiors and colleagues. For more than two decades, Hansen worked at 3M on many new tasks other than fluorochemicals.
Pressure from the EPA forced 3M to discontinue its entire portfolio of PFOS-related chemicals. In 2006, after the EPA accused 3M of violating the Toxic Substances Control Act, in part by repeatedly failing to promptly disclose the harms of fluorochemicals, the company agreed to pay a small fine of $1.5 million, without admitting wrongdoing.
A 150-square-mile strip around 3M's headquarters was found to be contaminated with PFAS – local fish and water supplies were full of them.
In October 2022, after 26 years at 3M, Hansen had her job cut and she chose not to apply for a new one. She held out her hand ProPublica for what would be her first public discussion about her research on fluorochemicals. She regretted that revealing what she had known earlier in her life “would have been too heavy at the time.” Johnson, Hansen's former boss, not only agreed with her stories but also added multi-layered details about his own efforts to expose fluorochemicals in 3M products and their reaction in humans.
3M has now settled a $12.5 billion lawsuit filed by cities and towns with contaminated water to filter out PFAS – depending on how much water systems need to remove the chemicals. “However, the settlement does not address the magnitude of the problem,” the spokesperson said ProPublica article concludes. “It is estimated that at least 45% of tap water in the US contains one or more forever chemicals.” The costs of delete them all will likely reach $100 billion.
A Biden-Harris from April 2024 rule will designate PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund, and “will ensure that polluters pay to clean up their contamination.”
The original story in its entirety is exempt from ProPublica's Creative Commons license until July 19.
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