…As early as the 1950s, 3M’s own studies showed that PFAS chemicals built up in blood, and by the 1960s, 3M’s own animal studies showed the potential for harm.

Since then, hundreds of studies have been published, identifying the health risks associated with PFAS chemicals.

“PFOS is persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic to mammalian species,” according to a 2002 study by the environmental directorate of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Persistent, accumulative, and toxic are not a good combination.

The companies that made these toxic substances knew about their health impacts decades ago.

Yet 3M continued to produce PFAS chemicals without notifying its employees of the risks, not to mention the many communities who have suffered as a result.

In 2010, the Minnesota attorney general and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources filed a $5 billion lawsuit against 3M, headquartered in Maplewood, for damages to the environment.

The lawsuit claimed that 3M released PFAS into the nearby groundwater and in 2004 the chemicals were detected in the drinking water of 67,000 people in Lake Elmo, Oakdale, Woodbury, and Cottage Grove.

While the company tried to argue that no health effect to humans had ever been proven, documents released in the case showed that 3M researchers knew these chemicals could bioaccumulate in fish and that the compounds were toxic.

3M settled the suit for $850 million in 2018, and afterward the Minnesota attorney general’s office released many internal documents including studies, memos, emails, and research reports, showing how much 3M really knew about these chemicals and their harm to both people and the environment…

Source: Bye, Bye PFAS – by Erin Brockovich and Suzanne Boothby