[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: 3M "hid dangers for decades"

[Lenny Siegel]

Internal documents show 3M hid PFAS dangers for decades

by Keith Matheny
Detroit Free Press (MI)
May 11, 2019

A 3M environmental specialist, in a scathing resignation letter, accused company officials of being "unethical" and more "concerned with markets, legal defensibility and image over environmental safety" when it came to PFAS, the emerging contaminant causing a potential crisis throughout Michigan and the country.

PFOS, one of 3M's chief PFAS products, "is the most insidious pollutant since PCB," Richard Purdy stated in his March 28, 1999, resignation letter, referring to a compound used in 3M's ScotchGard stain-protection product line, among other uses.

"It is probably more damaging than PCB because it does not degrade, whereas PCB does; it is more toxic to wildlife," he stated, adding that PFOS's end point in the environment appeared to be plants and animals, not soil and sediment like PCB.


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For the entire article, see
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/09/3-m-lawsuit-pfas-water-contamination-michigan/3291156002/

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org