3M & Scotchgard 20-year Cover-up

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- http://www.chemicalindustryarchives.org/dirtysecrets/scotchgard/1.asp -

 

3M and Scotchgard: " Heroes of Chemistry " or a 20-year coverup?

 

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St, Paul, Minn. - 3M today announced it is phasing out of the perfluorooctanyl

chemistry used to produce certain repellents and surfactant products. . . .

" While this chemistry has been used effectively for more than 40 years and our

products are safe, our decision to phase out production is based on our

principles of responsible environmental management. "

- 3M press release, May 16, 2000 (view entire document)

 

PFOS is of significant concern on the basis of evidence of widespread human

exposure and indications of toxicity. ... These chemicals " combine persistence,

bioaccumulation, and toxicity properties to an extraordinary degree. "

- EPA internal memorandum, May 16, 2000 (view entire document)

 

In 1999, 3M placed second for outstanding environmental performance in a

worldwide survey of the top 50 chemical-using corporations. In 1997, the company

was presented the " Heroes of Chemistry Award " from the American Chemistry

Council, the major U.S. trade group for the chemical industry, for development

of innovative alternatives to ozone-depleting chemicals. And in 1996, President

Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development selected 3M to receive the

President's Sustainable Development Award for the company's progressive

Pollution Prevention Pays program.

 

The list of accolades goes on. But behind 3M's green image is a disturbing

reality that poses an even more disturbing question: If 3M is the model

corporate citizen of the industry, what are other chemical companies doing?

 

Consider 3M's Scotchgard coatings, surely one of America's best-known chemical

industry brand names. It is universally recognized by consumers as the magical

substance that repels water and stains from clothes, carpets and furniture.

Hardly anyone knows Scotchgard has been used for years in the wrappings for an

eye-opening list of packaged and fast foods.

 

Scotchgard ingredients belong to a large family of chemicals that degrade to

form a chemical called PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate. They are

fluorocarbons, related to CFCs, which are now banned as ozone depleters. 3M has

manufactured PFOS commercially since 1948, and in 2000 was expected to produce

more than 10 million pounds of the compound for use in Scotchgard products.

 

It was unexpected, then, when on May 16, 2000, 3M announced with a vague,

one-page press release that it would phase out of the PFOS market by the end of

2002 because of concerns over what the company said was new information--that

the chemical had been " detected broadly at extremely low levels in the

environment and in people. " (view entire document) It looked like another

environmentally responsible decision, and despite the estimated $200 million

charge against 3M's bottom line and the loss of a profitable product line, the

company's stock price actually rose in response to the announcement.

 

But the truth behind the phaseout is anything but laudable. It is found in a

mountain of documents on file at EPA's Washington headquarters. Almost no one

outside 3M or the agency has ever read these documents, and they have not been

available online -until now.

 

In the 50 years between the start of commercial production and the phaseout

announcement, many millions of pounds of PFOS chemicals have entered the

environment and now contaminate the blood of people and wildlife to an

extraordinary extent. In 1997, 3M found PFOS in supposedly clean samples from

blood banks all over the world. PFOS can be found in children, in polar bears

from Alaska, and in bald eagles from the Great Lakes.

 

Although research is still evolving, PFOS is known to damage the liver and to

produce severe birth defects in lab animals, among other health effects. The

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says PFOS chemicals combine " persistence,

bioaccumulation, and toxicity properties to an extraordinary degree. " (view

entire document) The more than 1,000 documents in EPA's Administrative Record on

Scotchgard--some 29,000 pages of material--show clearly that 3M knew its

products were in the blood of the general population as early as 1976 and had

detected PFOS in their own plant workers as early as 1979. 3M waited more than

20 years before agreeing, under threat of regulatory action by EPA, to remove

this health hazard from the marketplace - hardly responsible behavior.

 

And while 3M aggressively marketed Scotchgard directly to consumers for decades,

making it a household word, the company has done next to nothing to inform the

public that the active ingredient in its product now universally contaminates

the American population, and will persist in our blood for years to come.

 

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