How the Planet-Altering Disaster of “Forever Chemicals” Was Kept Secret

Description We now know harmful “forever chemicals” are likely in the bodies of most people on earth. Decades ago, 3M knew that these chemicals had seeped into the public’s blood, but they kept that a secret. One 3M scientist helped reporter Sharon Lerner understand how they kept it quiet for so long. Read the original story here. Transcript Editor’s Note: “Paper Trail” is produced as an audio series. If you are able, we encourage you to listen to the series. This transcript has been lightly edited for style. Jessica Lussenhop: So I know that you don’t know me. But you and I probably have something in common. It’s quite likely that inside you and me and almost every living thing on this crazy blue marble … is a little substance called … “forever chemicals.” I’m sure you’ve heard of them. These are the chemicals, invented by humans, coating products like nonstick pans. For decades, they were put in food packaging — like, they used to be on McDonald’s hamburger wrappers. They’re in mascara and firefighting foam. On couches, carpets and raincoats, to make them stainproof and water-repellent. And from those products and from factories they’ve spread … everywhere. Lerner: It’s become clear that these chemicals are actually in every state and in every country and in everybody. Lussenhop: My ProPublica colleague Sharon Lerner is one of the many people who helped uncover this. Forever chemicals — also known as PFAS — are … forever. They don’t break down easily in the environment or in our bodies. Lerner: They have developmental effects, immune effects. Thyroid, liver, hormonal systems. Some cause cancer, kidney cancer, obesity. They bind to proteins in your blood, and they change how systems in your bodies work. Lussenhop: By the time all this became public, people like you and I had been happily eating our hamburgers and lazing on our couches for decades with no idea those chemicals even existed or that they were getting inside of our bodies. But about 10 years ago, Sharon started reporting on a group of people who did know. Lerner: And I spent a lot of time in those 10 years figuring out what the companies that put those chemicals into the environment and ultimately into all of us: what they knew about it while they were doing it. Lussenhop: She learned that 3M, the company that pioneered the production of these chemicals, knew that these chemicals were toxic for decades, since the 1970s, but they kept making them anyway. Lerner: That’s what transformed, kind of, a tiny problem into a planet-changing disaster. It could’ve been stopped. Lussenhop: Sharon wrote roughly 60 stories about forever chemicals and investigated: What exactly did these companies know, and when did they know it? But there was one question in all of her reporting that she never got an answer to: How did they keep it a secret for so long? No one inside 3M who knew the secret had ever agreed to talk to her. But then … Lerner: I got an email from a scientist, and she said she used to work at 3M. Lussenhop: This person wrote that she had worked in 3M’s environmental lab in the 1990s, when she was a young scientist. And she had handled, quote, “highly sensitive data.” It quickly became clear that she had known something about forever chemicals long before the public did … but she’d never talked about it publicly. Lerner (reading): She said, I recently left 3M […] after a 27-year career … Lussenhop: And now, all these years later, she wanted to talk. Lerner (reading): I realized that the narrative I have is a missing piece of at least one strand of the story. I thought, “Hmm, intriguing.” Lussenhop: How does a company with thousands of employees, thousands of human beings, how do they keep a secret this big for this long? A secret that affects the lives of nearly every living being on the planet. Maybe, Sharon thought, this former 3M insider could explain. Lussenhop: I mean, how did it feel to pick up the phone the first time and call her? Lerner: Well, I do remember feeling conflicted. You know, I assumed the worst, honestly. Not the worst, but I thought, “Well, here’s someone who knew this thing for 20 years and sat on it, and how can that be OK?” But I’m looking at my own response, which was “Dear Ms. Hansen, I am so happy to hear from you,” three exclamation points. “I would LOVE,” all caps, “to talk.” REPORTING CALL, Sharon Lerner: Hello? REPORTING CALL, Kris Hansen: Hi, this is Kris. REPORTING CALL, Lerner: Hi, Kris, it’s Sharon. Lerner: I mean, of course I was interested. REPORTING CALL, Lerner: I could talk. I would be happy, if you wanted to talk for days, I would listen, you know … Lussenhop: I’m Jessica Lussenhop. This is “Paper Trail.” Lussenhop: As it turned out, Sharon and Kris Hansen, the former 3M scientist, did talk for days … REPORTING CALL, Hansen: Hey, Sharon. REPORTING CALL, Lerner: Hey, Kris. Is this still an OK time? REPORTING CALL, Hansen: Yeah, it’s great. I just got home. It’s perfect. Lussenhop: They had many phone conversations. REPORTING CALL, Lerner: It’s so early, but I’m glad you’re up. I know you’re an early riser. REPORTING CALL, Hansen: No problem. Are you guys getting buried in snow? Lussenhop: Eventually Sharon got on the road … IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Lerner: It’s getting kind of rural. Lussenhop: … to interview her in person where she lives, in Minnesota. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Lerner: Hi, Kris! IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: I’m glad you found it. Perhaps a little bit more out of the way than you’re used to. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Lerner: It’s lovely. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: This a nice spot, looks out on the river. Lussenhop: Kris told Sharon that the natural beauty here was one of the reasons why she lives in Minnesota. Not far from 3M’s headquarters. She first started work at 3M in the summer of 1996. Lerner: Kris had recently finished a Ph.D. in chemistry. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: I was just coming off of a postdoc. Lerner: And she considered herself an environmentalist. Lussenhop: Kris told Sharon that working at a big company like 3M wasn’t her first choice … but she became convinced. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: People said, you know, some of the biggest impacts that you could have would be to work from the inside of industry, instead of on the outside. Because on the inside, you have access to a lot more information. And so I did come to believe that I could have an impact there. Lussenhop: Plus, 3M wasn’t just any old chemical company. It had an amazing reputation. Lerner: Kris’s dad was an engineer at 3M, and he was sort of famous in the company, or very well regarded. And also, people in Minnesota and in her community generally loved 3M. Lussenhop: Full disclosure: I grew up in Minnesota, near the headquarters of 3M, too. My mom worked there for a number of years. And I can confirm that 3M has a whole identity and a culture around it. It’s known for ingenuity, for making products that make all of our lives just a little bit easier. I mean, for god’s sake, they invented Scotch tape and Post-It notes. 3M makes lifesaving medical supplies like N95 masks and hospital equipment. Astronauts used 3M products during the first moon landing. 3M Innovation Commercial: We make a difference in the world because we make the leap from need to innovation. 3M innovation. Lussenhop: 3M came to mean so much more to people than just its products. It was a testament to American ingenuity. It was a playground for scientists. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: So I think I was a pretty typical new Ph.D. analytical chemist. I was, um, excited about starting a job that I felt I could make an impact. Lerner: Her first job at 3M was working in the environmental lab. Lussenhop: By the time Kris started working there in the ’90s, 3M had been mass-producing forever chemicals for decades, which they used in their own products like Scotchgard — a liquid you can spray on stuff to make it water-repellent — and they sold it to other companies for use in a whole bunch of other products. After she joined 3M, one of the first things Kris learned was that sometimes, these chemicals made their way from the products into the bodies of 3M factory workers. This was discovered years before Kris even started at 3M, when the company would test their workers’ blood for something called PFOS — a type of forever chemical. Lerner: So they knew that some of their chemicals get into the workers’ blood. Lussenhop: But her bosses told her that the chemicals were not toxic. They were just keeping their eye on the levels as a precaution. 3M had recently hired an outside lab to measure the levels in workers’ blood. But that lab ran into something unexpected. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: And that’s when my boss asked me to get involved. Lussenhop: There seemed to be a problem … not with the workers’ blood samples, but with the control blood samples they were using. To get an accurate count of chemicals in the worker blood, the outside lab needed something to compare it to. Lerner: They wanted to compare it to, like, a blank, what they call it, someone who’s unexposed, and so, they were using blood bank blood. Lussenhop: The blood bank blood was supposed to be from random people out in the world who have nothing to do with 3M: didn’t work there, had never been there and therefore shouldn’t have been exposed to 3M’s chemicals. That blood bank blood was supposed to have no PFOS. But this outside lab ran into a problem. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: It was like, there’s something here that looks like PFOS. Lussenhop: So Kris’ bosses gave her a task. IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: Figure out what that thing is so we can get rid of it and do an accurate count in the, in the workers’ blood. Lerner: And when she did start looking into it, what she found was … IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, Hansen: It wasn’t an unknown contaminant. No, there’s PFOS in the blood of the non-occupationally exposed population. Lerner: And at first she thinks, “Oh, that’s odd,” and she repeats it.