PFAS: The Forever Chemicals That Contaminated a Planet

The story of PFAS is, in several respects, the story of lead and asbestos and PCBs all over again — but faster, more global, and unresolved. It is a story that is still being written.

PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a family of over 12,000 compounds built on the carbon-fluorine bond, which is the strongest bond in organic chemistry. This bond makes PFAS extraordinarily useful: they repel water, oil, and heat, making them ideal for non-stick cookware, stain-resistant textiles, firefighting foams, food packaging, cosmetics, and countless industrial applications. It also makes them essentially indestructible in the natural environment.

The first PFAS were synthesised by 3M in the late 1940s using a process called electrochemical fluorination. PFOA was identified in 1947. By 1951, the compound was in commercial production. By the late 1950s, it was detectable in the blood of 3M workers. By the 1960s, 3M had commissioned studies showing accumulation in animal tissues. The company's internal documents, produced in litigation and obtained by investigative journalists, show that by the mid-1970s, 3M had data showing PFOA was distributed globally in wildlife — and decided not to publish it.

The PFAS corporate concealment story is best documented for 3M and DuPont — the two companies most responsible for the global PFAS contamination — because their internal documents were produced in litigation and because investigative journalists, the EPA, and independent researchers have spent years analysing them.

3M's internal findings By 1976, 3M's internal studies had found PFOS — the compound used in Scotchgard and many other applications — in the blood of workers and in the general population's blood at detectable levels. By the early 1980s, 3M had documented PFOS accumulation in fish, birds, and marine mammals globally. Internal communications show awareness that this accumulation was concerning and discussion of whether to inform regulators.

3M did not voluntarily cease PFOS production until 2000 — and did so only after the EPA had obtained enough of the company's own internal documents through TSCA information requests to compel action.

DuPont and PFOA in Parkersburg The DuPont story centres on the Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, which used PFOA (then called C8) to manufacture Teflon coatings. DuPont's internal documents — produced in litigation by attorney Robert Bilott — showed that by the 1980s, DuPont knew that PFOA had contaminated the drinking water of Parkersburg, that it had been detected in the blood of workers' wives and children, and that animal studies had found liver tumours, immune effects, and developmental toxicity.

DuPont did not tell the EPA. It did not tell the community. It did not stop the contamination.

The Parkersburg contamination and the legal battle that followed it became one of the most important environmental health cases of the 21st century — and one of the most personally extraordinary stories in the history of environmental litigation.

Robert Bilott was a corporate defence attorney at a Cincinnati law firm — one who typically represented chemical companies against environmental claims. In 1998, a West Virginia farmer named Wilbur Tennant walked into his office with videotapes of his dying cattle.

The cattle were dying from PFOA-contaminated water on the DuPont disposal site adjacent to Tennant's farm. Over the next twenty-five years, Bilott uncovered DuPont's concealment of its own PFOA data, filed a class action on behalf of 70,000 affected residents, established the C8 Science Panel that documented PFOA's human health effects, and secured the $671 million settlement that preceded the EPA's eventual regulatory action.

The Dark Waters case Bilott's story became the 2019 film "Dark Waters" and the foundation for the public awareness that eventually drove the EPA's 2024 rulemaking.

The 2024 EPA rule In April 2024, the EPA finalised the first-ever drinking water standards for PFAS — setting maximum contaminant levels for PFOA and PFOS at 4 parts per trillion (4 ng/L), and establishing limits for four additional PFAS compounds and mixtures. The rule is expected to require water systems serving 6–10% of the US population to implement treatment to meet the new standards.

The 2024 EPA rule represents a genuine regulatory milestone — but it addresses drinking water, which is one of multiple PFAS exposure routes, and it will take years to implement across the thousands of water systems affected.

What the rule covers: • PFOA: MCL of 4 ng/L (previously unregulated) • PFOS: MCL of 4 ng/L (previously unregulated) • PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA (GenX): MCL of 10 ng/L each • Mixtures of PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA, and PFBS: hazard index of 1

Implementation timeline: Water systems have five years (until 2029) to comply with the new standards. Public water systems serving populations over 10,000 will be required to monitor within two years.

What the rule doesn't cover: • Private wells — not subject to federal drinking water standards; testing and treatment are the homeowner's responsibility • PFAS in food, food packaging, textiles, and other products — regulated separately under FDA and potentially future EPA TSCA rules • Existing PFAS in soil and groundwater near contaminated sites — subject to Superfund remediation, not drinking water rules

PollutionProfile's Water Quality feature monitors your utility's compliance with the new standards as they are implemented — giving you the current PFAS monitoring data for your specific water system as reporting data becomes available.