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Even after years of reporting on forever chemicals, ProPublica reporter Sharon Lerner <[link removed]> had questions that nagged at her. She knew that a handful of 3M scientists and lawyers had learned in the 1970s that one of the company’s fluorochemicals, PFOS, had seeped into the blood of people around the country and that company experiments around that time had shown that PFOS was toxic. But 3M kept making the compound until 2000. What did it mean, Lerner wondered, for a sprawling multinational company to know that its products were dangerous even as it kept making them? Who at the company knew? And how much, exactly, did they know? And how had 3M kept its dark secret for decades? For years, no one from inside the company had spoken publicly. Then last year, a former 3M chemist reached out to Lerner.
“Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe <[link removed]>” offers the inside story of how the company allowed PFOS to seep into all of us while sitting on research that showed the chemical is toxic.
Through Lerner’s reporting, we learned that in the late 1990s, when 3M chemist Kris Hansen showed her colleagues that its chemicals had been detected in the blood of people across the country, her bosses questioned her findings, halted her work and reassigned her to other projects. They told her the chemical wasn’t harmful — even though 3M’s own experiments in the 1970s had shown it was toxic. The known dangers of PFOS had remained hidden from the public and from many at the company for years.
When Hansen learned, decades later, how much the company had known and how little it had told her, she felt enraged at 3M and at herself. For years, she had repeated the company’s claim that PFOS was not harmful. “I’m not proud of that,” she told Lerner. With ProPublica’s help, she’s making these secrets, and the process through which they were kept, public.
Even after learning that the compound was toxic and accumulating in people’s bodies, 3M continued to produce tens of millions of pounds of PFOS and other chemicals that break down into it. In 2022, in the face of mounting lawsuits over PFAS, 3M said that it would stop making the broader group of forever chemicals known as PFAS and “work to discontinue the use of PFAS across its product portfolio” by the end of 2025. (PFOS is a PFAS compound.) When ProPublica sent the company detailed questions about Hansen’s account, a spokesperson responded without answering most of them or mentioning Hansen by name. In a written statement, a 3M spokesperson said that the company “is proactively managing PFAS” and that its approach to the chemicals has evolved along with “the science and technology of PFAS, societal and regulatory expectations, and our expectations of ourselves.” The company and its scientists have not admitted wrongdoing or faced criminal liability for producing forever chemicals or for concealing their harms.
When Hansen was ready to tell her story, she reached out to Lerner, specifically, because of the reporter’s body of work. Lerner had spent nearly a decade extensively detailing how manufacturers of forever chemicals like 3M covered up the dangers.
Thanks to Lerner’s commitment, and Hansen’s willingness to speak, we now know more about corporate cultures of silence, systematic compartmentalization of research and suppression of dangerous and expensive truths. Trusted nonprofit investigative newsrooms like ProPublica’s, with relentless reporters who stick with a story for decades, play a critical role in bringing long-held toxic secrets to light.
Stand with ProPublica, and help us unearth more secrets like this. Our reporters have the freedom and resources to pursue wrongdoing because we have the backing of readers and donors like you. Help us continue this critical work by joining us today with your donation of any amount. <[link removed]> Journalism for the people is also powered by the people, and we’re counting on you to stand with us. Thanks so much,
Jill ShepherdProud ProPublican <[link removed]>
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P.S. To hear from the chemist, Kris Hansen, herself, check out this piece our video team put together about her time at 3M and the anger that inspired her to reach out to ProPublica: How 3M Convinced Me the Forever Chemicals I Found in Human Blood Were Safe <[link removed]>
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