Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
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The Super-Rich Spew Toxic Sludge Into Our Water / Michael Hawthorne

Pfoa 3d

In 2000 [3M and Dupont] came out and they had a press conference and they said ‘hey, we’re phasing these chemicals out because we’ve learned that they build up in people’s blood and that they’re very persistent. Meaning they don’t break down in the environment. ‘ They claimed at the time and still do that the chemicals aren’t harmful at levels found in people. But they had, just a little bit before this public announcement, shared a bunch of these formerly secret studies that they had done with the EPA, where, for example in the late 70’s, they had had to stop one study because every monkey in the lab that was fed the scotch-guard chemical died. They knew that it was in the blood of their workers. At Dupont … they knew that … women who worked in the PFOA production area had given birth to babies with birth defects that were very similar to what the company had found when it tested rats. So again, they knew this.

Michael Hawthorne is on to talk about his investigation into "Forever chemicals: They’re in your drinking water and likely your food. Michael is a Pulitzer-finalist investigative reporter who focuses on the environment and public health for the Chicago Tribune.

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Michael Hawthorne

Michael Hawthorne is a Pulitzer-finalist investigative reporter who focuses on the environment and public health for the Chicago Tribune. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida.

 

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