The Australian Government has announced it would be launching a $2 billion lawsuit against multinational chemical engineering company 3M over PFAS or “forever chemical” contamination.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of highly persistent synthetic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they do not easily break down in the environment or the human body.
Associate Professor Nicholas Chartres from the Faculty of Medicine and Health at Sydney University studies how corporations harm health and has published extensively on PFAS, including recent work in the New England Journal of Medicine examining how big industry contributes to rising chronic disease.
Professor Chartres said “The federal government’s action is overdue but essential. It sends a clear signal to other health‑harming industries: if companies conceal evidence of the dangers posed by their products, they will face legal consequences and be held accountable.”
“Today, virtually every Australian over the age of 12 carries PFOS – a type of PFAS – in their blood. Leading scientific and regulatory bodies have classified PFOS as carcinogenic (bladder, prostate, liver, kidney, testicular and breast) in humans, and once in the body or environment they remain for decades.”
“Internal industry documents have revealed that 3M – the largest producer of these PFAS chemicals – had known for decades that they were highly toxic and environmentally persistent. Rather than disclose this evidence, the company withheld its own studies from regulators, delaying restrictions that could have prevented widespread harm. They continued to generate billions in profit while harming our health and the environment. It is a strategy lifted directly from the tobacco industry’s playbook.”
