Microplastics are everywhere, including in bottled water. But one of the more troubling aspects of microplastics is the substances that stick to them and stick together. And one group that poses particular problems for human and environmental health are perfluorinated and polyfluorinated substances, also known as PFAS. And exposure to harmful chemicals extends to food. Although some plastic substances are prohibited from being included in recycled packaging, they are often present in the same packaging plants and end up in food packaging anyway. Birgit Geueke is senior scientific officer at the Food Packaging Forum and outlined her research findings in an interview last year.
Birgit – So if you use recycled plastic for food packaging, for example, the sauce should be pretty clean. Recycle PT bottles only into new PT bottles or other containers. However, residue from your old TV may be found in food packaging or similar materials, which is not intended and should not be this way. According to the law. I have some concerns. We do not know if these chemicals are present in these products. Plus, of course, many of these chemicals have been tested and shouldn't be present. For example, there are carcinogens that interact with the hormonal system and cause cancer. These chemicals should not be present.
These PFAS compounds are extremely tough and difficult to migrate, hence the name “forever chemicals.” However, its existence and its impact on those around it were not fully understood until a landmark lawsuit was filed in the United States against the chemical company DuPont. Robert Bilott spearheaded the lawsuit…
Robert – This is a family of completely man-made chemicals. None of them existed on Earth until around the time of World War II. Some research as a result of the Manhattan Project looking for a nuclear bomb basically led to this new type of technology that could combine carbon and fluorine atoms, which could be used by companies, primarily his 3M company in the United States. Ta. . And it actually doesn't exist in nature. Therefore, when these carbon atoms and fluorine atoms are combined, an incredibly strong chemical bond is formed. It is very useful in manufacturing industry. However, their strong chemical bonds also mean that these chemicals do not break down under natural conditions when they enter the world. And when living things, including humans, are exposed to those chemicals, our bodies don't know how to eliminate these man-made chemicals. Therefore, they stay there, accumulate and persist for a long time. And unfortunately, we also know that they are incredibly toxic.
Chris – And what's the application? Why are we making them?
Robert – Because it's incredibly useful. These chemicals are used to make materials waterproof, stain-proof, and oil-resistant. If we're talking about the chemicals used to make nonstick surfaces, waterproof and stain-resistant clothing, carpets, slippery items like dental floss, and even things like firefighting foam and computer chips. The uses for these types of man-made chemicals are incredibly diverse.
Chris – What was your involvement with them? How did you get involved with this story?
Robert – Well, I was actually involved with this family of chemicals as a lawyer in the United States about 25 years ago. I primarily worked with large chemical companies to help them comply with all of the various environmental regulations and laws regarding what could be released into the air, water, and soil. One day in 1998, I received a phone call from a man who raised cattle in West Virginia. He said his cows had gotten sick from drinking white foam that flowed into the stream he was using for drinking water. And when we agreed to take on this farmer's case, through this case and his case that we brought back in 1999, we had access to documentation from the companies that are manufacturing and using these chemicals. You can now access it. Over the next 20 to 25 years, constant litigation and legal battles ensued to gain access to this information and documents. Through the process of digging into these internal documents, we learned that these chemicals exist and how toxic they are. And most disturbingly, we learned that the companies that were manufacturing them knew how toxic and dangerous they were, and in fact they were. They deliberately hide it and withhold that information from scientists, regulators, and the general public.
Chris – The action taken at that time was a class action lawsuit. There were a lot of people who were affected in some way. Was that how it unfolded? And the amount you won, he was over £500m.
Robert – The first case started with just one family. After figuring out what was happening to the exposure of the cow and her family, we finally discovered that the same chemicals were in the drinking water of the entire surrounding community, approximately 70,000 people. I decided to file a lawsuit on their behalf. And we did it.
Chris – This was from a local chemical company, right?
Robert – Yes. This was a revelation from DuPont's Teflon manufacturing plant along the Ohio River in the United States. PFOA, a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon, was found to be in the drinking water of approximately 70,000 people. So we pursued the case as a class action lawsuit. It was later discovered that the same chemicals and related chemicals were also used in other communities. Brought additional cases for others. And for the past 20 years, we've been pursuing that across the United States. These chemicals have now been found in drinking water across the country. We represent hundreds of cities and municipalities across more than a dozen states with the same drinking water and environmental claims. And just last summer, we were able to reach a settlement with 3M and DuPont, who have now agreed to pay up to $13 billion or more to remove this from drinking water.
Chris – Perhaps this problem is not unique to the US.
Robert – Not really. Over the years, we started scouring all these documents and really learning where these chemicals were being used and all the different products they were being used in. And what we've learned is that these chemicals have spread across the planet. There is one product in particular that is very effective at dispersing these chemicals around the world. It's a specific type of firefighting foam called aqueous film-forming foam, sometimes referred to as AFFF. And how will you be instructed to use that foam? How to spray the entire ground? And that foam has historically had high concentrations of PFAS, these chemicals. And the companies that were making those chemicals knew that that information wasn't being shared with firefighters or military personnel or anyone else, but when they used it to spray it all over the place. We knew PFAS was coming. In the ground, in the water. Today, we find these same chemicals in drinking water, groundwater, and soil everywhere on Earth.
Chris – What impact has your approach to regulation had? Are things getting tougher now? Perhaps the looming multibillion-dollar settlement is forcing manufacturers to reconsider.
Robert – You know, getting this story out into the world about the fact that these chemicals exist, what kinds of products they've been used in, and what happened here. It was an incredibly long and tedious process. It's the same chemical that started in the United States, West Virginia, and is now in the water in the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, and Japan. This is a story about global pollution. It took me a long time to get that information. It took a feature film like Dark Water, a documentary The Devil We Know, or a book Exposure to help the public understand what happened. And the fact that it's the same chemical that's now found everywhere. But now that the story is finally out there, we've seen the power of that information, especially in the last few years in movies and books. Lawmakers have begun proposing changes to the laws governing the handling of these chemicals. The public began demanding that companies remove these chemicals from their products. And now we're seeing changes in regulatory laws across the United States, as well as globally, with the European Union proposing a possible ban on all of these chemicals. And he even 3M, the original manufacturer, came out and finally announced that he would agree to stop producing these chemicals by 2025.
