“Hansen’s bosses never told her that PFOS was toxic.”
In 1997, 3M chemist Kris Hansen found PFOS in blood from across the U.S. Back in 1979, an internal 3M report had already called it “certainly more toxic than anticipated.” Nobody told her. After she briefed the CEO in 1999, her role was narrowed and the company talked to the EPA without her. Between 1951 and 2000, 3M made at least 100 million pounds of the stuff, and it still admits no wrongdoing.