There are a lot of Norskis in Minnesota; there are lots of literary types too. So of those who read an 8,000-word article by Sharon Lerner in the May 27 issue of the New Yorker, describing how 3M handled the discovery that a highly profitable class of chemicals was also highly toxic, many may call to mind Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play, “The Enemy of the People.” Life mimics art, to be sure.
In the play, a doctor discovers toxic contamination in the waters that feed a popular spa that is the economic lifeblood of his town. He feels a moral duty to publicize the dangers to the public, but runs into opposition from those who benefit monetarily. These lead the entire town to oppose the doctor, vandalize his house and make him a pariah.
But the water remains toxic. Lerner’s New Yorker article, “You Make Me Sick: How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals,” researched and written in cooperation with Pro Publica, describes how a Twin Cities-based 3M scientist, told in 1997 to investigate whether fluorocarbon compound chemicals could be detected in blood from the general population, as well as in that of 3M production employees, finds some surprising answers. Fluorocarbon chemical compounds, used in the production of myriad high-selling 3M products, including its Scotchgard fabric stain repellent, in cookware and food product packaging and in firefighting foams, are toxic to humans and other organisms.
Their chemical composition is.