California Attorney General sues PFAS manufacturers for endangering public health

Toxic threats

On Thursday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS, for “endangering public health, causing irreparable harm to the state’s natural resources, and engaging in a widespread campaign to deceive the public.”  In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta alleges that these manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont, knew or should have known that PFAS are toxic and harmful to human health and the environment, yet continued to produce them for mass use and concealed their harms from the public. 

PFAS is a class of thousands of chemicals that are used in many of the products we come into contact with every day, including food packaging, cosmetics, clothing, and more. 

Unfortunately, some types of PFAS have been linked to serious health effects, including cancer, liver damage, and birth defects. Pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers can even pass the chemicals to their babies through the placenta and breast milk, which can harm development in utero and long term. 

To make matters worse, PFAS are often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down, which means that they build up in our environment and in our bodies over time.  PFAS chemicals have already contaminated the drinking water of more than 16 million Californians.

CALPIRG commends Attorney General Bonta for standing up to PFAS manufacturers for endangering our health. 

Given how long they last and what we know about their harmful effects, we should stop using PFAS. It’s not worth risking exposure to these chemicals in products or the environment.

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