DuPont's decades-long concealment of PFOA toxicity in Teflon production, resulting in widespread environmental contamination and health effects.
DuPont de Nemours & Co. manufactured Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) using perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as a processing aid starting in the 1940s. Internal company documents reveal that DuPont knew by the 1970s that PFOA was accumulating in human blood and the environment, yet continued production without adequate disclosure to regulators, workers, or consumers.
In 1981, a DuPont worker at the Parkersburg, West Virginia plant suffered birth defects in his daughter; internal studies connected PFOA exposure to fetal effects. Despite these findings, DuPont did not inform the EPA or affected communities. The company's own research showed PFOA persisted indefinitely in the environment and human body. In 2005, after independent researcher C8 Health Project documented widespread PFOA contamination in local water supplies and linked it to kidney cancer, thyroid disease, and other illnesses, DuPont agreed to a $16.5 million settlement. Further litigation in 2017 resulted in a $671 million settlement covering affected residents in multiple states. Court documents confirmed DuPont deliberately withheld safety data for over three decades while profiting from Teflon's widespread consumer use in cookware, food packaging, and industrial applications.
