It is absolutely disgusting that DuPont knew that these chemicals are harmful and accumulative in the body.

The spin they put on this is that "it is possible for these chemicals to be used safely", but the parameters for safe use are not realistic in the real world.

The fine print on your frying pan or waterproofing contains legal get outs that are unrealistic.

Nevermind the fact most paper straws, fast food wrappers (McDonalds) and others are lined with these chemicals.

They knew. They knew they don't break down, bio-accumulate and cause health issues, but still tell the world they can be safely used.

Jail them all.

Mine comes next month - about $4,000 out of the class action - because through the 70s-90s, Wolverine dumped contaminated leather scraps and chemical drums in a swamp uphill of the well I've been drinking from for more than a decade. Now every well in town has 50-200 mg/L of PFAs.

It's only $4,000 because the court saw clear evidence that the value of my home was damaged, but couldn't assign damages based on an increased risk of cancer; I would have had to actually get cancer to sue successfully for damages there.

DuPont had US$1.79 billion cash on hand as of September 2022.

If ten million people have been negatively affected by PFOS (surely an undercount) then that's a fat US$179 per person.

"Okay, so force them to pay a portion of future profits."

Ah, the Purdue Pharma solution. But is everything else that DuPont making known to be harmless? If we discover a PFOS-2 in ten years, should they be required to keep making it in order to pay off the victims of PFOS-1?

The problem with taking over a company to operate it in the national interest is that a country can be tempted to continue operating it in the national interest. In 1947, the UK nationalized all its coal mines. In 1966, a coal mining waste pile collapse and killed 116 children and 28 adults.

Nobody was ever prosecuted, and no person ever went to jail. What was the government going to do, punish itself?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

You mean the company that caused the deaths of 4000 people in Bhopal in night and didn’t have a single consequence?

They’ll do what J&J pioneered and spin off a subsidiary that owns only the liabilities.

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/02/1082871843/rich-companies-are...

> Here's how the maneuver worked. First, last October, J&J spun off a subsidiary in Texas called LTL.

> Then, using a wrinkle in Texas state law, J&J was able to transfer all of the potential liability linked to the tsunami of baby powder asbestos claims into the shell of the new company, while keeping valuable assets separate.

> LTL then quickly filed for bankruptcy in North Carolina. That move immediately halted the baby powder cases, which could remain on hold for months or years.