Originally published at: 3M set 2025 deadline to stop producing Forever Chemicals | Boing Boing
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And will replace them with… (to be continued)…
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Better late than never, i guess. That statement about “safe for intended uses” needs more attention, though. Corporate weasel words in action. The issue has never really been their safty “in use,” it is what happens when they are discarded after use. They have some amazing properties, but those same properties make them amazingly disruptive once released into the wild. And we have known about this for decades, but chose to ignore it due to the bottom line. This kind of shit may be our species’ epitaph.
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That statement about “safe for intended uses” needs more attention, though. Corporate weasel words in action.
Those weasel words are probably there because admitting the chemicals are dangerous would tank their defense in any lawsuits in progress and perhaps open them up to more. If that led to a court order forcing them to stop producing immediately, that would be far more disruptive than a planned phase out. And that could be construed as a breach of fiduciary duty. An orderly phase out is more likely to help manufacturers that use the chemicals transition to safer alternatives rather then changing suppliers. And a lot of workers will have more opportunity to find new jobs rather than face sudden unemployment.
Yes, they’re weasel words, but I think they’re responsible weasel words that help the greater good as well as the c-suite execs who sign the statements prepared by the PR and legal departments.
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That’s the thing, empirically we’ve seen the US manufacturing of chemicals like Perc aka Brakleen get phased out, but there is more than enough NOS (New Old Stock) stockpiled and other suppliers outside of the US willing to take up the market demand. PFAS have become so crucial to the way things are manufactured and stored, that we can’t just stop using them overnight. More than likely an analog that is equally bad will eventually replace PFAS like the way synthetic cannabinoid designer drug companies switched from K2 to some other spice variant that was tweaked molecularly to stay in the legally gray area.
Yup, totally written by “legal”.
Yup, C-Suite execs are duty bound to do what is best for the stakeholders via the bottom-line first and foremost.
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