[Firefighters using aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) that contains forever chemicals. Photo by Fire Brigade Neder-Betuwe, base Ochten, the Netherlands - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0]
“Be creative, but make sure that what you create is not a curse for mankind." - Albert Einstein
How quickly would you stop using your favourite cookware, cosmetics, packaged food, or performance clothing if the companies behind them admitted they may be poisoning you—and your children—for decades?
The brutal truth is that two assumptions embedded in this question rarely hold. First, that corporate leaders will voluntarily disclose such dangers. And second, that consumers will act swiftly when faced with complex, invisible risks. History shows that neither assumption holds up.
This column is about a class of synthetic chemicals—PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances)—whose extreme utility made them ubiquitous, and whose extreme stability turned them into one of the world’s most persistent environmental hazards. They are everywhere: non-stick cookware, food packaging, waterproof fabrics, firefighting foam, paints, sealants, electronics, and industrial processes. Their resistance to heat, water, and oil earned them the name “forever chemicals.”
The 3M Fall From Grace
PFOS, one of the most damaging PFAS compounds, was produced by 3M for nearly half a century. This is the same 3M once celebrated globally as a model of innovation: the birthplace of Post-it Notes, Scotch Tape, and N95 masks. A company with deep R&D roots, a storied culture of experimentation, and more than 100,000 patents.
One would imagine that such a company would also exemplify responsibility. It did not.
In 1997, a young 3M scientist named Kris Hansen discovered PFOS in human blood samples—everywhere she looked. In urban centres, rural towns, and even among people who had no occupational exposure to 3M products. When she re-tested samples from different states, and even from past decades, she found one consistent pattern: PFOS levels climbed only after 3M began producing it.
Instead of being encouraged to investigate further, Hansen was questioned. Her methods were doubted. Her equipment was blamed. She was told she must be making mistakes. What she didn’t know was that 3M had quietly conducted animal studies in the 1970s demonstrating severe toxicity, bioaccumulation, and environmental persistence—findings the company did not disclose fully to regulators, consultants, or the public.
A leading toxicologist who reviewed the partial data 3M shared warned that “we could have a serious problem.” His warning never made it into internal meeting notes.
A ProPublica investigation has since revealed how 3M managers buried inconvenient evidence, narrowed internal communication, and treated early alarms as threats rather than signals. What could have been an act of scientific responsibility became a textbook case of corporate gaslighting.
The Architecture of a Cover-up
The failures at 3M were not accidental; they were systemic. Critical toxicity studies were suppressed or downplayed for decades, and instead of addressing the science, internal teams interrogated the scientist who discovered the problem. Commercial interests repeatedly trumped long-term risk, with no safe channels for escalation and no independent oversight capable of recognising existential threats. This divergence between ESG slogans and core business behaviour is what is called “sustainability theatre.” From the outside, 3M projected responsibility—“Pollution Prevention Pays”—while internally it produced millions of kilos of chemicals that contaminated global bloodstreams.
By the time it voluntarily phased out PFOS in 2000, 3M filed more than 1,200 studies with the US EPA—many previously undisclosed. Decades of silence caught up with the company in 2023, when it agreed to a settlement valued up to $12.5 billion for PFAS contamination of drinking water systems. Thousands of personal-injury lawsuits remain unresolved, and full cleanup could exceed $100 billion in the US alone.
Why This Matters Outside the US
PFAS is not a Western problem. It is a global threat with emerging relevance in India. While the US and Europe have begun regulating PFAS aggressively, India still lacks enforceable national standards for PFAS in drinking water or in consumer products. Some action is underway—FSSAI is reported to be working on packaging regulations—but the regulatory framework remains incomplete.
As with many other environmentally-damaging or socially-fraught sectors, this vacuum creates opportunities for companies moving business to countries with weaker oversight. Consider a recent case involving Laxmi Organic Industries, which bought the defunct Italian PFAS producer Miteni SpA, a company whose managers were convicted and sentenced to 141 collective years for poisoning water systems in Vicenza. Reports suggest that Laxmi hired Miteni’s former CEO—one of those convicted—to help restart production in India. Because PFAS is not yet classified as a pollutant nationally, the project proceeds despite rising shareholder concern and growing public scrutiny.
When regulation lags science, companies behave exactly as 3M once did: exploiting ambiguity, externalising harm, and assuming that health and environmental consequences can be safely deferred.
The Broader Pattern: Profit Over People
Unfortunately, it is not just about one company, and 3M is not an aberration. Many industries have displayed similar pathologies:
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Aviation: Boeing’s 737 MAX fiasco revealed how cost and schedule pressures overrode engineering judgement, with catastrophic consequences.
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Pharmaceuticals: Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed addictive opioids despite internal evidence of abuse and mortality.
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Technology: Social media firms have long prioritised engagement over user well-being, manipulating behavioural data while downplaying psychological harm.
The pattern is strikingly consistent: early warnings dismissed, internal critics silenced, regulators misled, and public trust consistently overshadowed by short-term financial incentives.
The Hard Questions Leaders Must Ask
Real sustainability is not a department or CSR project. It demands confronting the possibility that your core business model may be creating harm. Leaders must ask uncomfortable questions: Are our products creating systemic problems we are not measuring? What if we applied the precautionary principle to every new innovation? And how do we restructure incentives so employees can speak up without risking career suicide?
What Must Change
1. Incentives and Accountability
Let’s consider the hardest step first. Executive compensation must shift from rewarding short-term numbers to rewarding long-term safety, resilience, and environmental integrity. Clawback mechanisms should trigger when harm is concealed. Without this shift, “corporate greed” is not a moral flaw—it is a rational response to the incentive architecture.
2. Governance and Independent Oversight
Effective governance requires mechanisms that don’t depend on the goodwill of senior management. Whistleblower systems must allow employees to bypass hierarchical bottlenecks, protected by strong legal guarantees. Boards should include independent technical experts empowered to pause or scrutinise decisions that carry material environmental or safety risks. ESG audits should be mandatory, conducted by truly independent third parties, with findings reported directly to boards and shareholders. And when companies conceal harm, directors must face real personal accountability—not symbolic oversight.
3. Culture and Moral Courage
Systems matter—but individuals matter too. Every corporate disaster contains moments where someone saw the truth and stayed silent, or spoke up too late. Hansen at 3M, engineers at Boeing, analysts at opioid manufacturers—all faced the dilemma between integrity and ambition.
Waiting for perfect systems is a convenient excuse. Culture changes when individuals decide their conscience outweighs their next promotion.
The Cost of Secrecy
3M’s reckoning is a reminder that environmental responsibility and business success are not separate conversations—they are the same conversation, simply playing out on different timelines. The cost of transparency today is almost always lower than the cost of secrecy tomorrow.
PFAS will take generations to degrade. The corporate decisions that unleashed them will echo far into the “Long Now”—a phrase that reminds us that the future is not abstract. It is inhabited by our children, our communities, and our shared ecological systems.
Real sustainability requires courage—the courage to redesign the very products and processes that generate profits. Anything less is theatre.
Dig Deeper
For those who want to understand the full scale of 3M’s failure—and Kris Hansen’s extraordinary perseverance—ProPublica’s investigation is essential reading:
