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Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

cnn.com

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Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#21

Post by paxys »

ceejayoz wrote: post #10
pluc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a statement, Dupont said it “has never manufactured PFOA or PFOS.” CNN has reached out to the other companies for comment on the allegations, which they denied in a press release Friday. How can they stop something they never did

I don't understand that statement. It seems to be an outright lie, or quoted out of context; not sure which, and both are plausible. https://www.dupont.com/position-statements/pfoa.html says "While we no longer make PFOA..."

The settlement likely includes a provision for them not having to admit to any wrongdoing, so they can legally lie in their press release.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#22

Post by rqtwteye »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #15

The cost for anything like this should always be the cost of cleaning up the entire mess it created and compensating the humans harmed by it and covering their lifetime medical bills. $1billion sounds a tad low for doing any of that given the world wide impact. Its a bad deal.

Agreed. Most of the money probably doesn’t even go to the people who got damaged.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#23

Post by rqtwteye »

Zetice wrote: post #4

When a payout like this occurs, does it mean the problem is resolved? In other words, are these companies no longer putting out toxic chemicals, or are they buying the ability to continue to do that without fear of further lawsuits?

The problem has been “resolved” in the sense that the companies and government don’t have to deal with it anymore. That’s the goal.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#24

Post by bluedays »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #12
CommanderData wrote: post #5

Pocket change. This is not accountability for infecting the worlds population with these nasty chemicals.

PFAS technology was top secret WW2 research output. Then the military discovered that they had amazing properties to fight extremely dangerous fires in missile warehouses and were eventually required to use them to maximize safety decades ago. Prozac, Lipitor, Flonase and about 30% of upcoming new pharmaceutical drugs are PFAS, so they aren't going away completely, because society has determined that they are valuabl…

PFAS is not used in pharmaceutical drugs.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#25

Post by BizarroLand »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #15

The cost for anything like this should always be the cost of cleaning up the entire mess it created and compensating the humans harmed by it and covering their lifetime medical bills. $1billion sounds a tad low for doing any of that given the world wide impact. Its a bad deal.

Yeah, it's a "make the victims feel like they got some justice" money but not anywhere near enough to actually solve the problem or to repay the damages.

They're basically getting off scott free, and they made tens of billions of dollars in profit for only having to pay 1 billion in damages.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#26

Post by wmeredith »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #15

The cost for anything like this should always be the cost of cleaning up the entire mess it created and compensating the humans harmed by it and covering their lifetime medical bills. $1billion sounds a tad low for doing any of that given the world wide impact. Its a bad deal.

Justice served would be jail time for execs or a corporate death penalty. Levying a fine means it's just a cost of doing business. And a billion dollars sounds like a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket for these massive multinational corporations that have been in business for decades.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#27

Post by ok_computer »

bluedays wrote: post #24
mensetmanusman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PFAS technology was top secret WW2 research output. Then the military discovered that they had amazing properties to fight extremely dangerous fires in missile warehouses and were eventually required to use them to maximize safety decades ago. Prozac, Lipitor, Flonase and about 30% of upcoming new pharmaceutical drugs are PFAS, so they aren't going away completely, because society has determined that they are valuabl…

PFAS is not used in pharmaceutical drugs.

They listed prozac that is fluorinated

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoxetine

But I’m unsure the line where perfluoralkylated is reached. I’d think if the compound had alkylated chains instead of a fluorine-linked head group.

Re: Three companies agree to pay $1B to settle 'forever chemical' claims

#29

Post by plagiarist »

EscapeFromNY wrote: post #14
pluc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a statement, Dupont said it “has never manufactured PFOA or PFOS.” CNN has reached out to the other companies for comment on the allegations, which they denied in a press release Friday. How can they stop something they never did

I can think of plenty of ways that sentence might be weaselly. Maybe they "synthesized" them, not "manufactured" Maybe they bought them from some other company (which they might happen to own) Maybe they manufactured PFAs in general, but not the specific chemicals PFOA or PFOS (it's an awfully specific statement, after all)

Yeah I immediately just assumed they manufactured them "through" a "subsidiary." Like how you can manufacture carcinogenic talcum powder and not pay your victims much of anything.
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