A fantastic raw material for many applications but underestimated from an environmental point of view

A brilliant US chemical engineer, Roy J. Plunkett, employee of the Dupont company, discovered, by chance in 1938, a new chemical compound while he was engaged in experimentation work on some refrigerants.

During one of these tests, a laboratory accident occurred and Plunkett noticed the formation of a white waxy substance that appeared extremely slippery. In fact, he was experimenting with the compression of a chlorofluorocarbon and, in measuring the flow rate of the gas contained in a cylinder in which there was gaseous tetrafluoroethene, there was a problem in the flow of the gas.

Plunkett decided to open the cylinder and found inside a coating on the walls of a waxy and very slippery consistency which, through subsequent checks, he realized that it was a fluorocarbon inert, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which had excellent non-stick qualities, far superior to the products used until then.

In 1945 Dupont filed the patent for the chemical compound, which it named Teflon, and began production at the Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West. Virginia, producing almost 1000 tons of Teflon in 1948.

The success of the product was dazzling, as every housewife preferred to buy a pot with a Teflon coating, as the food did not stick in the pan during cooking .

A huge commercial success for Dupont, also by virtue of the important margins that the product had, as it was covered by a patent, but which created a dark and threatening.

In fact, for years the company has spilled the Teflon production waste in the rivers near the production site in West Virginia, discharging millions of liters into the environment of polluted water, through rivers, in inhabited areas and also dedicated to breeding.

About 110 million Americans drank the water polluted by PFAS and the population, after some obvious signs of collective disease, with percentages above the national average, made a Dupont case in which about 70,000 people signed up.

Thorough analyzes were carried out both in water, on animals and on the population, involving about 69,000 people in specific clinical analyzes, managing to link pollution from PFAS to a number of diseases such as hypercholesterolemia, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular and kidney cancers.

The most frequently observed toxic effects were:

• restriction of fetal growth
• diabetes
• increased cholesterol and its consequences (stroke, heart attack)
• arterial hypertension
• increased uric acid
• reduced sperm count in males
• male and female infertility.

There was widespread damage also among the livestock, raised near the rivers, in which the Teflon production waste was discharged, in fact, there were deaths of animals that went to drink in waterways, finding their internal organs of a fluorescent color.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.