The PFAS Cover-Up: Decades of Corporate Deceit and Chemical Contamination

We are living in an age of chemical saturation. Every day, our bodies are bombarded with synthetic compounds that our inherent, natural detoxification systems were never designed to process.

Over eons of evolution, our biotransformation pathways were primed to neutralise toxins created by our own metabolism or consumed through pre-industrial diets. But the post-WWII industrial revolution changed everything.

By 2020, the world’s first global inventory of chemicals listed 350,000 registered chemicals and mixtures in commercial production. It’s a staggering figure — and one that overwhelms both the environment and the human body.

But among this ocean of man-made substances, one group stands apart for its persistence, pervasiveness and toxicity: PFAS, poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances, often dubbed “forever chemicals.”

Omnipresent and inescapable

PFAS aren’t a handful of rogue compounds; they are a chemical empire unto themselves, numbering over 12,000 substances. What unites them is the almost unbreakable carbon-fluorine bond — one of the strongest found in chemistry.

It’s this strength that makes PFAS useful for industry: resistant to heat, oil, grease, stains and water. But it’s also what makes them essentially indestructible in nature and in our bodies.