How One Company Secretly Poisoned the Planet
Veritasium (2025)
Film Review
This documentary traces the invention of Teflon in 1934 and Dupont’s systematic efforts to conceal its toxic effects on human beings.
Dupont first began researching forever chemicals (PFAs) to find an alternative to flammable refrigerants like propane and butane. The first PFA refrigerant they produced was Tetrafluorine Ethylene (TFE). Under heat and pressure, the latter forms p
Initially Dupont produced Teflon exclusively for the top secret to line their pipes and coat their gaskets and seals. Once the war ended, the government released Dupont from their exclusive contract and the company commercialized it, using it to coat iron, pans, snow shovels and (as Scotchguard) waterproof carpet, coats and surgical implants.
The first public awareness of it health risks occurred in 1996, when a Vicksburg farmer living near a Dupont factory and a landfill began losing livestock from wasting disease. ping toxic chemicals. After Wilbur Tennant’s environmental attorney Robert Bilott filed suit against Dupont in 1999, he accessed company records records from 1961 (the same year Teflon-coated cookware hit the market) revealing that C-8 (aka PFOA) they were dumping in the landfill was causing cancer rats. Among other records was were test reports revealing that Dupont workers exposed to C-8 were dying of liver disease and C-8 was entering the public water supply.*
After Dupont settled with Tennant’s family, Bilott filed suit on behalf of 70,000 Parkersburg residents exposed to C-8 through their well water and the public water supply. After a eleven year process in which everyone downstream of the plant (many of whom had developed thyroid, kidney and testicular cancer) was tested for C-8, there was a massive settlement and federal regulators forced Dupont to discontinue Teflon production in West Virginia.**
Dupont responded by creating a spinoff company Temours, which produced GenX (C-6) PFAS, which turned out to be even more dangerous than C-8 and are still used in waterproof clothing, food wrappers and microwaveable popcorn bags.
When tested, 98% of the world’s population have PFAs in their blood, no matter where they live. Children tend to be at highest risk because they drink more water and play on carpets treated with it. As do firefighters exposed to firefighting foam. Most people are exposed to PFAs through their drinking water, especially if they live near a PFA factory, airport or military base (airports and the US military use PFA-containing firefighting foam in their fire drills).
Another source of PFA exposure if food packaging – cardboard and plastic take out containers are coated with it, as are microwaveable popcorn bags.***
Other countries are banning the use of PFAs in hygiene products, cosmetics and food processing.
At present there are no prospects of banning it in medical implants or semiconductors until an alternative is discovered.
* Records indicate Dupont discharged 10,000 tons of it into the Ohio river and 7,000 tons of it into an unlined landfill adjacent to the company
**3M was also forced to take Scotchguard off the market.
***The filmmakers claim it’s unnecessary to discard old Teflon cookware because long chain PFA’s are only released when heated to temperatures higher than those normally used in cooking.
The Most Revolutionary Act 
I got rid of all Teflon coated about 10-12 years ago, when I heard about its high degree of toxicity. Brought out my old cast iron frying pan from the 90’s and have been using it ever since. I also have one in ceramic, which I bought abroad as they are difficult to get hold of where I live. Stainless steel applies to pots.
About the same time I learned that it doesn’t matter if [special] plastic tools are used in Teflon coated pans and pots. It will scratch of small particles anyway, which will end up in the food …
I do use PTFE as an additive to motor oil and doing so with my last five cars. When I was younger, there was a commersal drive to add ‘Slick 50’ to the motor oil, as it would increase the lubrication ability of the oil and lower fuel consumption as a result. It worked, but expensive. (They tested an engine with only one bottle of Slick 50, no oil and it worked without issues for several days, non stop. No increased temp’ either.) Adding pure PTFE gave the same result, as it is one of the ingrediences, but cheaper. Got the best result with the first car I tried it with. That (4 cyl/2.1L) engine had an older [worn] iron cast cylinder block and I cut the fuel consumption with aprox. 2 dl / 10 km. With later cars with aluminium blocks and less mileage, it didn’t improve that much.
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The filmmakers claim that the biggest risk comes from water-born chemicals derived from fire fighting foam used at airports and military bases and PFA coated plastic bags and plastic containers heated in the microwave. They claim the Teflon-coated cookware doesn’t get hot enough at normal cooking temperatures to release PFAs.
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