Bad Chemistry
Lawsuits Charge that 3M Knew About the Dangers of Its Chemicals
Lawsuits in Minnesota and Alabama seek to hold 3M responsible for contaminating drinking water with PFCs.
Sharon Lerner
Sharon Lerner was an investigative reporter at The Intercept, where she covered health, science, and the environment since 2015. Her work shines a light on corporate malfeasance and lapses in government oversight. In particular, she has covered how failures of the environmental regulatory process affect ordinary Americans. She also reported extensively on the Covid-19 pandemic, revealing the profiteering of pharmaceutical companies as well as the lack of biosafety protections on U.S.-funded research.
Lerner’s first work for The Intercept, a three-part series about the chemical PFOA called “The Teflon Toxin,” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and featured in the documentary “The Devil We Know.” She went on to cover PFAS, the class of chemicals to which PFOA belongs, in extraordinary depth in her ongoing series “Bad Chemistry. Lerner has helped reveal the disproportionate burden of pollution faced by the poor and people of color, including those living near facilities that emit carcinogens into the air and those impacted by chemicals in soil and water.
Lerner’s stories on interference with the EPA’s chemical approval process helped lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the matter, and her work has also been cited in other congressional hearings. She was the first to write that firefighting foam used by the military contained PFAS and broke the story that GenX, DuPont’s replacement for PFOA, causes cancer. Her reporting helped lead the U.S. Air Force to discontinue the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam, was cited in the Stockholm Convention’s decision to limit the international use of PFOA, and paved the way for a public reckoning over GenX water pollution in North Carolina. Her in-depth investigation of chlorpyrifos was the first to lay out how the Trump administration might reverse a long-awaited ban of the pesticide. And her reporting on National Institutes of Health-funded research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, has helped inform the discussion of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lerner has received seven awards from the Society for Environmental Journalists and five from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, which named her journalist of the year in 2021. She has also received awards from the Park Center for Independent Media, the American Public Health Association, the Children’s Environmental Health Network, and the Women & Politics Institute, among other organizations.
Prior to joining The Intercept, Lerner worked for the Village Voice, the public radio show “The Infinite Mind,” and the New School, where she taught journalism. Her stories have also appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Nation, and the Washington Post. She is the author of “The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation,” a book about the lack of public support for families in the U.S.
Lerner lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.
Lerner’s first work for The Intercept, a three-part series about the chemical PFOA called “The Teflon Toxin,” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and featured in the documentary “The Devil We Know.” She went on to cover PFAS, the class of chemicals to which PFOA belongs, in extraordinary depth in her ongoing series “Bad Chemistry. Lerner has helped reveal the disproportionate burden of pollution faced by the poor and people of color, including those living near facilities that emit carcinogens into the air and those impacted by chemicals in soil and water.
Lerner’s stories on interference with the EPA’s chemical approval process helped lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the matter, and her work has also been cited in other congressional hearings. She was the first to write that firefighting foam used by the military contained PFAS and broke the story that GenX, DuPont’s replacement for PFOA, causes cancer. Her reporting helped lead the U.S. Air Force to discontinue the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam, was cited in the Stockholm Convention’s decision to limit the international use of PFOA, and paved the way for a public reckoning over GenX water pollution in North Carolina. Her in-depth investigation of chlorpyrifos was the first to lay out how the Trump administration might reverse a long-awaited ban of the pesticide. And her reporting on National Institutes of Health-funded research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, has helped inform the discussion of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lerner has received seven awards from the Society for Environmental Journalists and five from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, which named her journalist of the year in 2021. She has also received awards from the Park Center for Independent Media, the American Public Health Association, the Children’s Environmental Health Network, and the Women & Politics Institute, among other organizations.
Prior to joining The Intercept, Lerner worked for the Village Voice, the public radio show “The Infinite Mind,” and the New School, where she taught journalism. Her stories have also appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Nation, and the Washington Post. She is the author of “The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation,” a book about the lack of public support for families in the U.S.
Lerner lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.
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Bad Chemistry
How DuPont Concealed the Dangers of the New Teflon Toxin
Chemical companies are using a trade secrets loophole to withhold the health effects of new products, preventing scientists from identifying emerging environmental threats.
Bad Chemistry
New Teflon Toxin Causes Cancer in Lab Animals
While touting GenX as being a safe replacement for PFOA, DuPont filed 16 reports of “substantial risk of injury to health or the environment” about its new chemical.
Bad Chemistry
Flint Residents May Have Been Drinking PFCs in Addition to Lead
A report by the Michigan Department of Community Health found that the Flint River is contaminated with PFOS, PFOA, and 11 other PFCs.
Toxic “Reform” Law Will Gut State Rules on Dangerous Chemicals
A new law that aims to update the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act would nullify the efforts of states such as Maine and California to regulate dangerous chemicals.
Bad Chemistry
Toxic Firefighting Foam Has Contaminated U.S. Drinking Water
The EPA has yet to regulate the toxic PFCs found in fire-suppressing foam, Teflon, and other products that have contaminated our drinking water.
EPA Used Monsanto’s Research to Give Roundup a Pass
The EPA’s recent decision that Roundup is not an endocrine disruptor was based overwhelmingly on research conducted or sponsored by Monsanto.
Bad Chemistry
DuPont Found Liable in Teflon Toxin Trial
After less than one full day of deliberation, a jury in Columbus, Ohio, found DuPont liable for $1.6 million in a personal injury claim over C8 contamination.
Bad Chemistry
The Teflon Toxin Goes to Court
The first of 3,500 personal injury and 37 wrongful death claims against DuPont went to trial in Columbus, Ohio, this week.
The Teflon Toxin
How DuPont Slipped Past the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency has long known that C8 is harmful to human health. But the chemical, which is in the bloodstream of 99.7 percent of Americans, remains unregulated at the national level.