Anti-science activists and the environmental lawyers who fund them were giddy that a paper found Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 45 percent of water they tested.

Oh no, let's run Big Science out of business. It's for the children!

Well, no, the study was more noticeable in the science community because it wasn't in 98 percent of water tested. That may be because the study only tested for 32 out of the 12,000 different PFAS chemicals and intentionally excluded natural sources. SEO experts who pretend to be journalists at Gizmodo used epidemiological buzzwords like 'risk' and ironically went after Big Corporations in their populist hot take.(1) It is ironic because they are part of a $5 billion venture capital firm.(2)

There is no risk yet, it is only epidemiology. EXPLORATORY. That means it is not science, it is only statistical correlation, the same way we were once authoritatively told butter was killing us and trans fats needed to replace them before trans fats were killing us and needed to be banned. And then BPA in Manwich cans 'might' kill us despite 70 years of never harming anyone.


What do you think will kill you first, too much pizza or the 'chemicals' in the pizza box? The real answer is obvious, but you will never get a job at an environmental group or Guardian newspaper thinking like a scientist.

These provocative claims are great for media clickbait because due to needing no science they can ignore the obvious question; where are all the dead bodies? Though media outlets insist "corporations lied" they can never show anyone died. Or even got ill. Saying they aren't going to ban tampons unless there is more than a statistical link created by epidemiologists who are overwhelmingly terrible at statistics and anti-corporate makes sense.

Certainly the Biden administration and far left states can ban anything they want, but they can't use science to do it. So they have stuffed EPA with an epidemiologist every time a scientist retires.

A lack of science didn't stop lawyers, who hope if they get a jury to agree that a company will settle, like PG&E did with a chemical that also was not shown to be harming anyone - colloquially called the Erin Brockovich case. But PG&E had the state of California on their side. As the de facto official utility of the state, they knew they could settle with a prearranged state agreement and pass the cost along to consumers. Which is what happened.(3)

Bayer and companies like 3M and DuPont are not state-endorsed entities so they don't settle. They know jury trials are decided by emotion, science need not be involved - but appeals courts do use science. And the science is on their side so they will win.

Yet these companies are also not stupid. They know they can stop using PFAS and charge a higher price for labels that say 'NO PFAS' and wealthy consumers will pay the premium. Poor people are buying products from China anyway. 

That PFAS are in 98 percent of us because they are found in so many natural products will be quietly ignored.

NOTES:

(1) Proud moment: One of their SEO experts did a solid for a discredited organic industry ally and tried to label me a Nazi on Twitter once. Not a single one of their employees ever served in the US military so they don't understand the double-irony or the stupidity of their libel. VCs have lawyers that nonprofits can't afford, though, so in the American legal system I have to let it go. I still won't link to those frauds, though, which is why it links to a yahoo reprint instead.

(2) No one knows how to sell to the left like the right. The founder of Whole Foods was to the right of Ayn Rand but man did he rake in the wealth selling health halos to the left.

(3) The state panel that regulates utility prices gave them an increase, and continued to reward them again twice last year, in return for the company 'adopting' more solar and wind as the Governor wanted in order to make it look like solar and wind were popular alternatives to affordable energy.