PFAS cover-up: Difference between revisions

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==Background==

Just before the second World War, consumers were dying due to the refrigerants used in electric refrigerators being lethal, often being called the silent killer by both consumers and the media during the time. Because of this, companies were attempting to create a safer alternative, and through a mistake involving the storage of tetrafluoroethylene gas inside of cylinders in 1939, the waxy solid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), also known as Teflon was discovered to be extremely resistant, and became a valuable material, especially in the production of fittings used during the Manhattan project.

Just before the second World War, consumers were dying due to the refrigerants used in electric refrigerators being lethal, often being called the silent killer by both consumers and the media during the time. Because of this, companies were attempting to create a safer alternative, and through a mistake involving the storage of tetrafluoroethylene gas inside of cylinders in 1939, the waxy solid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), also known as Teflon, was discovered to be extremely resistant, and became a valuable material, especially in the production of fittings used during the Manhattan project.

As the excessive heat of creating Teflon in large quantities was becoming lethal, to the point where an explosion took multiple workers' lives, work was put into producing a way to generate Teflon in a water-cooled environment. This led to the creation polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), such as PFOS or PFOA, which both increased the safety of producing Teflon, and also the added benefit creating products that could be coated with Teflon.

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 ==Background==
 <!-- Reference the Veritasium video, and also its sources! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2eSujzrUY | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dh15PQJ-LhrkE0LXIT_s4HNW8zo3IxF3nEEcy4fU_SI/edit?tab=t.0 SIX pages of references, so no way we'll have a shortage of info! -->
-Just before the second World War, consumers were dying due to the refrigerants used in electric refrigerators being lethal, often being called the silent killer by both consumers and the media during the time. Because of this, companies were attempting to create a safer alternative, and through a mistake involving the storage of tetrafluoroethylene gas inside of cylinders in 1939, the waxy solid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), also known as Teflon was discovered to be extremely resistant, and became a valuable material, especially in the production of fittings used during the Manhattan project.
+Just before the second World War, consumers were dying due to the refrigerants used in electric refrigerators being lethal, often being called the silent killer by both consumers and the media during the time. Because of this, companies were attempting to create a safer alternative, and through a mistake involving the storage of tetrafluoroethylene gas inside of cylinders in 1939, the waxy solid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), also known as Teflon, was discovered to be extremely resistant, and became a valuable material, especially in the production of fittings used during the Manhattan project.
 As the excessive heat of creating Teflon in large quantities was becoming lethal, to the point where an explosion took multiple workers' lives, work was put into producing a way to generate Teflon in a water-cooled environment. This led to the creation polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), such as PFOS or PFOA, which both increased the safety of producing Teflon, and also the added benefit creating products that could be coated with Teflon.