The billion-dollar companies that made and used chemicals now popping up in water supplies around the country are switching to newer alternatives, but they haven’t escaped liabilities for historic environmental contamination.
The chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, have become ubiquitous in everyday consumer goods as well as in specialized industrial applications. For some of the companies, including 3M Co. and the Chemours Co., liabilities from their PFAS operations have negatively affected the value of their stock.
Here are the major players in the PFAS industry:
PFAS have been used in nonstick coatings, stain and water ...