Economic Collapse

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Minnesota says 3M pollution raised cancer rates, puts price tag at $5 billion

If this is a trend forming, ouch for the stock market? And 3M is one of Minnesota's top employers. 3M needs one of Monsanto's controlled universities to put out a study saying nothing was wrong?

http://www.twincities.com/2017/11/20/minnesota-sues-3m-corp-lawsuit-environment-chemicals-landfills-groundwater/

Minnesota is seeking $5 billion in damages from 3M Co. in what could become one of the largest environmental lawsuits in the nation’s history.

In Hennepin County District Court documents filed Friday, the attorney general charged that chemicals manufactured by Maplewood-based 3M have damaged human health and the environment.

Those documents said that the chemicals increased the rates of cancer in Washington County. A study cited by the attorney general concluded there was a “statistically significant” increase in cancer rates for people living in Oakdale, one of the communities affected by the pollution.

The study blamed the chemicals for an increase in premature births, babies with a low birth-weight, and infertility.

3M attorneys said, as they have for more than a decade, that the tiny traces of the perfluorochemicals in drinking water have never been proven to cause any health effect.

The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a phone message requesting comment. The office filed the lawsuit in 2010, and it is scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 13. The latest filings put a price tag on the damages being sought. 3M stock rose nearly 1 percent on Monday.

CHEMICALS DATE BACK TO 1940s

3M started manufacturing perfluorochemicals in the 1940s and ended in 2002. They were used to make fire-fighting foam, stain repellents such as Scotchgard and non-stick cookware.

3M disposed of the chemicals in landfills in Oakdale, Woodbury and Lake Elmo, ending in the 1970s.

Traces of the chemicals have been found in people and animals around the world, starting in the 1990s. In 2004, the pollution was discovered in groundwater in several Washington County cities, after apparently leaching from the dump sites.

Since then, the company has spent more than $100 million to clean up the pollution, including installing water filters in the Oakdale city water system and providing filters and bottled water to residents.

LAWSUIT: STUDY SHOWS CANCER INCREASE

In the court documents, Dr. David Sunding, a professor at the University of California at Berkley, reported on his study of the health impact of the pollutants in Oakdale. From 2001 to 2016, he found a “statistically significant” increase in cancers of the bladder, breast, kidney and prostate. Sunding also found a “statistically significant increase in the probability of a child’s death record including cancer or cancer-related disease in Oakdale.”

He concluded that there was a 30 percent increase in the incidence of low birth-weights and premature births, compared with other neighboring communities. The fertility rate was about 16 percent lower.

He said that these effects lessened after 2006 — when the chemicals were filtered out of Oakdale municipal water.