特氟龍是非常典型的美式產品。其發現過程是個意外，而且跟很多發現一樣是研究其他物質時偶然所得。現在不管在煎鍋還是爆米花桶，在醫療器械和電子設備中，在修枝剪刀和汽車上都有應用。特氟龍無處不在，而且十分重要。特氟龍這個詞（Teflon，意為扳不倒的）也已融入詞匯，用來表達對政客和黑手黨頭目的嫉妒和憤怒。連二戰最終獲勝也與之有關：為了制造第一顆原子彈而濃縮鈾的工廠里，人們要用特氟龍密封以防氣體擴散。

特氟龍的生產商為化工廠商科慕，科慕2015年從杜邦拆分。當時很多投資者認為科慕注定倒閉，甚至從杜邦分離出去也可能是有意為之。科慕承擔了杜邦的環保賬，還背負了數十億債務。但科慕證明評論者全都猜錯，通過出售業務、削減成本、廣泛應用環保制冷劑歐特昂收益大增，其股票在市場上受到熱捧。今年科慕銷售收入62億美元，在《財富》美國500強中排名第451，較去年排名上升了31位。與此同時，其從前的母公司杜邦與陶氏化學完成合并后已從榜單上消失。（合并后的陶氏杜邦目前在今年《財富》美國500強里排第47名。）過去兩年里科慕股價飆升超過400%，同期標普500指數上漲33%。

2017年2月，科慕與杜邦解決環境問題方面獲得重大進展，當時兩家公司有望在拒絕承認過失也無需承擔責任的前提下解決不斷蔓延的集體訴訟。原告針對的是名為C8的化學原料，曾經是制造特氟龍的關鍵原料，據稱與某些類型的癌癥和其他疾病有關。能簽下和解協議也確保了這家新生公司穩定發展。

但科慕（其實杜邦也一樣）現在發現特氟龍本身面臨法律和監管問題。這次是因為替代C8開發的化學物質，還有數十年來該公司在北卡羅來納將該物質排放至空氣和開普菲兒河中，這條河位于北卡羅來納威爾明頓附近，向超過25萬人提供水源。

涉事化學物質名叫GenX。（不要跟X世代弄混了，X世代是指嬰兒潮之后出生的一代人。）在科慕在北卡羅來納的費耶特維爾工廠內部和附近遍布GenX。泥土里有GenX，也隨著雨水落在地上。州政府官員表示，附近居民家的井里也發現了GenX，引發了恐懼和憤怒。

Teflon is the quintessential American product. It was discovered by accident and like many such discoveries was at first simply a creation in search of a purpose. Versions of it are in our frying pans and popcorn bags, our medical devices and electronic gadgets, our pruning shears and our cars. It is ubiquitous and essential. It is part of our vocabulary, uttered with both envy and exasperation to describe politicians and Mafia dons. It even helped win World War II: Teflon was needed to properly seal the pipes in the gaseous diffusion plant where uranium was enriched to make the first atomic bombs.

Teflon is made by Chemours, a chemical manufacturer that was spun out of DuPont in 2015. At that time, many investors thought Chemours was destined—even designed—to fail. It was weighted down with both DuPont’s environmental liabilities and billions in debt. But the company proved critics wrong and has become a stock market darling by selling businesses, cutting costs, and reaping a windfall from widespread adoption of its Opteon line of environmentally friendly refrigerants. With $6.2 billion in sales, Chemours ranks No. 451 on this year’s Fortune 500, up 31 spots from last year. Its erstwhile parent DuPont, meanwhile, fell off the list this year after completing its merger with Dow Chemical. (The combined ?DowDuPont ranks No. 47 on this year’s 500.) Shares of Chemours have soared more than 400% over the past two years vs. a 33% gain for the S&P 500.

In February 2017, Chemours took a big step toward resolving its environmental problems when it and DuPont were able to settle—without admitting fault or liability—a sprawling class-action litigation with plaintiffs involving a chemical known as C8, a once-vital ingredient for making Teflon that has been linked to certain kinds of cancer and other diseases. The agreement appeared to signal stability and certainty for the young company.

But Chemours (and by extension, DuPont) now finds itself again in legal and regulatory trouble with Teflon. This time it’s over the chemical developed to replace C8—and how it came to be that the companies were for decades discharging this substance from a factory in rural North Carolina into the air and the Cape Fear River, the water supply for more than 250,000 people in and around Wilmington, N.C.

The chemical is called GenX. (Not to be confused with Generation X, the demographic cohort that came after the baby boomers.) GenX is everywhere in and around the Chemours North Carolina factory, known as the Fayetteville Works. It’s in the dirt, falling to the earth with the rain. It is in the wells of nearby residents, say state officials, sparking fear and anger.

“人們問我為什么不離開。”住在工廠附近的麥克·沃特斯說，他的5公頃土地上水井和產業都因科慕工廠排放受到污染，所以加入訴訟。他的回答很簡單：“問題不是我造成的，是他們造成的。”

GenX已跟實驗室動物癌癥產生聯系。由于科慕在荷蘭建有特氟龍工廠，2016年荷蘭政府出具報告稱，GenX的毒性低于C8，但仍“有可能導致人類罹患癌癥”。其他研究表明低劑量的GenX比較安全。目前還沒有人類流行病學方面的研究。

由于存在種種不確定性，GenX已變成所謂的新興污染物或健康風險未知的化學物質，也引發了規范行業的全國性討論。化學行業往往通過研發據稱更安全的替代化學品驅動創新，但并不一定安全。之所以現狀如此，與美國環境保護署面臨嚴格審查也不無關系，環保署署長斯考特·普魯伊特的支出、旅行和跟游說者的關系都受到多次調查，另一方面又要追蹤各種妨礙管控空氣中和水中排放物質的政策。GenX引發的爭議就凸顯出當前策略的局限性：特朗普政府提名負責人去環保署監督化學污染都只能作罷，部分原因是該提名人士曾為GenX辯護遭到質疑。

“People ask me why I don’t just walk away,” said Mike Watters, who lives near the factory on five acres with a well and property contaminated by Chemours’s discharges and has joined a lawsuit against the company. He has a simple answer: “I didn’t cause this. They did.”

GenX has been linked to cancer in laboratory animals. A 2016 report from the Dutch government—Chemours has a Teflon factory in the Netherlands—said it was less toxic than C8 but still a “suspected human carcinogen.” Other research suggests GenX is safe at low doses. There have been no human epidemiology studies.

The uncertainty has made GenX a symbol of so-called emerging contaminants, or chemicals for which the health risks are not known. It is fueling a national debate over how to regulate an industry in which innovation is often driven by developing replacement chemicals that are said to be safer—if not always actually safe. This is all taking place as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is under scrutiny, with Administrator Scott Pruitt facing multiple investigations into his spending, travel, and ties to lobbyists while also pursuing policies that could make it harder to control what gets pumped into our air and water. The GenX controversy may show the limits of that strategy: The Trump administration’s appointee for the EPA section overseeing chemical pollution was forced to withdraw, in part, because he faced stiff resistance for defending GenX in the past.

與此同時，北卡羅來納州官員正通過更嚴格的監管和訴訟程序限制科慕。一起訴訟中，州政府指控科慕在排放量方面有組織誤導監管機構。“根據杜邦和科慕提供的信息，水資源部門工作人員合理地認為GenX沒有排入開普菲爾河。”該州文件稱。科慕尚未就相關指控做出回應或公開發表意見。科慕還面臨一系列訴訟，包括自稱水井受污染的業主、依賴公共飲用水資源的居民以及從開普菲爾河抽水的當地政府。

“我們希望排入河流且無法再過濾的物質不會污染飲用水，而且相關費用不應由納稅人支付。”開普菲爾公共事業管理局執行總監吉姆·福萊希特納說。他也是原告之一，正考慮斥資4600萬美元建立處理廠過濾GenX及相關污染物。

North Carolina officials, meanwhile, are trying to rein in Chemours through tighter regulation and litigation. In a pending lawsuit, the state claims the company systematically misled its regulators on its emissions. “In fact, information provided by DuPont and Chemours led Division of Water Resources staff to reasonably believe that GenX was not being discharged into the Cape Fear,” the state’s filing says. ?Chemours has not yet responded to or made public comments about the allegations. Chemours also faces a slew of lawsuits from property owners with allegedly contaminated wells, from residents who rely on public drinking water, and from the local governments that draw their water from the Cape Fear.

“We want an assurance that the things that are going into the river that we can’t filter are safe for our drinking water, and that’s not something that our rate payers should pay for,” says Jim Flechtner, the executive director of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, which is a plaintiff and is considering whether to build a $46 million treatment plant to filter out GenX and related contaminants.

科慕拒絕了《財富》雜志采訪。在法庭文件中，科慕表示排放時遵循了適當的程序，其GenX排放量不足以產生毒性。科慕正收集受GenX污染的廢水并送往別處處理。州政府要求科慕為住在工廠附近的居民提供瓶裝水，而且科慕已匯報稱將花費1億美元，幾乎徹底消除排放造成的空氣污染。

“我們仍然認為排放行為......沒有影響到任何人的健康。”

——科慕首席執行官馬克·魏格納諾

2月的業績發布電話會議上，科慕首席執行官馬克·魏格納諾表示無需擔心，由于科慕在尋找長期解決方案，所以刻意保持低調。“澄清一點，我們仍然認為，不管是2015年中成為獨立公司之前還是之后，排放都沒有影響任何人的健康。”他說。

雖然魏格納諾因高度自律和執行能力而備受業界尊敬，但公司復蘇過程中趕上好時候也很重要。該公司最大的產品線二氧化鈦日趨穩定，而歐特昂價格明顯上升，科慕才能穩步發展。 “歐特昂給公司幫了很大忙。”特拉華大學經濟學教授詹姆斯·布吉維茨說。他從科慕分拆獨立就一直密切關注。

但特氟龍和GenX為科慕的未來前景蒙上陰影。穆迪最近表示，科慕債券目前評級為Ba2，提升的可能性不大，“除非法律風險明確，或者與一個或多個原告達成更清晰的和解標準。”對科慕和威爾明頓的居民來說，要解決可能不會很快。

如果以不粘著稱的特氟龍也有擺脫不掉的東西，看來就是爭議了。

像泰諾諾一樣，特氟龍這個品牌名稱很難發音。實際上是一種名為聚四氟乙烯或PTFE的混合物，1938年由27歲的化學家羅伊·J·普蘭科特發現，當時他在新澤西州深水鎮的杜邦杰克遜實驗室研究新制冷劑。實驗似乎失敗了。但是，當普蘭科特將蠟質物質留在實驗室圓筒內部測試時，他發現該材料極耐熱且耐腐蝕，表面幾乎沒有摩擦。直到1946年公司才宣布發現特氟龍。

GenX和C8屬于全氟烷基（PFAS）物質，都是用于制造聚四氟乙烯和類似物質的聚合助劑。這些分子的核心是一個碳-氟鍵，韌性極強，最終成品也一樣。3M曾經為其思高潔皮革保護劑產品生產C8，后來出售給杜邦制造特氟龍。但由于C8可能影響健康引起人們關注，2000年3M停止生產。（2018年2月，3 M同意向明尼蘇達州支付8.5億美元，雙方就工廠含氟化合物排放污染圣保羅附近飲用水的問題達成和解；宣布和解方案時，3M表示并不存在與全氟化合物PFC相關的公共衛生問題。）到2000年底，杜邦一直在費耶特維爾工廠生產C8，然后送到西弗吉尼亞州帕克斯堡的工廠制造特氟龍。

最后杜邦決定拋棄C8。流行病學研究已將C8與甲狀腺疾病、某些類型的癌癥、潰瘍性結腸炎，妊娠高血壓和高膽固醇關聯。杜邦一遍努力應付帕克斯堡工廠（現在屬于科慕）相關的訴訟，同時也在跟其他化學公司和政府合作逐步淘汰C8。計劃始于2006年，兩家公司同意到2015年淘汰C8和類似化學品。目標實現了，但有個遺留問題：杜邦仍需要聚合助劑。

由此進入了GenX時代。

“人們問我為什么不離開，”一位憤怒的居民表示。“問題不是我造成的，是他們造成的。”

這種新化學品應該比前任安全一些。C8有8個碳原子，GenX化合物則是短鏈PFAS分子，只有6個碳原子，一些研究表明，短鏈可能毒性較小，也不太可能在生物體中累積。在營銷材料中，GenX技術被吹捧為“毒理特征良好”。

2009年，杜邦獲得美國環境保護局許可生產GenX，前提是有嚴格的排放控制措施并進一步測試對健康的影響。在科學界內，政府宣布勝利是不是太快還存在分歧。不管怎樣，杜邦公司在北卡羅來納州的工廠已開始生產GenX。

費耶特維爾工廠位于威爾明頓市西北50英里，與布朗斯維克和彭德縣接壤，工廠從開普菲兒河最后一個閘門和大壩上方的狹窄入口處抽水，之后水流通過一個巨大的紙漿廠，并隨潮汐作用與海水相融。

Chemours declined repeated requests from Fortune for interviews. In court papers, the company has said it followed proper procedures on its discharges and that GenX is not toxic at the amounts released. But the company is now capturing its GenX-contaminated wastewater and sending it off-site for disposal. Chemours has been ordered to provide bottled water to many residents who live near the factory, and it has told the state it will spend $100 million to eliminate virtually all of its tainted-air emissions.

“We continue to believe that none of the discharges … have adversely impacted anyone’s health.”

——Mark Vergnano, CEO of Chemours

The CEO of Chemours, Mark Vergnano, said on an earnings call in February that there is no cause for concern and that Chemours has purposefully kept a low profile out of respect for the process of finding a long-term solution. “I really want to be clear that we continue to believe that none of the discharges either before we became an independent company in mid-2015 or after have adversely impacted anyone’s health,” he said.

While Vergnano is well-respected in the industry for his discipline and execution skills, good timing has played a part in the company’s recovery. Prices for titanium dioxide—the company’s largest product line—stabilized just as Opteon took off, giving Chemours some needed momentum. “Opteon turned the company around,” says James Butkiewicz, a professor of economics at the University of Delaware who has watched Chemours closely since its spinoff.

But Teflon and GenX are casting a shadow over Chemours’s future prospects. Moody’s said recently that it would be unlikely to consider an upgrade for Chemours debt, now at Ba2, “until the litigation risk has better clarity, or until there are clearer settlement parameters with one or more of the complainants.” For both the company and the residents of Wilmington, resolution might not come anytime soon.

If there’s one thing that sticks to Teflon, it seems, it’s controversy.

Like Tylenol, Teflon is a brand name for something far harder to pronounce. The actual material is a concoction called polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE, which was discovered in 1938 by Roy J. Plunkett, a 27-year-old chemist, as he worked on new refrigerants at DuPont’s Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, N.J. One experiment appeared to be a failure. But when Plunkett took the waxy substance left inside a lab cylinder and tested it, he found that the material was extremely resistant to heat and corrosion and possessed almost no surface friction. Teflon’s existence would not be revealed to the public until 1946.

GenX and C8 belong to a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. They are polymerization aids used to make Teflon and similar substances. At the core of these molecules is a carbon-fluorine bond that is extremely strong and resilient, qualities that end up in the finished substance. 3M used to make C8 for its Scotchgard products and also sold the chemical to DuPont for making Teflon. But 3Mstopped production of C8 in 2000 as health concerns started to mount about exposure to the chemical. (In February 2018 the company agreed to pay $850 million to the state of Minnesota to settle claims that fluorochemical discharges from its factories contaminated drinking water near St. Paul; in ?announcing the settlement, 3M said it didn’t believe there was a PFC-related public health issue.) By the end of 2000, DuPont was making C8 at the Fayetteville Works and shipping the chemical to its factory in Parkersburg, W.Va., to make Teflon.

DuPont eventually decided to move on from C8 as well. Epidemiological studies have tied C8 to thyroid disease, certain kinds of cancer, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and high cholesterol. Even as DuPont was fighting lawsuits tied to the Parkersburg complex (now owned by Chemours), it was working with other chemical companies and the government to phase out C8. That program started in 2006, and the companies agreed to eliminate C8 and similar chemicals by 2015. They accomplished that goal but were left with a separate problem: DuPont still needed a polymerization aid.

Enter GenX.

“People ask me why I don’t just walk away,” says one angry resident. “I didn’t cause this. They did.”

There was reason to believe the chemical would be less problematic than its predecessor. C8 has eight carbon atoms. GenX compounds are short-chain PFAS molecules, with only six carbon atoms, and some research indicated that a shorter chain might be less toxic and less likely to build up in organisms. In marketing materials, the GenX technology was touted as having a “favorable toxicological profile.”

In 2009, DuPont entered into a consent order with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that allowed the production of GenX, provided there were strict emissions controls and further testing of its health effects. Within the scientific community, there is still disagreement over whether the government declared victory too quickly. But DuPont began making GenX at its factory in North Carolina.

The Fayetteville Works is 50 miles northwest from where the City of Wilmington—as well as Brunswick and Pender counties—draws water from a narrow inlet just above the last lock and dam on the Cape Fear, after which the river runs past an enormous pulp mill and becomes brackish with the tides.

布蘭登縣的北端的工廠附近，開普菲兒河在地形圖上幾乎看不出漣漪，只是隔開農場、數目和小鎮的一條泥濘絲帶。費耶特維爾工廠數英里處是世界上最大的生豬屠宰場，曾屬于史密斯菲爾德食品集團，2013年起由一家中國企業控制。這家擁有大量移民，所有者又來自國外的屠宰場曾頻繁出現在新聞頭條中。當然，這都是GenX風波之前。

全氟化學在理論上是復雜的，實踐中可能也不精確。例如，杜邦公司的一位工程師在2002年寫道：“與所有化學工藝一樣，合成目標產品的化學反應過程中會有副反應，過程中產生數十或數百種濃度非常低的副產品。”該工程師說，氟化學“異常復雜”，并解釋說“大部分副產品都是未知化合物”。杜邦不確定是否副產品需要測試并報告，因此向州政府咨詢意見。并沒有州政府回應的記錄。

2012年，環保局科學家們第一次在開普菲兒河發現了GenX。采集水樣里發現了各種各樣的全氟化合物。美國環保署研發辦公室的科學家馬克·斯特萊納說，隨著工業和政府數據庫的大量調查，高分辨質譜的應用能幫研究人員識別各種化合物。一年后，斯特萊納和其他研究人員重新研究開普菲兒河，希望能回答更具有針對性的問題：GenX有多廣泛？在飲用水中存在嗎？他們發現水中含有大量GenX，2016年11月發表在一份學術期刊上，并送給州和地方各層官員。但直到2017年6月，威爾明頓當地報紙《StarNews》才獲得這項研究結果，開始發表一系列關于開普菲兒河污染的報道。

科慕工廠實際上是近3平方英里樹林里的幾個設施。該工廠除了生產GenX，還生產用于燃料電池膜上的Nafion。另一部門仍由杜邦負責，主要生產聚氟乙烯樹脂。2016年4月科慕申請更新排放許可證時，發現Nafion，層壓板和聚乙烯加工將廢水排放到河里之前，都將廢水送到科慕設施的處理廠。科慕稱，GenX生產線都沒有送往污水處理廠。相反，所有廢料已被送往別處處理。但如果真是這樣，GenX為何會出現在開普菲兒河中呢？

2017年6月15日，報紙開始系列報道一周后，科慕一個團隊與威爾明頓當地官員會面。根據StarNews編輯獲準出席記錄下的會議情況，科慕團隊確認GenX來源不是生產線。這是好消息。壞消息是，GenX顯然是工廠中其他化學品的副產品，并且早在1980年就排放到河中。并非設計原因，但也不是簡單的意外。多年以來科慕一直知道，還表示2013年采用的新技術已降低GenX排放量的80％。

科慕團隊告訴官員，沒有必要通知相關情況。該公司產品可持續性總監凱西·奧基夫在6月15日的會議上表示，科慕并未收到指令公開宣布廢水中存在GenX，因為生產許可只包含目標化學物質。奧基夫說：“我們從未使用GenX，只是根據TSCA（有毒物質控制法）要求在無意中生產，由過程的副產品中生成。其生產全程沒有商業意圖，所以無需接受監管。”

奧基夫和團隊成員都在努力減輕會上其他人的恐懼。“我認為有很多地方未明確，”她說。“水里是有這種有毒化學物質。但毒理學第一條規則是，不可離開劑量談毒性。僅僅因為某種物質存在并不意味著一定有害。你知道用球芽甘藍做菜會釋放甲醛嗎？”

Near the factory, at the northern end of Bladen County, the Cape Fear is barely a ripple in the topography, just a muddy ribbon cutting between farms and timber and small towns. A few miles downriver from the Fayetteville Works is the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse, once part of the Smithfield Foods empire and since 2013 controlled by a Chinese conglomerate. The slaughterhouse, with its heavily immigrant workforce and foreign owners, used to dominate the headlines. That was before GenX.

Perfluorinated chemistry is complex in theory but can also be imprecise in practice. For example, a DuPont engineer wrote the following to state regulators in 2002: “As with all chemical processes, side reactions to the desired product reaction create dozens or hundreds of by-products in very low concentrations.” The engineer said the fluorochemistry involved was “exceptionally complicated” and explained that “most of the by-products are unknown compounds.” The company wasn’t sure whether it needed to test for and report these by-products, and asked the state for suggestions. There is no record that the state ever responded.

EPA scientists first detected GenX in the Cape Fear in 2012. Water samples taken then revealed a wide range of perfluorinated compounds. Advances in the use of high-resolution mass spectrometry along with a great deal of sleuthing on industrial and government databases allowed researchers to identify these chemicals, says Mark Strynar, a scientist in the EPA’s Office of Research and Development who led the research. A year later, Strynar and other researchers returned to the river in hopes of answering more pointed questions: How extensive was GenX? And was it showing up in drinking water? Their findings—that there were significant amounts of GenX in the water—were published in an academic journal in November 2016 and sent to a wide range of state and local officials. But little happened until June 2017, when the Wilmington newspaper, the StarNews, got hold of the research and began a series on the Cape Fear’s contamination.

The Chemours factory is really several facilities surrounded by nearly three square miles of woods. Along with GenX, the plant also makes Nafion, used in fuel-cell membranes. Another section is still run by DuPont to make polyvinyl fluoride resins. When Chemours applied for its discharge permit renewal in April 2016, it noted that the Nafion, laminates, and polyvinyl processes all sent their wastewater to the facility’s treatment plant before it was sent to the river. The GenX line, it said, wasn’t even connected to the treatment plant. Rather, all that waste was already being sent off-site. But if that was the case, then how was the chemical ending up in the Cape Fear?

On June 15, 2017, a week after the newspaper began its series, a team from Chemours met with local officials in Wilmington. According to notes from the meeting taken by a StarNews editor who was allowed to attend, the Chemours team confirmed that the GenX wasn’t coming from the production line. That was the good news. The bad news was that GenX was apparently also a by-product of other chemical production at the factory, and it had been released into the river as far back as 1980. This wasn’t exactly by design, but it also wasn’t simply an accident. The company had known about it for years and said that new technology installed in 2013 had captured 80% of the GenX discharges.

Chemours told the officials there had been no need to share that knowledge. Kathy O’Keefe, the company’s director of product sustainability, said at the June 15 meeting that Chemours had no requirement to disclose the presence of GenX in the waste stream because the consent order covered only the substance’s purposeful manufacture. Said O’Keefe: “It was never used. It was produced unintentionally so under the requirements of TSCA (the Toxic Substances Control Act), it’s made in the by-product of the process. There’s no commercial intent there, so it doesn’t get regulated until there’s commercial intent.”

O’Keefe and the others tried to allay the fears in the room. “I think a lot of it is the unknown,” she said. “There’s this toxic chemical in our water. There’s the first rule of toxicology, which is, the dose makes the poison. Just because something is present doesn’t mean it’s going to cause harm. When you cook Brussels sprouts, did you know you release formaldehyde?”

紐約州立大學環境工程教授對的特雷弗·納普是2016年供水系統含GenX報告的主要作者，他說科慕承認的方式簡直令人驚訝。“結合37年來基本上無節制排放的歷史，（他們的態度）簡直令人震驚。”

GenX在空氣或水中的濃度沒有監管標準。北卡羅來納州首先提出7.1萬億分之一（PPT）的健康指引，但隨后降至140 PPT。科慕顧問之一告訴州政府，修訂“沒有科學依據”。自從科慕將廢水送往別處，GenX水平一直低于該州制定的新標準。雖然積極發展，但已是排放30多年之后。2016年研究發現，以前GenX的水平一般在630 PPT左右。納普還表示，研究和水樣采集顯示水里存在多種全氟化學品，都與科慕相關。“GenX是低于140 PPT，但水中還有其他物質，同樣不可忽視。這些還只是一小部分。”

健康指引沒有法律效力。科慕和杜邦在法庭上表示，不能為超出不存在的標準承擔責任。如果地方政府表示飲用水安全，事實也如此，公司就沒有造成損害。“僅因為水中存在化學物質，并不能成為任何一方找麻煩或投訴過失的理由，除非化學物質含量超過人類健康的相關規定。”科慕在一項動議中寫到，希望駁回開普菲爾公共事業管理局和布朗斯維克縣提起的聯邦訴訟。北卡羅來納州在訴訟中聲稱，科慕違反了清潔水源法。州政府稱，由于GenX不是天然物質，監管標準默認為“實際定量限制”，即不超過10 PPT。科慕說該限制實際上沒有根據。

Detlef Knappe, a professor of environmental engineering at N.C. State University and the lead author of the 2016 report on GenX in the water supply, says Chemours’s admission was stunning and revealing. “If you look at the history of 37 years of essentially uncontrolled discharges, it is something that is pretty egregious.”

There is no regulatory level for GenX concentrations in the air or water. North Carolina first set a health advisory of 71,000 parts per trillion (PPT) but then lowered it to 140 PPT. A Chemours consultant told the state there was “no scientific rationale” for the revision. Since Chemours began shipping its wastewater off-site, GenX levels have stayed below the state’s new level. While that’s a positive development, it comes after more than 30 years of discharges; the 2016 study found that GenX levels had typically been about 630 PPT previously. In addition, Knappe says the research and ongoing water sampling revealed the presence of a wide range of other related perfluorinated chemicals, all tied to Chemours. “The elephant in the room is that GenX is below 140, but there’s all these other products in the water. It’s really just a fraction of the total.”

The health advisory has no force of law. Chemours and DuPont have said in court papers that they can’t be liable for exceeding a standard that doesn’t exist. And if the local governments say the water is safe to drink, which they still do, then the companies have not caused any damage. “The mere presence of a chemical in water does not allow a party to seek recovery for nuisance or negligence unless the amount of that chemical exceeds an amount set by regulation for the protection of human health,” they wrote in a motion seeking to dismiss a federal lawsuit filed by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Brunswick County. The state of North Carolina asserted in its lawsuit that Chemours has violated clean-water laws. Because GenX isn’t a natural substance, it said the regulatory standard defaults to a “practical quantitation limit,” no more than 10 PPT. Chemours says that limit has no basis in fact.

GenX環境暴露范圍仍有待確定，而確定范圍才有機會補救。俄亥俄州和西弗吉尼亞州帕克斯堡附近的供水中已發現GenX，來源是北卡羅來納州。 與此同時，科慕正測試過濾系統可否除去費耶特維爾工廠附近居民家井水里的GenX。

1991年，吉姆·麥克瑞搬到科慕工廠以北半英里。他的繼母，姐姐和姐夫也住在附近。盡管家里水井測試時GenX含量在140 PPT以下，但另外一些小木屋的水測試時在400PPT以上。州政府官員告訴他，夏天消暑時去的池塘已遭污染。他和幾十個鄰居已起訴科慕和杜邦，找的是代理公用事業部門的律師。

The full scope of the environmental exposure to GenX is still to be determined—as is the best approach to remediation. GenX has been found in water supplies in Ohio and West Virginia near Parkersburg, where the chemical was shipped from North Carolina. Meanwhile, Chemours is testing whether filtration systems can remove GenX from the well water used by people who live near the Fayetteville Works.

Jim MacRae moved to a house a half-mile north of the Chemours factory in 1991. His stepmother, a sister, and brother-in-law also live nearby. While the well at his house tests below the 140 PPT, another near some cabins he owns is at 400. He says state officials have told him the pond where he cools off in the summer is toxic. And he and dozens of his neighbors have sued Chemours and DuPont, represented by the same attorneys who are handling the litigation on behalf of the utilities.

去年，杜邦和科慕支付3.35億美元解決帕克斯堡及周邊地區的C8訴訟，但麥克瑞堅持認為錢不是重點。“我想要的是已經失去的東西，杜邦和科慕排放之前的干凈水質。”一到晚上他的妻子就開始哭。鄰居們對水里的化學物質充滿恐慌，對水里存在很多年的物質也莫名恐懼。 “所有一切，”麥克瑞說，“都是做不粘鍋的人造成的。”

2018年4月27日的一封信中詳細描述了公司耗資1億美元的排放控制計劃，科慕以為律師表示擔心北卡羅來納州真正想達到的是零排放，他認為這種要求不合法，也不可能實現。然后他打出了愛國牌，稱工廠滿足了“美國軍方、汽車工業、航空航天工業和半導體工業中相當多的含氟聚合物需求，否則各方都會缺少原材料......從而被迫找中國或其他國家的供應商。”

工業化學品的審批過程與藥品不同，通常采用事后監管方式，有證據證明有害才會采取行動。2009年美國環保署批準生產GenX時，也擔心毒性和“生物持久性”。環保署要求杜邦額外測試，包括對實驗動物進行兩年的長期接觸測試。研究表明，大鼠在肝臟，胰腺和睪丸中出現腫瘤。杜邦公司對結果并不重視，稱該結果“與人類健康風險評估無相關性”。

隸屬美國化學理事會FluorCouncil在書面回應中表示，相關化學物質研究充分而且很安全。“基于研究結果，結合其對環境和人體健康的潛在影響，FluoroCouncil成員生產的短鏈基于氟調聚物的產品不符合關注化學品標準。”

但許多科學家不認同給出如此確定的結論。2015年，超過200名研究人員簽署了“馬德里聲明”，主張對GenX和其他PFAS物質采取更仔細的檢查，包括食品容器、消防泡沫和織物保護層等大量產品。

大部分研究表明，GenX不會長時間保留在哺乳動物體內，其生物蓄積性不是很強。但是如果GenX出現在水里，而人們每天都要喝水，對污染物的暴露程度就不一樣。北卡羅來納州立大學毒物學家簡·霍平已開始研究威爾明頓居民可能接觸GenX的情況。首先，她收集了自來水，她和團隊還抽取血液和尿液樣本分析。她提醒道，這項研究的目的并不是將GenX與疾病聯系起來，而且科慕停止排放后已停止采樣。“一個重要問題是，這種化學物質會留在體內多久？即便我們找不到證據，也不意味著風險不存在。只能說明我們在科慕停止排放后五六個月才開始檢測。”

美國環保署已開始正式調查科慕是否遵守2009年的生產許可。一位發言人拒絕就調查情況發表評論。文章發表后，美國環保署計劃5月召開全國會議，主要討論州和地方政府如何處理PFAS污染物。今年夏天，美國環保署應發布GenX毒性值，從而為篩查污染物接觸提供指導，但不是監管標準。因為GenX不在聯邦政府的不受管制污染物監視清單上。

環境保護基金首席資深科學家理查德·丹尼森表示，普魯伊特執掌下的環保署將GenX的監管責任推到各州，然而州政府缺乏足夠人力或資金完成工作。“隨著人們創造出日益復雜的化學品，又隱藏起來，監管如何跟上？”他說。“構成GenX化學特性的物質進入環境之后同樣會引發問題。”

雖然共和黨人普遍支持普魯伊特和環保署所的調整，但GenX問題說明解決區域環境問題的重要性要超過黨派之爭。12月，特朗普任命擔任美國環保署化學品安全和污染預防辦公室主任的邁克爾·杜爾松已退出提名，原因是此前北卡羅來納州兩位共和黨參議員理查德·伯爾和湯姆·提利斯對杜爾松曾擔任行業顧問表示擔憂，尤其是他曾為杜邦處理C8污染問題。如今該職位仍空缺。普魯伊特的將來也不確定。

DuPont and Chemours each paid $335 million last year to settle the C8 lawsuits in and around Parkersburg, but MacRae insisted he wasn’t motivated by money. “I want what I can’t have, and that is what it was before DuPont and Chemours did what they’ve done.” His wife cries at night. His neighbors are filled with panic about what’s in their water now, and with paranoia about what was there for all the years prior. “All of this,” says MacRae, “has been caused by people who didn’t want an egg to stick to a pan.”

In a letter written April 27, 2018, that detailed the company’s $100 million plan for emissions controls, an attorney for Chemours expressed concern that what North Carolina really wanted was zero discharges, which he said would be both unlawful and impossible to achieve. Then, he played the Teflon-patriotism card: The plant supplies a “substantial percentage of the fluoropolymer needs of the U.S. military, the automobile industry, the aerospace industry, and the semiconductor industry—all of whom would otherwise confront severe shortages?…?and be forced to turn to suppliers from China or other foreign nations.”

Industrial chemicals go through a much different approval process than pharmaceuticals. They’re generally considered safe until proven hazardous. When the EPA approved the manufacture of GenX in 2009, the agency had concerns about its toxicity and its “bio-persistence.” It ordered DuPont to conduct additional testing, including a two-year test of laboratory animals to approximate long-term exposure. That research showed that rats developed tumors in the liver, pancreas, and testicles. DuPont downplayed the results and said they were “not considered relevant for human risk assessment.”

The FluoroCouncil, a section of the American Chemistry Council, said in a written response to questions that these chemicals are well-studied and safe. “Based on this research, the short-chain -fluorotelomer-based products manufactured by FluoroCouncil members do not meet criteria for chemicals of concern based on their environmental fate and potential for adverse health effects.”

But many scientists disagree that the science is so settled. In 2015 more than 200 researchers signed what has become known as the Madrid Statement, advocating closer scrutiny of GenX and other PFAS substances, which are in a wide range of products including food containers, firefighting foams, and fabric protectors.

Much of the existing research suggests GenX doesn’t remain in mammals for a long time. It isn’t particularly bio-accumulative. But if GenX is in the water, something a person might use every day, then the exposure to the contaminant could be different. Jane Hoppin, a toxicologist at N.C. State University, has begun a study of Wilmington residents and their potential exposure to GenX. First she sampled people’s tap water. She and her team also took blood and urine samples for analysis. She cautioned that hers is not a study designed to link GenX to illness and that the sampling took place after Chemours had stopped its discharges. “One of the huge questions is, How long does this chemical stay in the body? If we don’t find something, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. It means we got going five or six months after they turned off the source.”

The EPA has opened a formal investigation into whether Chemours is in compliance with the terms of the 2009 consent order. An agency spokesperson declined to comment on its status. The EPA was scheduled to hold a national conference in May, after this article went to press, on PFAS contaminants for state and local governments. This summer the EPA is supposed to release toxicity values for GenX. These can guide screening levels for exposure, but they aren’t regulatory standards. GenX is not on the federal government’s watch list of unregulated contaminants.

Richard Denison, the lead senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, said that the EPA under Pruitt has pushed regulatory responsibilities on GenX to the states, which lack sufficient personnel or funding to do the job properly. “As we innovate increasingly sophisticated chemicals that are shrouded in secrecy, how do we keep up?” he says. “The chemical properties that impart GenX’s functionality are the same things that create problems when it gets down into the environment.”

While Republicans have generally supported Pruitt and the changes he’s made at the EPA, GenX has proved that regional environmental issues often outweigh party affiliation. Michael Dourson, President Trump’s appointee to head the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, withdrew his nomination in December after North Carolina’s two Republican senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, voiced concern about Dourson’s record as an industry consultant, including work for DuPont on C8. The position is still vacant. Pruitt’s own future is also uncertain.

今春晴朗的一天，我在威爾明頓租了一艘皮劃艇，開車經過紙漿廠和屠宰場，到科慕工廠正下方的William O. Huske 船閘和大壩。我把皮艇放在河里開始逆流而上。開普菲爾河平穩安靜地流淌著。水位很高，淹沒了科慕工廠的排水管。我劃了很遠，終于找到科慕從河里抽水的巨大管道。我能聽到工廠的聲音，但幾乎完全隱藏在樹林里。

我想起特氟龍，還有FluoroCouncil會長杰西卡·伯曼寫的“馬德里聲明”回應摘錄。“PFAS化學的重要性，”她寫道，“早已由市場決定。”確實如此。其實每個人都與特氟龍及其衍生物都有聯系。特氟龍在父親體內的支架上，保證血管通暢。特氟龍在雨衣防水材料Gore-Tex中，保持身體干燥。特氟龍在水管工的膠帶上，密封住洗碗機上泄漏的閥。我開始思考萬億分之140的實際含義，相當于奧運會標準游泳池里放上140滴水。

一周后我參加了一個論壇，霍平、納普和另一位同事討論了從威爾明頓居民住宅抽取水樣的結果。盡管濃度均低于健康指引水平，但大多數都含有GenX。

可以想象，事情可能會反轉，GenX不是C8的替代化學物，對居民不再形成威脅，也不會影響科慕的底線。但我想GenX排放已持續30多年。今天的水跟一年前、五年前，甚至20年前早已不是一回事。

會議結束之前，每個人都想找出一個答案。研究人員現在愿意喝下這里未經過濾的自來水嗎？科學家們幾乎毫不猶豫：不，不，絕不。（財富中文網）

原文發表于2018年6月1日出版的《財富》雜志。

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

One sunny day this spring, I rented a kayak in Wilmington and drove up past the pulp mill and the slaughterhouse to the William O. Huske Lock and Dam just below the Chemours factory. I put the kayak in the river and started paddling upstream. The Cape Fear was flat and quiet. The water was high, and the Chemours discharge pipe was submerged and invisible. I paddled farther and eventually came to the large tubes where the company draws water from the river. I could hear the factory, but it was all but lost beyond the trees.

I was thinking about Teflon and about a snippet of a response to the Madrid Statement written by Jessica Bowman, who is the president of the FluoroCouncil. “The importance of PFAS chemistry,” she wrote, “was long ago determined by the market.” Which was true. Everybody I talked with had a connection to Teflon and its progeny. It was in their father’s stent, keeping him alive. Or it was in the Gore-Tex on their rain jacket, keeping them dry. It was in the plumber’s tape that sealed the leaking valve on my dishwasher. I thought about what 140 parts per trillion actually means, which is this: 140 drops of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

A week later I attended a forum where Hoppin, Knappe, and another colleague discussed the results of the water samples drawn from homes in Wilmington. Most had some GenX, although all the concentrations were below the advisory levels.

It was possible to imagine that the whole thing might blow over, that GenX was not the son of C8 and was no longer a threat to residents or to Chemours’s bottom line. But then I remembered that the release of GenX went on for more than 30 years. What’s in the water today is not what was there a year ago, or five, or 20.

Before the meeting broke up, there was one question everybody wanted answered. Would these researchers drink the city’s unfiltered tap water today? There was little hesitation from the scientists before answering: No, no, and no.

This article originally appeared in the June 1, 2018 issue of Fortune.