How the Disaster of “Forever Chemicals” Was Kept Secret

“永久化学物质”灾难是如何被掩盖的

Description: We now know harmful “forever chemicals” are likely in the bodies of most people on earth. Decades ago, 3M knew that these chemicals had seeped into the public’s blood, but they kept that a secret. One 3M scientist helped reporter Sharon Lerner understand how they kept it quiet for so long. Read the original story here. 描述： 我们现在知道，有害的“永久化学物质”很可能存在于地球上大多数人的体内。几十年前，3M公司就已经知道这些化学物质已经渗入公众的血液，但他们对此守口如瓶。一位3M公司的科学家帮助记者莎伦·勒纳（Sharon Lerner）了解了他们是如何将这一秘密隐藏如此之久的。点击此处阅读原始报道。

Transcript Editor’s Note: “Paper Trail” is produced as an audio series. If you are able, we encourage you to listen to the series. This transcript has been lightly edited for style. 文字记录编辑注： 《纸上踪迹》（Paper Trail）是以音频系列形式制作的。如果条件允许，我们鼓励您收听该系列节目。本文字记录为方便阅读已进行轻微编辑。

Jessica Lussenhop: So I know that you don’t know me. But you and I probably have something in common. It’s quite likely that inside you and me and almost every living thing on this crazy blue marble … is a little substance called … “forever chemicals.” 杰西卡·卢森霍普（Jessica Lussenhop）： 我知道你不认识我。但你我之间可能有一些共同点。很有可能，在你、我以及这颗疯狂蓝色星球上的几乎每一个生物体内……都存在一种被称为“永久化学物质”的小东西。

I’m sure you’ve heard of them. These are the chemicals, invented by humans, coating products like nonstick pans. For decades, they were put in food packaging — like, they used to be on McDonald’s hamburger wrappers. They’re in mascara and firefighting foam. On couches, carpets and raincoats, to make them stainproof and water-repellent. And from those products and from factories they’ve spread … everywhere. 我相信你一定听说过它们。这些由人类发明的化学物质，被涂在不粘锅等产品上。几十年来，它们一直被用于食品包装——比如，它们曾出现在麦当劳的汉堡包装纸上。它们存在于睫毛膏和消防泡沫中。在沙发、地毯和雨衣上，它们被用来防污和防水。从这些产品和工厂中，它们已经扩散到了……每一个角落。

Lerner: It’s become clear that these chemicals are actually in every state and in every country and in everybody. 勒纳： 现在已经很清楚了，这些化学物质实际上存在于每一个州、每一个国家以及每一个人的体内。

Lussenhop: My ProPublica colleague Sharon Lerner is one of the many people who helped uncover this. Forever chemicals — also known as PFAS — are … forever. They don’t break down easily in the environment or in our bodies. 卢森霍普： 我的ProPublica同事莎伦·勒纳是帮助揭露这一事实的众多人士之一。永久化学物质——也被称为PFAS——是……永久的。它们在环境中或我们的体内都不容易分解。

Lerner: They have developmental effects, immune effects. Thyroid, liver, hormonal systems. Some cause cancer, kidney cancer, obesity. They bind to proteins in your blood, and they change how systems in your bodies work. 勒纳： 它们会产生发育影响和免疫影响。涉及甲状腺、肝脏和荷尔蒙系统。有些会导致癌症、肾癌和肥胖。它们会与你血液中的蛋白质结合，并改变你体内系统的运作方式。

Lussenhop: By the time all this became public, people like you and I had been happily eating our hamburgers and lazing on our couches for decades with no idea those chemicals even existed or that they were getting inside of our bodies. But about 10 years ago, Sharon started reporting on a group of people who did know. 卢森霍普： 当这一切公之于众时，像你我这样的人已经快乐地吃了几十年的汉堡，懒洋洋地躺在沙发上，却根本不知道这些化学物质的存在，也不知道它们正在进入我们的身体。但大约10年前，莎伦开始报道一群知情人士。

Lerner: And I spent a lot of time in those 10 years figuring out what the companies that put those chemicals into the environment and ultimately into all of us: what they knew about it while they were doing it. 勒纳： 在那10年里，我花了很多时间去弄清楚那些将化学物质排放到环境中并最终进入我们所有人身体的公司：他们在做这些事的时候，到底了解多少情况。

Lussenhop: She learned that 3M, the company that pioneered the production of these chemicals, knew that these chemicals were toxic for decades, since the 1970s, but they kept making them anyway. 卢森霍普： 她了解到，作为这些化学物质生产先驱的3M公司，早在20世纪70年代就知道这些化学物质是有毒的，但他们依然坚持生产。

Lerner: That’s what transformed, kind of, a tiny problem into a planet-changing disaster. It could’ve been stopped. 勒纳： 这就是将一个小问题演变成一场改变地球的灾难的原因。它本是可以被阻止的。

Lussenhop: Sharon wrote roughly 60 stories about forever chemicals and investigated: What exactly did these companies know, and when did they know it? But there was one question in all of her reporting that she never got an answer to: How did they keep it a secret for so long? No one inside 3M who knew the secret had ever agreed to talk to her. But then … 卢森霍普： 莎伦撰写了大约60篇关于永久化学物质的报道，并调查了：这些公司到底知道什么，以及他们是什么时候知道的？但在她所有的报道中，有一个问题她始终没有得到答案：他们是如何将这个秘密隐藏这么久的？3M公司内部没有任何知情者愿意与她交谈。但后来……

Lerner: I got an email from a scientist, and she said she used to work at 3M. 勒纳： 我收到了一位科学家的电子邮件，她说她曾在3M工作过。

Lussenhop: This person wrote that she had worked in 3M’s environmental lab in the 1990s, when she was a young scientist. And she had handled, quote, “highly sensitive data.” It quickly became clear that she had known something about forever chemicals long before the public did … but she’d never talked about it publicly. 卢森霍普： 此人写道，她在20世纪90年代担任年轻科学家时，曾在3M的环境实验室工作。她曾处理过所谓的“高度敏感数据”。很快人们就清楚了，她在公众知情之前很久就已经了解关于永久化学物质的一些情况……但她从未公开谈论过。

Lerner (reading): She said, I recently left 3M […] after a 27-year career … 勒纳（阅读）： 她说，我在3M工作了27年后，最近离开了……

Lussenhop: And now, all these years later, she wanted to talk. 卢森霍普： 而现在，时隔多年，她想谈谈了。

Lerner (reading): I realized that the narrative I have is a missing piece of at least one strand of the story. I thought, “Hmm, intriguing.” 勒纳（阅读）： 我意识到我所掌握的叙述是这个故事至少其中一条线索的缺失部分。我想，“嗯，很有趣。”

Lussenhop: How does a company with thousands of employees, thousands of human beings, how do they keep a secret this big for this long? A secret that affects the lives of nearly every living being on the planet. Maybe, Sharon thought, this former 3M insider could explain. 卢森霍普： 一家拥有数千名员工、数千名人类的公司，是如何将如此重大的秘密隐藏这么久的？一个影响着地球上几乎每一个生物生命的秘密。莎伦心想，也许这位3M的前内部人士能给出解释。