Investors demand end to ‘forever’ chemicals
A coalition of asset managers is demanding the phaseout of hazardous “forever” chemicals, the latest move by institutional investors to expand their efforts to address environmental risks beyond climate change to biodiversity and human health concerns. Widely used in food packaging, cookware, clothing and carpets, forever chemicals are a group of more than 9,000 compounds that do not break down in the environment and are associated with human health problems including cancers and reproductive abnormalities. … California’s attorney-general, Rob Bonta, alleged in a lawsuit last month that 18 chemical companies knew about the dangers associated with PFAS and concealed the risks in many cases. The lawsuit claims that PFAS have leached into at least 146 public water systems, serving an estimated 16mn Californians.