SHAWN STEVENSON: What if a billion dollar company was knowingly poisoning US citizens who were simply trying to feed their families? What if this company used a chemical that is now showing up in the blood of over 99 percent of the world's population? And what if this company used the US government to hide the truth about what they were doing? Today, you're going to discover how one of the most common things in kitchens all over the world have been slowly poisoning families for decades. For many years, conventional quote nonstick cookware has been used by families under the assumption that they were safe. Conventional nonstick cookware is coated with a material called polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE, commonly known as Teflon.

Some of the powerful chemicals used to make Teflon provide its remarkable qualities. It's non-stick, it's oil repellent, and it's water repellent. It essentially provides a potent chemical shield. One of the most notorious compounds used to make Teflon cookware is a chemical known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA. The makers of the massively popular Teflon cookware is the company DuPont, and they refer to PFOA as C eight. Now, whether it's referred to as PFOA or C eight, this chemical is a part of an ever expanding list of PFAS chemicals or as scientists are referring to them as forever chemicals. Check out this recent segment on these forever chemicals that was featured on CBS Sunday morning.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING: PFAS is an acronym for a family of man made compounds called per and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The CDC has listed a host of health effects believed to be associated with exposure to those chemicals, including cancer, liver damage, increased cholesterol, and a lot more. The chemicals are so highly mobile, they're Not only being found in soil and groundwater, but in the atmosphere, too. In fact, they've even been detected in raindrops, falling in some of the most remote areas of the world. This story is about a new plastic material, trademarked Teflon. PFAS chemicals have been around for decades. Oh, good thing it's Teflon. DuPont was the first to use PFAS in Teflon, giving us those non-stick pots and pans.

Half of this piece of carpet has been treated with this new finish. The other half has not. 3M used a different PFAS in its once popular fabric protector, scotchgard. Today, those chemical cousins can still be found in almost anything designed to fend off oil or water or grease. That includes things like pizza boxes, paper plates, rain jackets, ski wax, even guitar strings. PFAS are basically impossible to escape. And scientists say they are likely here to stay.

PATRICK McROY: They are nearly indestructible. You just can't get rid of them. You can't get rid of them.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING: Patrick McRoy, the former deputy director of the advocacy group Defend Our Health in Maine, explains just why that staying power is so very troubling.

PATRICK McROY: A lot of chemicals, when they go into your body or when they end up in the environment, they break down, they slowly decompose. PFAS don't do that. Once you put PFAS somewhere, it's going to stay there practically forever.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING:  That means the levels of these so called forever chemicals can build up and linger in our bloodstreams forever.

SHAWN STEVENSON: DuPont began making Teflon in 1945. They borrowed and built on the chemical discoveries from another company called 3M in order to make it. Some of the most premier scientists in the world work for DuPont and other companies striving to use chemistry for consumer goods. DuPont continued to study Teflon throughout the 1950s and 60s and very early on DuPont scientists and executives became aware that Teflon had some severe side effects.

In fact, 3M sent them some trial data demonstrating that PFOA consistently caused birth defects in rats exposed to the chemical. In particular, defects to their eyes. Dupont had about 50 female employees working around these chemicals at the time. And as an unclear act of caution, DuPont began reassigning them to other departments away from the chemicals. Their lawyers stated that there was no danger to the women or men, only to fetuses. Here's DuPont's corporate medical director, Dr. Bruce Karrh, being questioned under oath, in a court discovery interview.

THE DEVIL WE KNOW DOCUMENTARY

INTERVIEWER: How do you recall C8 first coming to your attention?

DR. BRUCE KARRH: First recollection I have of it is when the supplier of the chemical, the 3M company, provided DuPont with some information about rats that had been subjected to exposure to the chemical.

INTERVIEWER: 3M had some test data indicating potential birth defects here in the eyes of rats. Fetuses falling exposure to C 8 correct?

DR. BRUCE KARRH: That's correct.

INTERVIEWER: So you, you did see there was a substantial risk to the women at the DuPont plant who were exposed to C 8 enough to remove them from further exposure. Correct?

DR. BRUCE KARRH: No, there was no. No, there was no potential risk to the women based upon the 3M study. There was a potential risk to the fetus.

SHAWN STEVENSON: That segment was from the wonderful documentary titled The Devil We Know. Exposing DuPont's cover up of the dangers of PFOA. Again, you just heard from DuPont's corporate medical director, Dr. Bruce Karrh, and his illegal deflection was that the early document Warned of only harm to unborn people, not to people who were born. Nice one, Bruce, but there's more.

THE DEVIL WE KNOW DOCUMENTARY: All the way back to the 60s, they are aware, clearly aware of the risk of the product. Their own documents show that this is a toxin.

SPEAKER: They continued to find toxicity effects through the late 1960s. By 1988, They started doing cancer studies.

INTERVIEWER: In that particular study, an increased rate of Leydig cell tumors were found, correct?

SPEAKER: Uh, that is correct.

SPEAKER: Their studies were showing rats dying, dogs dying, monkeys dying. They were seeing testicular tumors, liver disease, pancreatic disease.

INTERVIEWER: Unfortunately, monkeys even at the lowest dose were dying after being exposed to PFOA.

SPEAKER: And they know that these primate studies have a direct relationship to what we'll find in the human population.

SHAWN STEVENSON: The person admitting under oath to PFOA creating cancer tumors was DuPont's chief scientist, Robert Ricard. Now, did DuPont only run toxicity studies on animals? Not in the slightest. In fact, one of their most notorious studies was done in 1962 where DuPont scientists conducted two controlled experiments on human volunteers to study the Teflon related illness called Polymer Fume Fever or, "Teflon Fever".

The company laced cigarettes with Teflon and had the volunteers to smoke them. The majority of participants experienced flu-like symptoms that included chills, backache, fever, and coughing. So whether it was from breathing in PFOA or from it being integrated into our food or into our water system, and that was one of the biggest issues facing the communities who were impacted by DuPont, was this toxin being placed into their water supply.

Yes. This was just a part of their normal business practices. And it was eventually found that somewhere in the ballpark of about one part per billion was enough to potentially cause harm to humans. And what that means is, about a drop of PFOA added to an Olympic sized swimming pool filled with water is enough, potentially, to cause serious harm. And there were many animals who were drinking and interacting with this water supply, and obviously it was being funneled into the homes of millions of people as well.

So whether it was direct exposure by working around these chemicals or due to the impact that it was having on the water system or again, what was happening when people were simply using this cookware and the associated fumes, the associated breakdown into the food itself was causing massive concern. And again to stress that they weren't just doing animal studies. They also conducted one of the largest human health studies ever done. Check out this next segment from the documentary The Devil We Know.

THE DEVIL WE KNOW DOCUMENTARY: They designed the most world class studies that have ever been done on a pollutant. They spent seven years, seven years studying this community. What other chemical do you have this kind of information about? The science is unequivocal now. And in 2012, they said that there was a link between drinking this in the water and six different diseases. Kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, preeclampsia, and high cholesterol.

SHAWN STEVENSON: With all of these known detrimental health impacts of PFOA. You might be wondering, how were they able to even put this into the environment in the first place? Well, when you do a little bit of digging, you find out this intimate relationship that DuPont had with the EPA. Right? The Environmental Protection Agency. The agency, the government agency, that's tasked with protecting our environment. And we are part of our environment. And you'll find that there were certain chemicals that were “grandfathered” in that were left up to the company to "self regulate" because there wasn't regulation from the EPA directly on chemicals that were created around the time that PFOA was created.

So DuPont had the luxury of self regulating themselves on whether or not this chemical was harmful, and this is absolutely true. Now to take this a step further, once this news got out to the public and so many people were being injured and killed. By PFOA, suddenly DuPont made this very interesting chess move to start recruiting members, former members of the EPA, the environmental protection agency to come and work for DuPont. And so now they have all of this insider information. They have this ability to understand policy. And in fact, one of the people that DuPont hired was the EPA's former deputy administrator, Mike McCabe.

Again, he's the number two person at the EPA and he left there and was hired to work at DuPont. So again, if you're wondering how they got away with this for so long, for so many years, they were playing chess while the rest of the world was playing checkers. And just trusting that this promise of better living through chemistry in particular when it comes to our household products was safe.

But little did we know we were being invaded our bodies and our environment with this newly created class of forever chemicals that simply we're not breaking down. Sun exposure UV exposure would not break these chemicals down. Bacteria would not break these chemicals down. High heat would not break these chemicals down. They simply would not go anywhere and led to influence literally on our DNA. Led to influence on the gastrointestinal tract. The brain, the cardiovascular system, the list goes on and on. There really isn't a part of our bodies that these chemicals were not found in some form or fashion to damage. Now, when the term forever chemicals is used, I really want you to understand just how prevalent and inescapable chemicals like C8, AKA PFOAs can be.

Here is Ken Cook from the Environmental Working Group talking about DuPont attempting to assess the contamination levels in their employees, but dealing with a startling curveball.

KEN COOK: At first, 3M and DuPont were checking to see the contamination levels of their workers. And so, naturally, they needed control. They needed to compare those workers' blood levels of CA with the population, so they could see what the difference was. So they started going to archived blood supplies and checking to see what clean blood versus the blood of their workers might look like. There was no clean blood. They tested kids.

They tested adults. They went to Asia. They went all over the world. And everywhere they looked, practically, they found their chemicals in people's blood. Eventually, they did find some clean blood. It turned out it was the blood that had been taken from army recruits and archived, saved, at the start of the Korean War. That blood was clean because the Teflon chemicals weren't out into the environment at that point. The main sources of exposure are still something of a mystery.

The likely culprits, though, are industrial waste. and the consumer products that shed this material over time. Today, every baby is probably on the planet, but certainly in the developed world where all of these chemicals are widely used, every baby is born with at least some level of C8 of PFOS and PFOA in their, in their blood. That's the essence of exposure, lifelong exposure, and it's involuntary. No one said, Hey, you know, I'm, I'm good with a little Teflon chemical in my baby's blood. No one said that. They said, I love these pans.

SHAWN STEVENSON: After many years of evading public knowledge and sidestepping government oversight. Finally, in 2013, about just 10 years ago, PFOA was cycled out from use in making cookware. One of the deflection points that DuPont had used for years when it comes to cookware is that this only happens when Teflon pans are heated at high temperatures for long periods of time.

You don't have to worry if it's not done under those circumstances. The truth is those variables change depending upon which dish someone is cooking, but that should have never given PFOAs a free pass in cookware in the first place. More recently, data cited in the journal environmental science and pollution research international stated that even at normal temperatures, "PTFE coated cookware releases various gases and chemicals that present mild to severe toxicity".

They might have taken PFOA out, but it's clearly not the only concern with this toxic cookware. The study goes on to state, "Due to toxicity concerns, PFOA has been replaced with other chemicals such as Gen X, but these new alternatives are also suspected to have similar toxicity". You don't say.

In an EPA report with data directly from DuPont, Gen X, their solution to PFOA, their replacement Gen X was found to be nearly as toxic as the chemicals it was proposed to replace, including being a strong carcinogen, being a strong cancer causing agent. Now the question is, do you think that this is just an anomaly? This situation with DuPont is just a once in a lifetime occurrence, or is it just this one category of chemicals and this one category of consumer goods being cookware that this company was able to sidestep public awareness and sidestep government regulation and continue to harm and literally kill citizens, global citizens.

Is this just an anomaly? Well, tens of thousands of newly invented chemicals are created and released into our environment each and every year. A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment states that "the research community is falling woefully behind in studying the chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other novel concoctions discharging into our air, our oceans, waterways, soil, and food chain."

SHAWN STEVENSON: Again, the scientific community can't even keep up with all of the newly invented chemicals that these corporations are coming up with. And not to mention their entourage effect, what happens when these chemicals are combined, whether it's in our food, whether it's in our soil, are our water system or in our consumer products.

A lot of times these chemicals are studied in isolation. They're not studied with one another. And so this speaks to the importance of us being proactive and not waiting around for these companies and government regulation to get it right. For us to make sure that we're investing in our own health and looking out for our own families and making sure doing to the best of our ability, getting products, especially consumer products and our food, making sure that we're getting our food from great sources, making sure we're getting our consumer products from great sources.

And in particular, one of the most impactful changes that we can make is swapping out our toxic cookware and really upgrading our kitchen environment. And I wanted to provide you with some insights, some tips and tools for us to do this work to swap out some of these toxic cookware items that a lot of times we simply don't even know that these are toxic, that these are utilizing these chemicals. Whether it's from some old stuff, because If your family's like mine, we tended to keep pots and pans around for years and years and years long after they're all chipped up and scraped up and the era of PFOAs, that cookware is still in circulation.

But again, nonstick cookware has been changed. That compound is now actually going to be outlawed in some parts of the world. But, the attempts to make nonstick cookware simply led to more toxic compounds being used because they're using that same train of thought. Using newly invented compounds to try to trick nature. Whereas we have time tested cookware options that have been utilized for centuries by humans that are proven to be safe. And they can do a lot of the dynamic things that we want to do in the kitchen because also we want to enjoy the process of cooking when it all boils down to it. That's why nonstick cooking was so attractive. It's so seductive. Easier to make the dishes, easier to clean. Who doesn't want that?

And so with that said, let's dive in to some simple, smart time tested upgrades that can do different things and the different things that we want to do in the kitchen. And so to upgrade your cookware, let's start off with one of the most time tested forms of cookware. And again, this is not for every cooking purpose, but we're going to start off with a great option in the form of stainless steel.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Stainless steel is time tested, incredibly durable, and relatively inexpensive. Stainless steel pots and pans are great for sauteing and browning our food, while stainless steel baking pans are easy and dependable for popping a variety of foods into the oven. Selecting stainless steel based pressure cookers are a good option as well. By the way, a lot of pressure cookers are utilizing some of those nonstick chemicals that off gas and get these chemicals into our environment and into our food. So stainless steel cookware is scratch resistant, long lasting, and a staple for any healthy kitchen. Now to be clear, no one said that stainless steel is effectively non stick or easy to cook with coming out of the gate, you know if you're a beginner or even a novice. Stainless steel does require some finesse to be able to cook with it and to do the things we want to do in the kitchen. But there are some other options that are much easier to work with and one of those being Cast iron cookware.

When a cast iron pan is seasoned properly, it makes a great upgrade for nonstick cooking purposes. It's perfect for high heat cooking and can easily go from stovetop cooking to being placed into the oven. If cared for, a cast iron pan can last for generations. So this is obviously a staple in any health minded kitchen and for me personally, I'm very attached to my cast iron pan. So I wasn't really willing or skeptical to utilize anything else but to take it a step further for non stick cooking purposes for easy cleanup and also adding beauty to our kitchen. I've got to tell you my family's been utilizing the beautiful ceramic, coated cookware from our place and we love it. Oh my goodness.

My wife, and this is her direct quote. She said that "I don't think you understand what links I'll go to for a nonstick pan." That's a direct quote from Ann Stevenson. She was just saying that in the kitchen one day. And I was like, what links will you go through? You know, but anyways, because she knew that I was skeptical on trying anything else and, you know, adding this layer of beauty to our kitchen. Also the diversity, you've got all these different types of pots and pans. Whether it's their amazing always pan that we use literally every single day or their perfect pots. They've got pans and pots of all sizes. So that really helped for us to swap out the old kitchen cookware that we were using. And just kind of hanging on to and really just upgrading things with this non toxic ceramic option is so amazing.

And again, there's so many beautiful options. Our place is an absolutely amazing company and they've really been leading the change. They've always been PFAS free and offers the most durable toxin free ceramic coatings ensuring a healthy safe cooking experience. And if you want to check them out, they've got over 75, 000 five star reviews and their award winning products have been featured in the New York times, Bon Appetit, and many other places. I'm telling you right now, I was so happy about utilizing these and the fact that my wife loved them as well. And also just adding the beauty to the kitchen, that dynamic, which I didn't even realize how much more brightness is added to our kitchen. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I connected with them and I wanted to see if there was some kind of discount that we can get for our audience. And fortunately they were able to hook us up with 10 percent off store wide. So if you go to themodelhealthshow.com/ourplace and use the code model at checkout. They're going to get you 10 off all of their incredible cookware. And also they got some great appliances as well. One of those other things that I wanted to make sure that you know about where we have this plasticized coating is air fryers, all right. Air fryers are popping out here and they're awesome all right. But again, you can just be air frying and polluting the air in your kitchen, substantially, and also these compounds are getting into your food.

If you're not utilizing an air fryer, that's free of these compounds. And our place has you covered there as well, because they've got an incredible air fryer that does other jobs as well called the wonder oven. So again, so many great things. Check them out. Go to themodelhealthshow.com/ourplace.

All right. This is where you're going to get your hookup. When you're at checkout, use the code model, use the code model for 10 percent off. And one other word, we just decided to get an entire cookware set. And so they also have deeper discounts on those things that are already there. And so you'll be able to take advantage of those deeper discounts.

Again, when you go to themodelhealthshow.com/ourplace. Now, keep in mind, this episode is very, very important and very, very powerful because we're exposing one of the most nefarious acts that have taken place in modern human society. We had a corporation knowingly poisoning our citizens with this newly invented chemical promising all these great benefits and knowing how much it was going to cost them to pull that chemical out. And that's what it was really about skating by doing whatever they could as long as they could to make as much money as they could by avoiding changing out something that they knew was dangerous. And I'm telling you, DuPont is not the only company that has done that. We've got to do better.

But one of the most important things that we can do is to vote with our dollar. When we find out that these organizations are practicing business like this, we have to stand up. We have to say no, and we have to invest our dollars in companies that are doing the right thing. And also we have to stay educated and we have to start seeing through different eyes, seeing through different lenses because we live in a world right now that is radically different from just a century ago.

I mean, radically different. As I mentioned in that segment, they had to go back and test the blood of some individuals that were prior to 1945. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Before this chemical hit the scene to find people that were not infected, that were not carrying this new group of PFAS chemicals, these forever chemicals that are known to cause all manner of dysfunction, right? So now if we're born into this world, Unfortunately, but this is, it is what it is. We're born into a very toxic environment, but the good news is we are resilient. Humans are so powerful to be able to adapt, to become stronger when faced with adversity. But that means we have to take care to let's limit our exposure to the best of our ability to these toxins that are coming through our food.

Mainly we're going to find the vast majority of newly invented chemicals in ultra processed foods. So eating real food, eating more real food, nutrient dense food. Doing our best to eat organic when we can. Using non toxic cookware, using, to the best of our ability, non toxic personal care and cleaning products. Again, really taking control of our own home environment. That's where we have the most power. Once we step foot outside of our doors, it becomes a little bit more complicated. But we know that we can create a movement. You know, there's a tipping point as this information gets out to more people, to more families and our demand and our standards is elevated.

Right now we're in a transitionary phase. The great news is we have access to information like this. That's directly right there with us all the time. All you got to do is click play and you can get educated and you can make healthier decisions. We've got to share this information. That tipping point to where health is normalized, where we stop allowing companies to self regulate and create all these dangerous chemical compounds and then releasing them into our environment that's causing our citizens harm. That change, that tipping point, us reaching that is going to be accelerated by you making an impact, number one, within your own household, but then impacting one family, one family member. Maybe your community, maybe your neighborhood, maybe an online community, but just sharing your voice, sharing your experience, sharing this information.

So please share this information out, send this episode to somebody that you care about. Get this education into more people's hands. So it said that when we know better, we do better. And knowledge is not power in and of itself. Knowledge is potential power. When we apply that knowledge, when knowledge is activated, that's where the real power is. So take this information that you learned today and do something, take action, make an upgrade.

I appreciate you so much for tuning into this episode today. We've got some epic masterclasses and world class guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned, take care, have an amazing day and I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You can find transcriptions, videos for each episode. And if you've got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much and take care. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.