[cyanydeez]

It's actually fascinating just how much power private business has to keep their chemical lists private _now_, in the _past_ and concievably in the future.

The fact that we can't just ask them "what were you chemically making 20 years ago" is really an absurd blackhole in regulatory frameworks.

Basically, even the leading edge regulatory frameworks tackling PFAS are doing so _after it's polluted things_ and has _no idea_ what they're associated with, other than large scale manufacturing, 3M, etc.

On the one hand, it's easy to understand since manufaturing has so many different components, but a sheer "there's clearly chemists somewhere, making this shit up and detailing what they're doing" issue, it's pathetic.

[wddkcs]

It's not pathetic, it's a collection issue. Estimate the cost of setting up that regulatory framework, and the cost of that reporting on the businesses themselves, and you'll quickly understand why it hasn't been done. Even the cost of estimating, is itself a cost. Without proper awareness of the issue and incentive to fix, a lack of that information isn't anything other than a natural consequence of reality.

[mandmandam]

> Without proper awareness of the issue and incentive to fix

They were aware, and the incentive to fix was there. There have been consistent and sustained attempt to cover up these issues for decades, because of sheer greed.

[wddkcs]

So greed was the strongest incentive? That means they weren't properly incentivized.