My name is Chris Hansen
and I was gas lit by 3M
to think that the forever chemicals
that I found in human blood were safe.
I started working for 3M in 1996 and I was 27 years old.
I took the job working at 3 a m.
In the environmental lab
because I thought maybe I could make a difference.
I'm an analytical chemist and so I developed methods.
Um, one of the things that I did was to develop a really sensitive
method for a group of compounds we now call PFAS.
PFAS is extremely long lived.
It builds up in the human body.
So both sticks around in the environment
and it sticks around in humans.
So I found that PFAS compounds were prevalent in the environment
and in the blood of almost every person on earth.
You know, I didn't know it was toxic at the time,
but I know that now.
It was a whole spectrum of responses to the data,
but a lot of people were very doubtful
and they questioned not the data so much as me.
They questioned my integrity and my motivation and my skill.
So that was pretty hard.
At the time, I didn't really think that I was being gaslit.
I was so stressed and working so hard to find the data.
I was lacking in self confidence
because of the feedback that I was getting.
But I didn't really think to apply the term gaslighting
until many years Later
and I could look back at the situation with some distance.
I will say there
there was not a lot of women scientists at 3:00am at the time.
And there was many times where I felt that
I was not a member of the club.
It was really easy to slip into doubting myself
and doubting the work that I had done.
Knowing what I know now,
I'm embarrassed and I'm angry.
Mostly, I'm really angry.
I'm angry at the decision makers at 3:00am
that allowed this situation to grow into a global crisis.
It could have been stopped so many times
and so much sooner than when I made my discovery.
Head to the link in bio to find out more about my story.