[0:00]
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. 
[0:31]
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. 
[1:01]
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. 
[1:33]
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. 
[2:04]
Head to the link in bio to find out more about my story.