PFAS ubiquity as corporate accomplishment: Whiteness in early Teflon advertisements

Abstract In recent years, per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination has attracted significant media attention. However, little is known about the efforts of chemical corporations to produce consumer markets for PFAS in the Global North. In this article, we reframe PFAS contamination by shifting from characterising PFAS as “emerging contaminants” owing to a prior state of public ignorance, to understanding ubiquitous PFAS exposure as an indicator of environmental violence under colonial racial capitalism. We examine how chemical manufacturers constructed U.S. consumer markets for PFAS‐containing products in the aftermath of World War II. To better understand contemporary PFAS contamination, we turn to the initial military applications of PFAS in the Manhattan Project and examine subsequent corporate efforts to construct civilian markets for synthetic nonstick products in the mid‐twentieth century. Using archival data from advertising campaigns for nonstick cookware, we analyse the roles of white, heterosexual, feminine imagery in early market development. We argue that imagery of white women facilitated the initial normalisation and expansion of domestic chemical markets in the post‐war period. We elevate the work of corporate actors to construct, maintain, and expand markets for PFAS, arguing that these organisations—and the systems that permit their behaviour—are worthy of further study.