The founders of Chemical Fabrics, including John R.
Readings have been reported in animals as far north as the Arctic Circle. The substance is believed to be detectable at some level in the blood of nearly every human being in the United States. PFOA has emerged over the past two decades as an enduring contamination threat to drinking water supplies.
The Teflon byproduct has been found in other industrial sites in the United States and across the globe. Perfluorooctanoic acid, which is highly toxic in very small concentrations, has since polluted soils and drinking water in Bennington. That optimism was only justified if you weren’t aware - as we are today - of the widespread, environmental damage from PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) used in the production of the company's revolutionary Teflon fabrics. In retrospect, the effusive language officials used to describe the supposedly emission-free chemical plant is chilling. That outsized confidence was borne out by the eventual success of the fledgling ChemFab firm located in this bucolic town in southwestern Vermont, adjacent to New York State and 10 miles north of the Massachusetts border.ĬhemFab quickly became famous for Teflon-coated fiberglass fabrics used on sports stadium domes and other structures. “Absolutely no pollutants are given off by our operation,” he would say. There would be no industrial wastes from the new industry and fumes from the drying process would be odor free and non-toxic, a company official insisted in an interview with a Bennington Banner reporter in 1968. That 1968 quote from the vice president of the newly formed Chemical Fabrics Corporation set the tone for a honeymoon period with the Bennington community that lasted more than 30 years. NORTH BENNINGTON - “The area within a 15-mile radius of Bennington may well be the Teflon glass coating capital of the world.”
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