And just like those other things, and smoking, and climate change, etc. ad nauseum, the people who make those chemicals have known for a very long time they pose a serious risk to human and environmental health, and suppressed that information from the public. For example, most can coating recipes are “trade secret” so the public has no idea what’s in them, and indeed can’t know. Pfas and other forever chemicals are used as plasticizers, so they are in a -lot- of stuff in direct contact with food and water (drinking or environmental).
If, instead of being greedy [removed], they had started developing less harmful chemicals back then, we wouldn’t be saturated with the health issues they can cause now, nor would future generations have to cope with the mess being left behind.
I think the real problem is that the public is largely unaware of these things (by design) so we can’t really do anything to avoid it. We don’t know what plastic bottles are made of. We don’t know what fabric is made of or treated with. We barely even know what’s in our actual food, we don’t stand a chance with plastics, which are now everywhere on earth, no exceptions.