Scotchgard is a 3M

3M

3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....

 brand of products used to protect fabric

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

, furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

, and carpet

Carpet

A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...

s from stain

Stain

A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. Stains are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials...

s.

The original formula for Scotchgard was discovered accidentally in 1952 by 3M chemists Patsy Sherman

Patsy Sherman

Patsy O’Connell Sherman was an American chemist.-Early life:Sherman's 1947 high school aptitude test indicated she would be most suited to the role of a housewife. Sherman demanded to take the boy’s version of the aptitude test...

 and Samuel Smith

Samuel Smith (chemist)

Samuel Smith is a United States chemist who co-invented Scotchgard with Patsy Sherman while an employee at the 3M company in 1952. He was born in New York City and received his B.S. from the City College of New York and his M.S. from the University of Michigan in 1949. He is the holder of 30 U.S...

. Sales began in 1956, and in 1973 the two chemists received a patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 for the formula.

In 1999, the United States Environmental Protection Agency

United States Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

 (EPA) began an investigation into the class of chemicals used in Scotchgard, after receiving information on the global distribution and toxicity of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), the "key ingredient" of Scotchgard. The compound perfluorooctanesulfonamide

Perfluorooctanesulfonamide

Perfluorooctanesulfonamide is a synthetic organofluorine compound. It is a fluorocarbon derivative, or perfluorinated compound, with eight carbons and a terminal sulfonamide functional group. PFOSA was an ingredient in 3M's former Scotchgard formulation and the compound was used to repel grease...

 (PFOSA), a PFOS precursor, was an ingredient and also has been described as the "key ingredient" of Scotchgard. Under USEPA pressure, in May 2000 3M announced the phaseout of the production of PFOA

Perfluorooctanoic acid

Perfluorooctanoic acid , also known as C8 and perfluorooctanoate, is a synthetic, stable perfluorinated carboxylic acid and fluorosurfactant. One industrial application is as a surfactant in the emulsion polymerization of fluoropolymers. It has been used in the manufacture of such prominent...

, PFOS, and PFOS-related products.

3M reformulated Scotchgard and since June 2003 has replaced PFOS with perfluorobutanesulfonic acid

Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid

Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid is a chemical compound with a four carbon fluorocarbon chain and a sulfonic acid functional group. As an anion it functions as a stable fluorosurfactant because of the strength of carbon–fluorine bonds....

 (PFBS). PFBS has a much shorter half-life

Half-life

Half-life, abbreviated t½, is the period of time it takes for the amount of a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half. The name was originally used to describe a characteristic of unstable atoms , but it may apply to any quantity which follows a set-rate decay.The original term, dating to...

 in people than PFOS (a little over one month vs. 5.4 years). In May 2009 PFOS was determined to be a persistent organic pollutant

Persistent organic pollutant

thumb|right|275px|State parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PollutantsPersistent organic pollutants are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes...

 (POP) by the Stockholm Convention

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is an international environmental treaty, signed in 2001 and effective from May 2004, that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of persistent organic pollutants .- History :...

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