In Northwest Georgia, the global hub of carpet manufacturing, a decades-long fight over “forever chemicals” is reshaping how communities think about what’s in their floors and their drinking water.
The city of Dalton, often called the “Carpet Capital of the World,” sits at the center of contamination tied to PFAS, a large family of synthetic chemicals prized for repelling oil and water.
Major manufacturers including Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries used PFAS for stain resistance, The chemicals persist in the environment and can remain in the human body for years.
In Northwest Georgia PFAS entered waterways largely through carpet dyeing and finishing, washing off into drains and moving into rivers or being sprayed onto land as part of wastewater disposal.
A study of nearly 200 local residents led by environmental health researcher Dana Barr found widespread exposure: 24% of participants had blood-PFAS levels in a high-risk category and 74% in a moderate-risk category, with research linking certain PFAS compounds to kidney and testicular cancers, thyroid disruption, autoimmune disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Chemical makers including 3M and DuPont had internal toxicity concerns decades ago and carpet executives were warned by the late 1990s that PFAS was building up in the public’s blood. Companies maintain they relied on suppliers’ safety assurances; one account quotes then-Shaw CEO Bob Shaw calling a treatment label “a target.”
Downstream communities have also been affected along the Conasauga River and Coosa River systems. In Gadsden, the briefing says 2025 testing showed PFAS levels more than twice the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended level.
Regulatory action has moved slowly. New federal drinking-water rules issued in 2024 are not enforceable until 2031, the briefing notes, while Toxic Substances Control Act standards historically required regulators to prove harm.
Even after U.S. carpet production reportedly ended PFAS use in 2019, residents say the legacy remains — in soil, rivers and blood — and will take years to clean up.
"Contaminated: The Carpet Industry’s Toxic Legacy" is part of a multiplatform investigative collaboration among local and national news organizations: FRONTLINE, The Associated Press, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Post and Courier and AL.com. Over much of the past year, the consortium of journalists reviewed thousands of pages of documents and court depositions and interviewed former regulators and industry insiders, as well as doctors, scientists and people who have the kinds of illnesses that researchers have linked to PFAS contamination.
The FRONTLINE reporting team found that the carpet industry has long insisted it’s not to blame for PFAS getting into the environment and noted that chemical companies obscured the risks and assured them the products they were supplying were safe.
But the recently reviewed records also show that executives from two of the largest carpet companies received warnings dating back decades about potential harms of some types of PFAS. And with little regulation until recently, the team found that for years both the companies and their suppliers were able to legally switch among stain-resistant products that contained different PFAS compounds.
Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel. It is also available on PBS Documentaries on Prime Video.
Guests:
Dylan Jackson is a reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Jonathan Schienberg is a director and producer at FRONTLINE.
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This episode will be recorded on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at noon.
