The Devil We Know (2018) - full transcript

The state of West Virginia,

issued the DuPont company
a permit,

for them to run
their contaminated waste water,

down through two farms here,
out into this stream of water.

This is, uh,
151 of these animals,

that died on this farm up here,
since this stuff's been coming down through this water.

And they wanna try
and keep everything hushed up.

Like it is some kind of big secret of some kind,
that they're dumping it in here.

They won't tell us what it is.

They don't wanna talk to me.

Because I'm just
an old dumb farmer,



I'm not supposed
to know anything.

But it's not gonna
be covered up,

because I'm gonna bring it out
in the open for people to see.

American production has become the most efficient in the world.

And as a result,
all factories and industrial plants

are turning out an ever
increasing amount of goods.

Things that people
want and need.

DuPont research chemists developed a new and unique white substance.

The result is the greatest
advance in cookware.

DuPont Teflon.

There are two different types
of fry pans.

This non-stick finish for cookware never needs scouring.

All kinds of burnt foods
come out quickly and easily.

Corn muffins
don't stick to Teflon.



Fudge cakes
don't stick to Teflon.

Even sticky buns don't stick
to Teflon.

Almost nothing sticks to it.

DuPont Teflon saves me
lots of dirty work.

It's so easy to clean.

This seal means DuPont
has approved finish,

there is no stick
and it's easy to clean.

So look
for the Teflon DuPont seal.

- Look for the seal.
- Look for the seal.

Look for this sticker.

Well,
it sounds great but is it really safe to cook in?

I was working.

And I had made an arrangement for you guys to get your picture taken.

- This one... This one right here?
- Mmm-hmm.

I always tell
with this picture. It just...

I just look at this
and I just...

This is
William Bailey III, Buck.

You were six years old.
You went to Jeb Stuart Middle school.

In kindergarten, '86 and '87.

I just... I don't know,
I feel so bad for that kid.

Yeah, not because of anything
you... Just because...

The times were hard,
I knew you guys were working as hard as you could.

And I'm wearing
a velvet green shirt, you know?

Uh, I just remember,
it was my first year of school.

That I actually went to school with kids.

- And I stood out.
- Yeah.

That was when you were
first born.

How long do they wait
to take pictures?!

I'm sure they wanted to get that one taken right away because--

There was chance
that I might not make it.

That's what they said.

When Bucky was born,
I went into shock.

He was born with half of
a nose, one nostril,

a serrated eyelid,

and a keyhole pupil where the iris and retina is not connected.

You could tell
he was in distress,

because he couldn't
breathe really well.

I was scared to death
to hold that baby.

I was scared he was
gonna die in my arms.

Your dad didn't stay with me that night,
I didn't want him to.

We just,
each one of us wanted to be just alone with our thoughts.

You know.

And he, you know...
He didn't know whether to go with you...

Or stay with me.

When I was
pregnant with Bucky,

I worked for
DuPont around Teflon.

They tried to blame me,
they said it was something that I did.

And the more they would tell me that,
the more suspicious I got.

But I didn't know what
I'd been exposed to.

And the first day that
I went back to work,

someone in our locker room
said a girl that worked there,

had a baby
that had deformities.

We got to talking about it.

It was just like Bucky.

She worked around Teflon too.

♪ May the good Lord
bless and keep you ♪

♪ Whether near or far away ♪

Those traditional ones.

I like that song.

My dad used
to sing to my mom.

She'd get about
half t'd off at him.

He'd had a little beer.

♪ You are my sunshine ♪

♪ My only sunshine ♪

He could make her cry.

I'm from Parkersburg,
West Virginia.

Been here all my life.

I ended up getting married,
having children and settling down in this area.

I started with DuPont, 1962.

And I was there
almost 40 years.

In Teflon land.

First time I heard
that Teflon might be dangerous,

I was told by a supervisor.

We feared that it might be detrimental to the women who are pregnant.

So we sent all the women home but it won't hurt the men.

That's the first time I...
And I questioned him.

I said, "It won't
hurt the men?"

He said, "Oh, no, Ken,
don't worry about it." As far as we know.

Can I have another bottle
of that B12?

It's one of those.

- Yeah, we have the 50.
- This will do it.

You didn't have Colostrum,
do you?

- You didn't have that day.
- Yes, we do.

That's the thing...
When I was going through the cancer real bad,

I started taking Colostrum.

And it helped me get through all the surgeries,
and all...

I couldn't hardly get out
the chair, I was so weak.

Well,
when they removed the women from Teflon it was a big shock to me.

They just don't do that.

I knew right then
it was a big cover up.

And see, all that time
when I was pregnant,

I was in direct contact
with the chemicals.

I did tell 'em,
I told 'em right to their face.

I said, "I know you're
responsible for it.

And you've lied",
and they're still lying.

But I knew I couldn't quit because I needed the insurance.

Bucky needed help right then.

The first surgery I had, they...
They had on my eye.

From the time I was a few months old to five years old,

I probably had
about 30 surgeries.

Initially, I accepted it and I just thought I was dealt a bad hand.

I mean,
I cared about what I looked like, obviously,

I looked in the mirror
every single day.

So there were things I cared
about my appearance.

But my parents were pretty...
They wanted me to be cool with who I was.

Back off
of you little bit.

And here's a handsome
looking guy.

- Be 13, January the 15th.
- January the 15th.

Thirteen years old.

I remember walking into
seventh grade for the first day of school,

and every person
just looking at me.

I was like, "This is awesome...
This is great, yeah."

Bucky's playing
with the video game.

And then going through the next phase of surgery where I had

a balloon implanted into
my forehead,

and they would fill that up with saline to stretch the skin.

Which they would bring down and you know,
use for my nose.

There is no pain that I've ever gone through that was greater than that.

I mean, migraine
times a thousand.

To go home and to have that pain and for my dad to walk in and say,

"Hey, get up, put your hat on,
we're going out."

And I'm like, "I'm not going out, Dad,
I just got out of the hospital.

You know, I'm not leaving,
look at me, Dad."

He's like, "You look fine."

He's like, "Look we're gonna
go out."

He's like, "You know, the shoes you wanted,
those Airwalks you wanted?"

He's like, "Let's go...
Let's go pick out a pair."

And you know just...

Just thinking
about how he never gave up.

You know, he always
pushed me.

Easy, easy.

He never
wanted me to sulk.

I'm cool.

He never wanted me
to be down on who I was.

And my mom was the same way.

They never let me just
be affected by it.

They were always leading
me through it.

You know,
it really didn't bug me too much growing up as a kid.

I was just worried about you know,
making it through the next day in school.

But it was kind of coming
to a point when I was 18-19.

I stopped thinking about how I had been dealt a bad hand,

and that was just
my lot in life.

Just thinking about,
"I need an answer."

You know, "I need to know
what's going on,

I need to know
why this happened."

I want you to notice
his height.

I want you to notice what his
eyes look like.

They're born that way.

Now, I never saw nothing
like this in my life.

It's very unusual.

Wilbur Tennant was a farmer who sold part of his land to DuPont.

The piece that DuPont had was adjacent
to his property that he continued to own.

In their negotiations around
this, they said,

that they were gonna use his land for non-hazardous waste.

But very quickly he noticed
changes in the water.

This is what
I've been talking about.

We haven't had any rain
for several days.

This sud has been here
for a while.

And he noticed that little things,
little fish began to die.

And he began to find
dead animals.

I've taken dead deer and dead cattle off this river right here.

And every veterinarian
that I've called

will not return my phone calls or they don't want to get involved.

We are now on the record and our time is 9:01 a.m.

Our opponent today
is Bernard J. Reilly.

Our court reporter is Michelle Grey,
who will now swear in.

Can you please raise you right
hand and swear the testimony you are about

to give is the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?

Yes, I do.

Let's look at LP-2.

Yeah,
this is to Tom Adams.

Who's Tom Adams?

- He's an old friend I met in the army.
- Mmm-hmm.

Okay, so let's
go ahead and read.

"The shit is about to hit
the fan in West Virginia."

Go ahead why don't you read
it because you wrote it.

Sure.

"The shit is about to hit
the fan in West Virginia, WV,

the lawyer for the farmer finally realizes the surfactant issue.

He is threatening to go to the press to
embarrass us to pressure for big bucks."

You want me to read
the bad word?

Yeah, it says,
"Fuck him."

That's what it says.

I apologize to anybody that's sensitive about bad words.

Well, you wrote it.

- I was writing to an old army friend.
- Right.

Every case, in a complex case,
there's several parts to it.

One part is the work up.

That means finding
the documents.

It means trying to take some basic depositions to find out who did what.

Why did they do certain things?
How did they do certain things?

That's called
the discovery process.

The documents in this case...

They really tell the story
about what the company knew.

Isn't it a good thing
the company kept this?

'Cause we can go back and look at history.
It is a good thing,

that they kept these documents,
isn't it?

You are saying
its a good thing?

Mr. Papantonio, you can
frame that any way you want.

The back story of this
case is interesting.

It started with a lawyer
named Rob Bilott,

he's a corporate defense
lawyer by trade.

And so this corporate defense lawyer
gets this case and he starts looking at it.

When we got into the litigation with DuPont,

we got access to a lot of the
internal documents.

And we found out that DuPont and another
company called 3M had been studying this chemical

dating back to the 1950s
and 1960s.

Dr Karrh you're
being handed exhibit 30.

I ask you to take a look at that and tell
me if you can identify this document.

Yes, I can.

The heart of the case is,
this plant in West Virginia,

they make Teflon,
they make Teflon that is used for all types of sources.

C-8 is one of the elements
they need to make Teflon.

PFOS, PFOA, C-8,
these are all names for this group of miracle chemicals,

that came out of primarily 3M, initially,
and out of DuPont.

I started at DuPont, 1981.

Most of my career was spent in the new product development end.

Teflon is a very generic term.

The active ingredient
in it is Fluorine.

You hear the word
F in that right?

PFOA, PFOS, anything with
the F in it.

It is something you want
to be very weary of.

These chemicals have
these wondrous properties.

Non-stick, oil repellent.
Water repellent.

How do you recall C-8 first coming to your attention?

The first recollection
I have of it is when

the supplier of the chemical,
the 3M company,

provided DuPont with some
information about rats

that had been subjected
to exposure of the chemical.

3M had some test data,

indicating potential birth defects here,
in the eyes of rat fetuses,

following exposure
to C-8, correct?

That's correct.

So you did see?
There was a substantial risk,

to the women at the DuPont
plant who were exposed to C-8.

Enough to remove them
from further exposure, correct?

No. No. No.

There was no potential
risk to the women.

Based on the 3M study there was potential risk to the fetus.

"Parker has brought WV another long meeting

to describe to the plant folks
where the guy who is

suing us over his cattle
grazing downstream,

of our landfill would crucify us before a jury.

Most simply do not believe how big and bad we would look,

and how sympathetic a farmer would look before a jury,

even though he is a con man."

You calling Mr.
Tennant a con man?

This is a letter to my son
I can tell you.

But are you calling
him a con man?

To his face.

And when you called him a con man,
did you know how many of his cattle had died?

The short answer is I did not know how many of his cattle had died.

Within a couple of years his entire herd died.

For Tennant,
it was his livelihood.

"Advantages of settling."
Do you see that?

Yes.

"It says C-8, in the stream,
we never told them."

Right? See that?

That's what it says.

When did you first become involved with APFO or C-8?

I was first aware of it
prior to 1977.

Knowing that...

Perfluorinated materials
had been found in human blood.

At first,
3M and DuPont were checking to see

the contamination levels
of their workers.

And so naturally they needed
a control.

They needed to compare those workers
blood levels of C-8 with the population.

So they could see what
the difference was.

So they started going
to archived bloody supplies,

and checking to see
what clean blood

versus the blood of their workers might look like.

There was no clean blood.

They tested kids, they tested adults,
they went to Asia.

They went all over the world and everywhere they looked practically,

they found their chemicals
in people's blood.

Eventually, they did find some clean blood.

It turned out it was the blood
that had been taken,

from army recruits and archived, saved,
at the start of the Korean War.

That blood was clean
because the Teflon chemicals

weren't out into
the environment at that point.

The main sources of exposure are still something of a mystery.

The likely culprits though
are industrial waste,

and the consumer products that shed this material over time.

Today, every baby
probably on the planet,

but certainly
in the developed world,

where all of these chemicals
are widely used,

every baby is born with
at least some level,

of C-8, of PFOS and PFOA
in their blood.

That's the essence of exposure,
lifelong exposure.

And it's involuntary.

No one said, "Hey, you know,
I'm good with a little Teflon chemical

in my baby's blood.

No one said that.

They said, "I love these pans."

We think of these chemicals as associated with 3M and DuPont,

but they had also sold
them to other companies,

that manufactured consumer products,
manufacturing products.

It was used in airplanes and cars,
on and on the applications were endless.

Workers are now
using Teflon to rust proof the inside

of The Statue of Liberty.

I found that these chemical products could bond paper products to make

food wraps, grease proof wraps,
cookie bags.

One of the largest companies had patents for making popcorn bags.

Thousands of facilities,
including the furniture store down the street,

that sprayed a non-stick chemical on your couch to keep stains off,

all of those places became environmental contamination sites.

And today a product
that you'll find

Teflon is in
clothing and things.

Gore-Tex is the brand name...

And then you realize that companies in Asia and in Europe,

were starting to make
these chemicals as well.

This crisis has been growing
for decades.

And I think with a chemical that is potentially biopersistent

you pay particularly
close attention to it.

Bioaccumulation, biopersistence,
those are fancy words for it.

What do you mean
by biopersistent?

When you die
and they bury you,

you're gonna have it
in your blood.

C-8 seem to have
half-life of humans.

Sunlight doesn't
break them down,

microbes don't break
them down.

Heat doesn't break them down,
nothing breaks them down.

They call this Fluorine
chemical, "The Devil's piss."

It was so potent.

Once it gets into your system,
it remains in your blood.

My gut tells me the biopersistence issue will kill us.

Because of an overwhelming
public attitude

that anything that is
biopersistent is harmful.

And so naturally,
these Teflon and Scotchgard chemicals

permeated the living world.

We didn't know it at the time,
but the evidence showed that 3M and DuPont...

They knew all about it.

Wow!
What a lovely bunch of coconuts, okay.

Stay on the gym floor,
the boundary of the gym floor.

Ready? Go!

Oh, no!

Gotcha!

What did you do boy?

Bye, bye, bye.
Whoa, hey!

Good job, good job, good job.

Yahoo! Thank you!

Bye!

I love kids.
Of course I'm a school teacher, you know.

And that's the thing that drove me more than anything.

You know, I don't consider
myself a whistleblower,

more or less a fact finder.

Joe has a courtyard out back,
he calls it his man-cave.

And we were out there
just talking on a normal day.

I know it was October.

I had gone
to the mailbox that afternoon,

and I saw this envelope.

And it was from Lubeck
public water department.

I opened it and there was
a letter in with my water bill,

stating that DuPont needed to know if I
asked if there was a chemical in our water.

They called it C-8.

I thought, "What's this about?"

I read it.

I really didn't give it
much thought.

DuPont says according to their standards it's healthy.

Hey, okay.

DuPont says its safe,
it's safe. Why question it?

I was testing C-8 as soon as I started in my lab,
more or less.

From the get-go.

They always picked on me
for new jobs.

They'd always give 'em to me
'cause they knew I'd do it.

I'd learn it.

Where I was at,
I was isolated.

I mean, it was a big room...

With huge cylinders,
that were full of C-8,

and they would bubble over.

You can think of it like a bubble bath out of control.

That's the best way
of describing it.

After they made
the Teflon,

it had water that was
discharged from it.

My job was to pump
it out back.

So it would go
directly to the river.

As C-8 was being used at that DuPont plant,

3M told DuPont that under no circumstances
should you put it in waterways.

It's right there
in the documents.

Don't put this
in the waterways.

But at the end of the day,
they start dumping so much C-8 into the water,

that they, at one point,
lose track

of how much they've
actually put out there.

DuPont wanted to figure out
how far it had seeped beyond its plant.

So a team of folks went out with some jugs,
plastic jars,

and went to general stores and went miles down river

to collect samples.

They found, that in fact,
the chemical had gone quite far from the plant.

Their own scientist again and again,

their own lawyers,
in fact,

told them, you know,
we really should tell people about this,

'cause they're drinking it,

they're bathing in it.

Who makes the final decision
as to whether or not,

there is a risk that needs to be disclosed to the community?

Well, again risk is relative.

When we got the letter,
within the next few weeks

a friend of ours talked about
their granddaughter's

teeth turning black and they couldn't understand it.

And I looked over and there
is my neighbor's dog,

tumors all over him.

He couldn't explain it. He said,
"I've never seen him like..."

Every time I see somebody get sick it wasn't just a cold or a flu.

Then I heard about these young guys,
two of 'em,

having testicular cancer
in the area.

It got to the point where something just didn't feel right.

And for some reason,
don't ask me why or what,

but that letter kept hanging in the back of my head.

I couldn't get it out of my head.
What's that doin' in our water anyway?

I thought, "Well, shoot,
I'll just call the Department of Natural Resources.

I'll ask him what it is."

Didn't know anything about it.

"That's not my field."

I thought, "Well, that
is a strange attitude.

I got a hold of the clean water people,
I went to the wellhead people,

Department of Health, God,
I mean, I got shut off on end.

I told Darlene. I said, "Honey,
something's not right here."

So I called DuPont.

Talked to the head
toxicologist for 45 minutes.

Hung the phone up.

Darlene said,
"What did you find out?"

I said,
"I was just fed the biggest line of BS I think I've ever been fed."

We heard that very early on in the production of Teflon products,

there was a manufacturer up in the midwest,
who called and said,

"We want you to come over
here and look at this.

We're heating up this Teflon and we
heard this pounding noise on the roof.

It sounded like a hailstorm."

It was a flock of birds.

As they were flying
over where the vent was,

they just dropped
out of the sky.

By 1984,
the company knew that the material was going into the Ohio river.

It was going up into the air and they
weren't telling the community about it.

Particles in the air
that came up into our own land,

we always wondered what it
was, it wasn't dust,

it was a white
kind of material.

It was all over the plant.
In the air.

I think that's how it happened.

When they cut me for the cancer,
they took all my rectum,

part of my colon.

Your whole life...
Your whole life's completely different, you know.

You don't sit
on a toilet ever again.

I change this thing
three or four times a day.

Sometimes five.

So this is everyday
life for me.

They told me
two months to live.

And I'm lucky to be here
telling the story.

That's why you
called and requested

that I go ahead
and schedule the deposition

so you'd have a chance to testify while you were still alive.

Before I die,
I wanna get this out.

When you're down
there in the Teflon lab,

did you work with a lot of other people,
that have been sick or died early?

One of my good friends,
Carol Caplinger.

He had leukemia of the blood.

He died.

How old was he?

He was only 50.
Forty-five, 50.

Anybody else?

Uh, Jim Rotwater.

The last time I seen him,

they were taking him to Cleveland Clinic and he died up there.

- How old was he?
- Fifty.

Pat Ankram,
she worked B shift.

She passed away. Joey Weaver,
they had him on chemo.

I knew him all my Teflon days. Don Lutz.
Lana Frankow, Daryl Chrome, Secretary...

- How old was he?
- Thirties.

And I lost a good friend,
he... He loved baseball.

Cliff Spiker, Steve Bailey...
Alona Carr, she passed away.

Paul Radall, gone.
William Peppers, gone. Smith, gone.

Jim Hewitt,
he had tumor show up,

month later he died.

Is there any doubt,
in your mind

that all of these people
were exposed to C-8,

based upon your personal
observation?

To the best of my ability
I say they are.

Life's precious.

And to see somebody,
you work with every day, my friends,

die...

That's hard.

That was...
That was devastating.

What's that?

It's a handkerchief
for a sweaty fat guy.

That's one thing that, uh,
I've never had to buy, our handkerchiefs.

'Cause my dad was a pastor,
so he took them all the time.

So all my own handkerchiefs
are my dad's.

Actually, the church we'd go to,
he started it, yeah.

He passed away in 2008.

So, yeah...

You good?

- I just need to get some bottled water.
- Cool.

I was probably about 19 when
I think we met.

The summer before we got married,
so it was 2002.

Okay.

So we met then,
the funny thing is we didn't like each other at all.

- Did not.
- Absolutely opposite.

I became friends, you know,
with people that knew him,

and they had us meet and I was like, "No",
and he was like, "No".

- It was kind of like...
- I kind of pursued after her.

And it was more like
hitting a brick wall.

- She didn't really--
- I kept saying no.

- He finally started leaving me alone was the thing.
- Oh. Okay.

I kinda could see
who he really was.

That he really was funny
and a gentleman.

He treated people with
respect and...

Once he finally started
leaving me alone,

I could see that,
and then I started liking him.

We were engaged,
like, maybe...

Maybe two months after
I started liking him.

Yeah.

That day was beautiful.

His father was still here.

We were very proud of him.

Both of 'em.

Bucky and Melinda.

Does everybody
have the verse?

- Yes.
- Yes, okay, verse.

♪ You are good
all the time ♪

♪ All the time ♪

♪ You are good
You are... ♪

Whatever happened,
you know, made him who he was

and I guess it
didn't really matter to me.

And I guess later when I thought a future family,
you know,

all that stuff goes through
your head,

you know, when you're like,
"This is the person I'm gonna marry

and, you know, is this
gonna affect our lives?"

And I remember it more
bothering him.

And him saying, how he would never...
I don't wanna cry...

He would never
wanna have a kid,

have to go through all that he went through as a kid.

Mmm-hmm.

You know, I didn't
want to hinder him,

wanting to start a family,
even though it was a concern for us in reality.

Before we started trying,
we wanted to see how high his C-8 levels were,

and what was
in his bloodstream.

They had
a special geneticist

come in and, you know, it was,
kind of like my biggest fear,

you know, being manifested
right in front of my eyes.

His levels were so much higher,
higher than even

what his mom has
in her bloodstream.

They said that there was
at least a 50 % chance

that it could be passed on
to the babies.

You know,
that they could end up with exactly what he went through.

Okay, it says,
"Big announcement",

go ahead and read that
next to the last paragraph.

"Big announcement,
3M, two days ago,

it is going to stop making Scotchgard because it is too persistent

in the environment
and gets into our blood.

They then told us they are going to stop making a related product

that is an essential ingredient
in the Teflon polymer,

also is very persistent and also gets into blood,
but so far no signs it has hurt anyone.

If it does we are
really in a soup,

because essentially everyone is exposed one way or the other."

The first time we came across this issue was May of 2000.

And it was just a short little story that 3M had decided

to replace the chemistry

that was underneath
Scotchgard with something else,

and it was going to cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in that year.

3M was
presenting to the USEPA

some information
that had just come in,

some rat studies with PFOS,

and the widespread presence of the
chemical being found in the blood as well.

And EPA was expressing
concerns about that data.

And so 3M and the EPA hammered out an agreement

where they would voluntarily take PFOA and PFOS off the market.

At the time,
the best producer of the PFOA chemicals was 3M.

DuPont looked at that business and I was there at the time,

and they said,
"Yahoo, the king is dead."

And in fact,
within a few months,

DuPont made a decision not only to continue using PFOA,

but to actually begin manufacturing PFOA at its facility in North Carolina.

Correct?

I don't recall the exact timing or phasing,
but you are correct,

within some period of time,
we concluded to manufacture the product...

And to continue using
the product.

Rob Bilott,
the attorney who was

working on
the Tennant case at that time,

came across this announcement
of 3M's decision,

and that in fact is when
he made the connection.

DuPont had dumped a similar chemical
in the water on Tennant's property.

I sent a letter to the USEPA,
on March 6th of 2001,

summarizing what we were seeing in the internal documents.

Providing information
to the agency to let them know,

we think you ought to look
into PFOA and investigate it.

Rob Bilott would fight DuPont to disclose documents,

that had anything relevant
to this chemistry.

As these documents
came to his possession,

he would send the most relevant ones directly to the EPA.

DuPont tried to get a gag order from a judge to stop him.

Because they knew
that he had the goods.

He knew what was going on with their chemical and could nail them.

Down here it says that,

"Bilott was given 130
of our worst documents,

that he got in discovery
to EPA."

- You see that 130?
- Yes.

Now, what are
the worst documents?

If you were to look
at the DuPont documents,

how would you consider
them the worst documents?

I'm not entirely sure
of recollections.

I assume they are
the toxicology documents.

All the way back to the '60s,

they're aware, clearly aware,
of the risk of the product.

Their own documents show
that this is a toxin.

They continued to find toxicity effects through the late 1960s.

By 1988, they started
doing cancer studies.

In that particular study,

increased rate
of leydig cell tumors

were found, correct?

That is correct?

Their studies were showing rats dying,
dogs dying,

monkeys dying, they were
saying testicular tumors,

liver disease,
pancreatic disease.

Unfortunately,
monkeys even at the lowest dose

were dying after being
exposed to PFOA.

And they know that these primate studies have a direct relationship

to what we'll find in
the human population.

DuPont itself had classified PFOA as a confirmed animal carcinogen,

possible human carcinogen.

All of this information
was clear evidence

that should have
been disclosed

under Federal law.

But those documents didn't
show up at EPA at all.

When they began to show up
as a result of this court case,

that's when everything
changed.

When do you cross the
threshold from convenient to dangerous?

That's what the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to determine

with a very popular chemical
in almost every household.

They just started diggin'.

Finally, I talked to the national Environmental Protection Agency.

And when I read
the gentleman the letter,

he said, "I'm gonna
send you some information,

and when I do, he said, I want you to read it very carefully,
because after you read it, you'll probably want to contact a lawyer."

I said, "Well, okay."

Next day, I got it in the mail,
I opened it,

and I read the information and what it was,
was on the Tennant case.

You see the
discoloration in that eye?

They're born that way.

Cow there,
she gotta open her mouth and I gotta check her teeth.

They'll probably be all black,
her jowl teeth.

This is what
her teeth looks like.

The key part
of that was

is when they said, the cattle,
their teeth had turned black,

I thought wait a minute...

They talked about the kids teeth turning black.

I started to put two
and two together,

I looked up in the corner,
I saw Rob Bilott's name up there.

So I said, "I'm gonna
call this guy."

It says,
"Learn in the depostion that Earl Tennant

uses Lubeck drinking water,"

and we know that Bilott has requested
information from Lubeck water company.

- You see that?
- I see that, yes.

So this letter,
it had a legal purpose.

According to West Virginia law,
two years after this letter went out,

the statute of limitations
would run out.

And then you go on to say,
"The real danger is what steps

Bilott might take to expand the number of plaintiffs,

and introduce new environmental
allegations in this lawsuit.

And if he does what will the court allow him to do?"

The public had two
years to respond.

If there was no response,
the case was legally dead.

...more rain
in the forecast.

Tomorrow 87
your high temperature,

and you'll see that pattern throughout the rest of the week.

Rob calls me from
Cincinnati airport, he says,

My law firm
wants to take this case on."

He said,
"Do you want to take it on as a class action

or do you wanna take it on
as a civil?

I said,
"I've just got a gut feeling something is just not right here."

I said, "Where do we get
the most help for most people?"

He said, "Class action",
I said, "Let's do it."

I said, "No, absolutely not."

Because the involvement
with my ex-husband.

And because of the involvement
of our children.

My ex-husband
worked at DuPont.

So anything that might cause them any pain or anything,

I just didn't want them
to be involved.

But I could see
it in Joe's eyes.

And he said, "I really think
you need to do it."

I said, "If you want me to I will,
I'll do it for you.

But we gotta be very protective and very careful."

Everybody in this area one way or another is connected to DuPont.

You go dealing with somebody's
livelihood which is their job,

which is their insurance
and their protection,

and you go messin' with that,
you're gonna have problems.

You can't walk into a restaurant or any gathering,

here in Parkersburg and not run into
somebody that either worked at DuPont,

has a relative that worked at DuPont,
has a good friend that worked at DuPont.

The net profit for all this if you're gonna turn it into money is,

better schools,
better education system.

DuPont helped fortify
the city of Parkersburg.

DuPont is very good
at locking up the town.

When there is something
that is not going their way,

they'll help schools,
they'll talk to the churches,

they are very big on the PR.

They have unbelievable reputation for safety.

Good jobs, benefits,
good citizens.

Everybody thought they could
do no wrong.

DuPont was my idol.

I used to cut grass for DuPonters when I was young.

But I don't blame them.

It's the people who run the company,
the people who make the decisions.

I should have opened my eyes,
but I loved DuPont so much.

And I felt they wouldn't put
me in harm's way.

We want to believe corporate America.

It's too horrible to believe
that everyday we get up,

we're at the mercy of a corporation who might lie to us,

who might poison us,
who might create a product that might kill us.

For profit.

"There was consensus reached that the
issue which will decide future actions

is one of corporate image
and corporate liability.

Liability was further defined

as the incremental liability from this point on if we do nothing.

As we are already liable for the past 32 years of operation."

- See that?
- Yes.

In 1984,
they already admit we have been liable for 32 years.

They had made a money decision.

On the next page,

"Looking ahead,
legal and medical will most likely take a position

of total elimination.

They have no incentive
to take any other position."

- See that?
- Yes.

"A product group will take a position,
but the business cannot afford it.

We know that there was
a discussion about,

do we need to come up with something in our Teflon production

that's not gonna
cause these problems.

And they conclude,
"If we launch something new,

it's gonna cost us
a lot of money.

We have to stick with C-8.

C-8 is the devil we know."

I think they recognized

that Teflon was a significant part of the business.

It all boils down
to economics.

Let's just ignore the situation and continue using PFOA.

'Cause nobody is gonna
force us to stop it.

It's called
externalizing cost.

We want to make
all the profits at DuPont.

We wanna pass all the risk,
all the illness,

all the suffering,
all the cost of clean up onto the tax payers.

We're having spaghetti,
I'm sorry.

Well, I am too,

It's leftover so you know
it'll be good.

Everybody goes through
life thinking water is safe.

You go in and get it out of your sink and think, "Yeah."

To think that an advanced country like we live in,

who would think of it being polluted or dangerous?

It's a sad situation.

It's terrible that you have to be concerned about the water you drink.

The Ohio river comes down through Parkersburg and goes toward us.

Supplying to people
in Evans with their water.

Evans is approximately 40 miles from the Parkersburg DuPont plant.

Parkersburg is certainly contaminated with chemicals, C-8, right?

Um...

I don't know if I would
characterize it that way.

Fifty thousand pounds put into the river annually is not a contamination?

At one point,
DuPont came out and said,

"If your drinking water is showing more than one part per billion,

of C-8 then you better not drink the water."
Let me give you an idea why that is.

It's one drop of C-8
in an Olympic-sized pool.

Well, there's a hell of
a lot more than that

in people's water
in the Ohio River Valley.

Probably
around '98 or '99,

my thyroid glands
was causing a problem.

- And high cholesterol.
- And I had high cholesterol.

And I was having problems
with my bowels.

And they came up with a real bad case of ulcerative colitis.

You have an ulcer in your colon,
and it will start to bleed every so often.

And when it does, you better
be near a bathroom,

if you don't you're gonna
have an embarrassing situation.

He couldn't get it
under control.

His doctor told me,
he said,

"It's amazing that he has
not gotten cancer from it."

He said, "It's inevitable,
it's gonna happen from this...

It's not gonna happen now
cause I don't have a colon.

They took my colon
so I won't have colon cancer.

You know,
I was always thinking that one day I could retire,

and enjoy life,
we could travel.

But not anymore.

I don't talk about this
situation very often.

I don't tell other people
about it... But...

It's changed
my whole life.

Now, a lawsuit
brought by local residents

accuses DuPont of trying to cover up what it knew about Teflon's risks.

Joe Kiger says he had no intention of hurting the DuPont corporation

when he agreed to be part of a suit challenging the health affects of C-8.

It was a class action suit

on behalf of...
It turned out six different water districts.

And tens of thousands
of people.

Everybody said, "Oh,
we know it's a bunch of crap."

You know, "DuPont wouldn't
poison anybody."

The shop talk was that Joe
was out to get filthy rich.

We've had
some resistance.

I mean, as far as being shunned,
wife got a phone call one day

and the guy gets on her
and starts cussin' her out.

"This is awful.
You are doing this.

There is not a thing
wrong with the water."

Why are you ground beatin' poor DuPont like this?

And we heard it from
people in that area.

Teflon the famous brand name known for non-stick services

may pose health risks,
the EPA...

As the story began to break,
DuPont scientists

were working to produce public pronouncements saying,

"Look, we've taken a look at it,
it's nothing to be concerned about."

Based on our
assessment of the science,

we do not believe this poses
any cancer risk.

Chemicals that have an effect in animals

don't necessarily have a similar effect in humans.

First of all,
DuPont put together this team,

of legal experts
and scientists,

to defend their chemical.

And it was led by someone
named Mike McCabe.

Sometime during 2000,
you became the US EPA deputy administrator, correct?

I received a commission from the
President to be the deputy administrator.

Before that I was
acting administrator.

And in 2003,

you began working through McCabe and Associates for DuPont, correct?

Correct.

Mike McCabe had been the number two guy at EPA.

And he got other former
EPA folks with him,

and they really pushed back.

There was a revolving door that was taking place

between DuPont and the EPA.

DuPont had basically gained control of governmental decisions,

The "Ask", you see the "Ask".
And then, "Ask" is in quotes.

"In our opinion,
the only voice that can cut through the negative stories

is the voice of EPA."

The governmental agencies that should have been responsible,
the EPA,

those people were
captured by DuPont.

It's called corporate capture.

They're sharing documents,
they' re showing

each other things
before they happen.

DuPont folks are requesting quotes from
the EPA to put in their own press releases.

"Subject, Urgent."
See that?

"Coverage has been broad
in print and network media.

Significant disruptions in our markets
and our consumers are very concerned.

We need EPA to quickly,
like first thing tomorrow say the following.

Consumer products sold under the Teflon brand are safe.

Further, to date there are no human health
effects known to be caused by PFOA."

DuPont did in fact ask EPA to make those statements, correct?

That's correct.

So all of a sudden
the EPA is sayin',

"Oh, yeah, we'll do
whatever you want us to do."

Which is a complete scam,
utter scam.

And it was very successful.

As for all those pots and pans in the homes of Americans,

both DuPont and the Federal
government say,

there's no need right now,
Elizabeth, to throw them out.

No need to throw them out,
but seems like plenty of need for concern.

- You wanna hear the baby's heartbeat first?
- Yes, that would be awesome.

He's alive.

He's movin'.
He moved a lot.

So if you can get a face shot
that would be awesome.

Yeah, you have to use
your imagination.

Hands, eye, forehead.

- He's movin' around.
- I wanna see two nostrils.

We can try. Let's see.
I don't know how this will come out on him.

But we can try.
Let me give it a shot.

I will say this is something we really had to pray about,

to know are we going to take the next step and have children.

Yeah.

There's definitely been some
struggles with it.

Basically, the bottom line was,
there's a 50 % chance

that everything
is going to be fine.

Yeah,
I don't think I'll be able to 'cause his hands are right there.

He has his hand kind of over his face like this.

So that's why you can't see his nose.
This is his eyelid.

- He does not want to co-operate.
- Nope.

He does not
want to co-operate.

I pray that our child does not have
any deformities and he's 100 % healthy.

But we're ready for it.

I lived my whole life for this so,
it will be better.

Thanks.

We'll be okay.

So that's like
one side of his face.

Okay,
how's this right here?

- You got it upside down.
- Yeah.

- She tried... Tried to get a profile.
- Yeah.

- She was like, "Come on."
- She was like wiggling on my stomach

trying to get him to take his hands down from his face and he wouldn't.

He kept like going
back up like this.

He was scared.

Can't imagine him holding a baby and the baby being his.

And Melinda's.

They've been
married for 12 years.

I know they held back for so long.
I just wish his father was here to see it.

It's gonna be okay, really.

Yeah, I know, it's just...

I miss my dad.

I know...

Would love just to talk
to him about this.

In 2005, we got the call
from DuPont.

They said that you know,
that they want to mediate.

Of course,
we went through negotiations and everything,

for the settlement,
settlement amount.

Now,
the implementation phase

of the settlement
in that case begins.

Generally,
with a settlement,

people just wanna
be done with it.

They wanna get their cash,
they wanna walk.

Because it's usually
a long time coming.

But what happened in the case of C-8 was really radically different.

Rather than just take that money
provided by DuPont under the settlement,

and divide it up among the class members and walk away,

what we decided to do was set up
something called the C-8 Science Panel.

The community wanted to know,
does drinking PFOA actually have links

to human disease?

The settlement is far from the end of the C-8 case.

It merely sets into motion
a blood test process which

six different water districts
are eligible to take.

That was a sacrifice on the part
of the people who had won the money.

But it was one that could have turned out
paying out for everybody in the world.

You have to remember that DuPont has spread C-8

all over the planet
at this point.

The science panel was
important to determine

exactly how bad
this stuff is.

I said,
"If this stuff is harming people

and they've known
full well what's going on,

we owe it to these people
to get this thing right."

According to the settlement,

any of those people
in these six water districts,

could sue if the science panel could prove
the exposures had caused any harm.

DuPont remains confident
the test results will prove C-8 is safe.

But a lot depends on how
many take the test.

It's my belief that when DuPont settled this case,

they had predetermined that no epidemiological
study could be done large enough

to ever get a link.

And with no link,
the jury comes back, you're innocent.

And you can never
be tried again.

The problem is when you ask people to volunteer for a study,

not many gonna show up.

And so who's gonna do this?

We wanted to get this thing
up and running 'cause

the momentum was there,
the case had been settled.

So we put a lot of information out in ads and pamphlets,
you name it.

Every type of media we could get our hands...
We flooded the market.

Healthy drinking
water is vital to all of us.

That's why scientists need to know if the
chemical C-8 causes any health problems.

By completing a health questionnaire and having your blood tested

you can help.
And you may be paid up to $400.

To get started call...

We ended up
also using that money to pay

class members to come in and have their blood tested for PFOA,

and to provide access to their
medical information.

This daughter of a DuPont
worker is ready to cash her $400 check.

That's not too shabby,
coming in around November for Christmas,

for a lot of families.

If the research
ends up showing that

C-8 is a major
medical problem,

the impact will be beyond...

And thousands of people are undergoing tests
that may ultimately help determine whether all of are at risk.

One of the things that was sort of an unknown at the time

was how long
this process would take.

It ended up taking
more than seven years.

And the results came back
around 2012.

Virtually,
the entire affected population estimated at

70,000 people participated.

It's the largest human health study in the history of the world.

In terms of its
breath and scope.

The eyes of the world has been on this science panel.

The chemical industry
has been keenly

interested in what was
going to come out of this.

The designed the most
world that have ever

class studies been
done on a pollutant.

They spent seven years.

Seven years studying
this community.

What other chemical do you have this kind of information about?

The science is unequivocal now.

In 2012,
they said there was a link between drinking this in the water

and six different diseases.

Kidney cancer,
testicular cancer,

ulcerative colitis,
thyroid disease,

preeclampsia
and high cholesterol.

We found out through the newspaper article.

I was reading, I said,
"Earl, that C-8 can cause...

You know, I started naming them,
I said, "You have three of those."

Mine was cholesterol,
and high cholesterol contributes to heart disease.

Well, I've got nine stents
and I had a heart attack.

After the blood test,
I was notified that I have thyroid disease.

Was I a guinea pig?
What do you think? That's what it looks like.

Was Carol Caplinger a guinea pig?
Was Cliff Spiker a guinea pig?

Was Joey Weaver a guinea pig?

Were they thinking we're dumb enough
that we don't know what's going on?

First,
it's the workers you betray by not telling them.

And then you betray the community in which these plants operate.

And then you betray
the community next door.

Who's also being exposed.

We're upstream.

We never anticipated that we would be included in any of this.

Thousands of people in Vienna,
West Virginia are being told

do not drink the water.

Clean water distribution sites,
they're open till 9 o'clock tonight.

They will reopen bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:00.

- Have a good day.
- You too.

It worries me.
We've got a lot of cancer in this area.

And then you wonder why.

This is not just in
West Virginia and Ohio.

It's been found in drinking
water all over the country.

PFOA have been turning up in
drinking water in New York state, Vermont.

There are some new concerns today over
the drinking water in New Castle, Delaware.

...the drinking water in portions of the Tennessee Valley.

This is something that affects
everyone all over the country.

You should be more worried
about people's lives.

Sorry.

And then every continent on the planet.

You have to realize,
the argument that DuPont says,

"So what?
It's in your blood."

No contaminated
water!

And my position would be,
"You have no right to pollute my blood."

I was overwhelmingly
disgusted by the findings.

The science panel came back and said,
"We haven't really got a complete link

to your deformities."

When you look at the deformities that these animals had,

that I had the
same deformities?

That's
not a coincidence.

You could argue that Bucky Bailey's birth defects were not related.

That the birth defects
of the other child

in that group of eight children
weren't related.

And I think DuPont did argue
that, that it can't be proven.

But the odds of that being
the case are very low.

You studied eight women
who worked with C-8.

Two of them had children
with birth defects.

That would not be significant?

In the realm of scientific facts,
this is not considered

a statistically
significant sample.

They said they didn't
have enough information,

how much information you have to have when you got two babies.

How much do you need?

How can there not
be a link?

It's hard for me to stay idle and say, "Okay,
I accept this."

I don't wanna accept it.

May it please the court?
Ladies and gentlemen,

this case breaks down
pretty easily,

it's not as complicated
as you might think.

First of all,
one of the issues...

For years now,
it's been argued that this chemical is poisonous,

but for the first time today
a jury agreed.

Putting blame on DuPont.

A plaintiff in the first case of a long line of personal injury wrongful

death suits against the DuPont company has been rewarded $1.6 million.

It was definitely a fasten your seat belt kind of moment.

DuPont realized the jury saw things in a different way then they did.

This case is the first case against DuPont that went to court,

and it's going to cost
them possibly their reputation.

I think everybody saw the writing on the wall.

That if we can
win the first case,

we can win virtually
all of the cases.

A Federal jury recently awarded
$5.1 million...

The jury found that DuPont
acted with malice.

There's no money in the world they can offer me that's gonna justify...

This is a criminal offense.

The CEO's of DuPont are walking around with their freedom, untouched.

It's like if I go out here and spray arsenic around,

and then it gets in people's water,
and they slowly get poisoned, and they die,

they'll arrest me and charge
me for murder.

Then I'll go to jail.

$16 million?
Really?

This is a company at the time that was selling
$25 billion worth of products every year.

I am not sure what the right fine would be for contaminating

humanity, contaminating
the living world.

But I am pretty sure
it's not $16 million.

DuPont's big give was to participate in a gradual phase out of C-8.

By 2015, nobody could
make C-8.

They say that we're not gonna stop making Teflon.

So should we find some
side C-8 to make it with?

GEN-X is what
they are calling it.

When there is no safety standard,
there is no required set of tests,

to bring a chemical to market,

you never know if getting rid of one
chemical is going to result in bringing in

a substitute that's just
as bad or worse.

Once they started making GEN-X,
DuPont initiated a rat study.

And the results showed the same kind of tumors that we saw with PFOA.

Wow! Hello!

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

You're handsome.
You're handsome.

I'll never forget it,
sitting in that pre-op and just thinking,

you know, "What's my reaction
going to be when I see him?"

The first time I saw him,
they were cleaning him up, they called me over.

And I'm thinking to myself, "Please, Lord,
I know this is gonna be okay.

I know this is gonna be okay.

But what if it's not okay?"

That cry I just knew he was...

His first cry,
I knew I was a dad.

It changed my life.
It really did.

His eyes are closed
but he's smiling.

This is heaven right here for me.
This is awesome.

This is not something that I should have to have concerns about,

for years and years and years.

That my son can have a deformity because of some water,

or some chemical that
got in my blood.

It's not over yet.

This isn't the end.

We're gonna fight till
everyone is safe.

I don't know what C-8 does
with lifelong exposure,

but changes have to be made.

We don't have the science yet to explain long term exposure.

But we're just beginning to understand all kinds of new risks.

At very low levels this Teflon chemistry can affect the immune system.

They can have impacts
on the nervous system.

They can have impacts on how we metabolize various food nutrients.

On and on and on.

If a person is exposed
to C-8 on day one,

they may not manifest
disease for years.

Children for example,
we're starting to see them become ill with latent kinds of disease.

We don't know how it will affect people for years to come,

because we're just figuring out
what it is,

scientists are just
catching up with it.

And as they are doing this,
they've already phased in the replacement.

So that's already out there.

You can see from this story,
from this vantage point

that it almost goes on forever.

Drinking water in
North Carolina is being tested

for a toxic substance called
GEN-X.

It turned up recently
in the Cape Fear River.

GEN-X is the replacement
chemical being used for Teflon production,

after DuPont was found to be using a previous toxic chemical...

DuPont did stop
using C-8,

but they've just replaced
one poison with another.