during those decades. Bilott decided right away to take the Tennant case. He demanded immediate action to regulate PFOA and provide clean water to those living near the factory. DuPont just quietly switches over to the next substance. He hadnt really thought about the ethics of it, to be honest. Bilott sent his entire case file to the E.P.A. But Bilott was not satisfied. He saw cows with stringy tails, malformed hooves, giant lesions protruding from their hides and red, receded eyes; cows suffering constant diarrhea, slobbering white slime the consistency of toothpaste, staggering bowlegged like drunks. Bilott struggled to make sense of everything he was saying. DuPont decided against it. Bilott was proud of the work he did. The doctors ultimately hit upon an effective medication. Im going to start at this head., The video cuts to a calfs bisected head. He was amazed that Bilott would sue DuPont while remaining at Taft.
DuPont, he said, had found out that PFOA was causing health problems for women and birth defects in children. The five other companies in the world that produce PFOA are also phasing out production. I felt a connection to those folks., The connection was not obvious at their first meeting. It became apparent what was going on: They had known for a long time that this stuff was bad., Bilott is given to understatement. Women's Plus Size Elegant Short Sleeve Work Office Lace Deep V Neck Flounce Blouse, FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon, Women's Casual Round Neck Basic Pleated Top Cap Sleeve Curved Keyhole Back Blouse, Women's Casual V Neckline Self Tie Short Sleeve Work Blouse Tunic Tops, Women's Plus Size Notch V Neck Work Blouses Half Sleeve High Low Loose Top, Womens Summer Casual Short Sleeve Tunic Tops Ruffle Button Loose Blouse T-Shirts, Amazons private and select exclusive brands, Womens Lace Patchwork 3/4 Cuffed Sleeve V Neck Zip Up Chiffon Shirt Casual Blouse Tunic Tops, Womens Bow Tie Neck Long Sleeve Casual Office Chiffon Blouse Top, Short Sleeve Tshirts for Women Chiffon V Neck Blouses Cute Puff Sleeve Tops, Women's Casual Sweet & Cute Loose Shirt Balloon Sleeve V-Neck Blouse Top, Womens Plus Size Tops Long/Short Sleeve V Neck Waffle Knit Tunic Blouse Tie Front Button Up T Shirts, 2022 Women's Tops Short Sleeve/Long Sleeve Lace Trim O-Neck A Line Tunic Blouse, Women's Plus Size Cute Tops Long Sleeve Workout Shirts Crewneck Lace Casual Tunic Blouse, Women's Casual V Neck Cuffed Sleeve Buffalo Plaid Shirts Blouse Tunic Tops, Womens Plus Size V Neck Lace Crochet Tops Casual Loose Short Sleeve Flowy Tunic Blouses Shirts(1X-5X), Women's Plus Size Ruched Shirred Puff Sleeve Peplum Blouse Top Shirt, Women's Plus Size Short Sleeve Stand Collar Tied Neck Knot Blouse Top, Plus Size Tops for Women Summer Blouse Waffle Knit Short Lace Sleeve Shirts, Womens Chiffon Blouses Casual Solid Bell Sleeve Shirt Loose V Neck Pleated Tunic Tops, Summer Short Sleeve Office Button Down Blouse Stripe Shirt Tops with Bow Tie BP573, Women's Plus Size Loose Casual Short Sleeve Chiffon Top T-Shirt Mesh Blouse, Women's Blouse Satin Silk Shirts Button Down Shirts Casual Loose Long Sleeve Office Work Tunic Tops, Women's Plus Size Easy Care Sleeve Woven Shirt, Women's Plus Size Short Sleeve Lace Hollow Round Neck Elegant Blouse, Women's Plus Size Mesh Long Sleeve V Neck Belted Ruffle Hem Blouses Tops, Women's Puff Sleeve Casual Solid Top Pullover Keyhole Back Blouse, Womens Plus Size Casual Blouses Solid Striped Sheer Patchwork V Neck Long Sleeve Shirts Tops(1X-5X), Womens 3/4 Bell Sleeve Fashion V Neck Lace Patchwork Blouse Casual Loose Shirt Tops, Womens Ruffle 3/4 Sleeve Mesh Blouse Loose Flowy Tops with Elasticity, Plus Size Tunic Women Long Sleeve Leopard Print Tops Pleated Casual V Neck Tunics, Plus Size Tunics Women Short Sleeve Summer Casual Tunic Tops for Leggings, Women's Solid Short Sleeve Boat Neck V Neck Dolman Top with Side Shirring. Bilott had what he needed. 3M invented PFOA just four years earlier; it was used to keep coatings like Teflon from clumping during production. DuPont, rather than use an alternative compound, built a new factory in Fayetteville, N.C., to manufacture the substance for its own use. The sound accelerated and slowed down. The Lawyer Who Became DuPonts Worst Nightmare, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html. Ten years earlier, Congress passed the legislation known as Superfund, which financed the emergency cleanup of hazardous-waste dumps. Theres something really bad going on here.. We were getting frustrated, Bilott said. A year later, they replicated these results in studies with dogs. The only part that didnt make sense was his firm: No Taft lawyer, to anyones recollection, had ever filed a class-action lawsuit. The team of epidemiologists was flooded with medical data, and there was nothing DuPont could do to stop it. He understood PFOAs history as well as anyone inside DuPont did. The same year, DuPont found that water in one local district contained PFOA levels at three times that figure.
By the 90s, Bilott discovered, DuPont understood that PFOA caused cancerous testicular, pancreatic and liver tumors in lab animals. The blood run out of their noses and out their mouths. DuPonts scientists understood that the landfill drained into the Tennants remaining property, and they tested the water in Dry Run Creek. PFOA is in the blood or vital organs of Atlantic salmon, swordfish, striped mullet, gray seals, common cormorants, Alaskan polar bears, brown pelicans, sea turtles, sea eagles, Midwestern bald eagles, California sea lions and Laysan albatrosses on Sand Island, a wildlife refuge on Midway Atoll, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, about halfway between North America and Asia. Several times, Bilott had even worked on cases with DuPont lawyers. I learned to question everything you read, he said. Now, they realized, there was a way to do so. If the plaintiff wins, the defendant is required to fund regular medical tests. The company appeared not to realize what it had handed over. He became an expert on the Environmental Protection Agencys regulatory framework, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act. His taking on the Tennant case, Winter says, given the type of practice Taft had, I found to be inconceivable.. It contained an extraordinarily high concentration of PFOA. It seemed like it would have real-world impact, he said. As in the Tennant case, DuPont formed a team composed of its own scientists and scientists from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. PFOAs peculiar chemical structure made it uncannily resistant to degradation. He was 7 years old. It was something you could do to make a difference. When, after graduation, Taft made him an offer, his mentors and friends from New College were aghast. In September 2004, DuPont decided to settle the class-action suit. Given what Bilott had documented in his Famous Letter, Taft stood by its partner. Shop products from small business brands sold in Amazons store. Fortunately they had recently bought 66 acres from a low-level employee at the Washington Works facility that would do perfectly. (To say that Rob Bilott is understated, his colleague Edison Hill says, is an understatement.) The story that Bilott began to see, cross-legged on his office floor, was astounding in its breadth, specificity and sheer brazenness. Discover more about the small businesses partnering with Amazon and Amazons commitment to empowering them. There was scant information available about its impact on large populations. The Tennants settled. This advisory level, if indeed announced, might be a source of comfort to future generations. Darlenes first husband had been a chemist in DuPonts PFOA lab. Bilott was tormented by the thought that we still hadnt been able to hold this company responsible for what they did in time for those people to see it., Taft did not waver in its support of the case, but the strain began to show. There are 60,000 unregulated chemicals out there right now. With the trial looming, Bilott stumbled upon a letter DuPont had sent to the E.P.A. How could the class prove it had been harmed by PFOA when the health effects were largely unknown? In the 1970s, DuPont discovered that there were high concentrations of PFOA in the blood of factory workers at Washington Works. But they were so afraid that they were willing to roll the dice.. PFOA was not a regulated substance. One hundred fifty-three of these animals Ive lost on this farm, Wilbur says later in the video. In October, Bartlett was awarded $1.6 million. If no correlation was found between PFOA and illness, Bilotts clients would be barred under the terms of the agreement from filing any personal-injury cases. Four different times, the Tennants changed churches. When asked about the safety of the new chemicals, Chemours replied in a statement: A significant body of data demonstrates that these alternative chemistries can be used safely., Last May, 200 scientists from a variety of disciplines signed the Madrid Statement, which expresses concern about the production of all fluorochemicals, or PFASs, including those that have replaced PFOA. In the fall of 2000, Bilott requested a court order to force them. Bilott waited. He became the consummate insider. How did it get there? (DuPont was not required to admit liability.) We are confident that these alternative chemistries can be used safely they are well characterized, and the data has been used to register them with environmental agencies around the world., Every year Rob Bilott writes a letter to the E.P.A. Through the air, through your diet, through your use of nonstick cookware, through your umbilical cord. Wilbur called the office nearly every day, but Bilott had little to tell him. You can imagine what some of the other companies that Taft was representing a Dow Chemical might have thought of a Taft lawyer taking on DuPont, Larry Winter says. In Little Hocking, the water tested positive for PFOA at seven times the limit. He didnt show up at our offices looking like a bank vice president, says Thomas Terp, a partner who was Bilotts supervisor. A lead plaintiff soon presented himself. Superfund was a lucrative development for firms like Taft, creating an entire subfield within environmental law, one that required a deep understanding of the new regulations in order to guide negotiations among municipal agencies and numerous private parties. The risk was too great: Products manufactured with PFOA were an important part of DuPonts business, worth $1 billion in annual profit. For this reason, Bilott filed the class-action suit in August 2001 in state court, even though four of the six affected water districts lay across the Ohio border. Bilott learned from the documents that 3M and DuPont had been conducting secret medical studies on PFOA for more than four decades. He was doing for the Tennants what he would have done for any of his corporate clients pulling permits, studying land deeds and requesting from DuPont all documentation related to Dry Run Landfill but he could find no evidence that explained what was happening to the cattle. The episodes ceased and their symptoms, apart from an occasional tic, are under control, but he still doesnt have a diagnosis. Jim and Della did not want to sell, but Jim had been in poor health for years, mysterious ailments that doctors couldnt diagnose, and they needed the money. Sarah doesnt remember him speaking. (Darlene asked that he not be named so that he wouldnt be involved in the local politics around the case.) But it was to me. The same DuPont lawyers tasked with writing the safety limit, Bilott said, had become the government regulators responsible for enforcing that limit.