Category: Cinema

Robert Bilott’s self-documenting book, Exposure, on Du Pont’s chemical pollution in Parkersburg, West Virginia, is a sobering study of the immorality of corporate America in recent times, a searing book that shows how greed drives so much economic activity in America.

Robert Bilott’s story was first revealed to me when I recently saw the film Dark Waters – a Todd Hayes, directed, and Mark Ruffalo, produced and acted in film, well worthy of several nominations in this year Hollywood awards round. It received none. Reading below, you will soon get the picture why.

Robert Bilott tells us a story that begins with his unusual jumping the fence from his law firm’s usual corporate defence work to take on a plaintiff’s case, a West Virginia farmer, Earl Tennant, who showed up suddenly at his office with a mountain of supporting evidence.

Looking through it all, Bilott discovers how Du Pont had been for years dumping poisonous waste from its Washington Works plant at Parkersburg, West Virginia into landfills which leached into rivers, streams, ponds, killing cattle and compromising the health of inhabitants in a wide area. 

This story of corporate carelessness, greed and willingness to do harm, shows the casual, arrogant and ease with which a powerful corporation can engage in immoral practices, seeing it as business as usual. 

Initially rebuffed by Du Pont, Bilott convinced the courts to order the company to agree to settle, following an independent scientific investigation into the devastating harm created by a chemical PFOA, used for many products, famously in Teflon, a huge worldwide profit spinner for Du Pont. 

Du Pont ruined natural water and piped-water supplies meaning that many were already suffering, some dying, from directly associated diseases and conditions. But it takes years for results from an exhaustive scientific study of the blood samples of nearly 70,000 people in the immediate and surrounding areas to establish clear probable cause links to several major life threatening and life-altering diseases and conditions.

A jury finally finds for a class civil action against the company – who put up a fierce and often devious public relations & legal defence. The plaintiffs were awarded a 670 million dollar settlement against a corporate giant. Du Pont appealed and appealed then in the face of the unshifting evidence folded and accepted the decision. 

This ‘environmental crime’ was aided and abetted by the EPA who worked in tandem with Du Pont to obfuscate key facts of a chemical dumping program from the public, Du Pont carrying on its harmful activities for years in plain sight, abusing the basic trust its economic stranglehold allowed them in the small trusting community. Being the town’s main employer Du Pont had the town cold, knowing all along PFOA was an extremely dangerous substance for all life forms. 

In summary, this is a necessary read for people who want clean land, air and water, people who want a reasonable chance of living their lives without corporations callously poisoning them – in this case providing them with cancers. This book is for anyone who believes that accountability is sorely needed. Sorely needed too are lawyers who hold to decent norms, who work honourably in a democratically governed society of the 21st century. 

Without Earl Tennant bringing this to Robert Bilott’s attention and Bilott deciding to take the career risk of bringing a civil action on behalf of Earl and many others, with him and victims together facing down so many stress-filled years, we may never have even heard about Du Pont’s malfeasance.

Note: In a run up to the class-action trial, Du Pont spun off its Washington Works plant into a new company, Chemours, a spin-off technique many companies use to limit financial damage, placing the offending product range under another firm, a firm that can easily be tipped into bankruptcy thus preventing a payout. After years of seeing how Du Pont operated Robert Bilott was ready for the tactic.