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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare
Unreal, appalling.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
The Lawyer Who Became DuPonts Worst Nightmare
Rob Bilott was a corporate defense attorney for eight years. Then he
took on an environmental suit that would upend his entire career
and expose a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution.
By NATHANIEL RICH
JAN. 6, 2016
snip//
Where scientists have tested for the presence of PFOA in the world, they have found it. 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.
We see a situation, Joe Kiger says, that has gone from Washington Works, to statewide, to the United States, and now its everywhere, its global. Weve taken the cap off something here. But its just not DuPont. Good God. There are 60,000 unregulated chemicals out there right now. We have no idea what were taking.
Bilott doesnt regret fighting DuPont for the last 16 years, nor for letting PFOA consume his career. But he is still angry. The thought that DuPont could get away with this for this long, Bilott says, his tone landing halfway between wonder and rage, that they could keep making a profit off it, then get the agreement of the governmental agencies to slowly phase it out, only to replace it with an alternative with unknown human effects we told the agencies about this in 2001, and theyve essentially done nothing. Thats 14 years of this stuff continuing to be used, continuing to be in the drinking water all over the country. DuPont just quietly switches over to the next substance. And in the meantime, they fight everyone who has been injured by it.
Bilott is currently prosecuting Wolf v. DuPont, the second of the personal-injury cases filed by the members of his class. The plaintiff, John M. Wolf of Parkersburg, claims that PFOA in his drinking water caused him to develop ulcerative colitis. That trial begins in March. When it concludes, there will be 3,533 cases left to try.
dhill926
(16,317 posts)Downwinder
(12,869 posts)pnwmom
(108,959 posts)they support, are perfectly safe.