Ep #1 : The DuPont Chemical Poisoning I Dark History Podcast

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Is there any way to contact Bailey directly? My brother is Rob Bilott that she talks about in her podcast and YouTube video and he has been trying to reach out to her and is unable to...I think he would like if she tagged him in these posts or mentioned his book that is all about this since it is his story ...we all love her podcast and what she did but really are frustrated that we cannot figure out how to get in touch with her directly so she has contact info for Rob

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 2 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/Tomorrow-Otherwise πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 13 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

My dad used to work at Heinz which is like two minutes away from them!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 2 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/Kupoo πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 11 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

So .... fun fact. Both of my grandparents worked for DuPont. Sadly, my grandfather did indeed get prostate cancer from working there and passed in 2009. :( Fuck DuPont.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 3 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/[deleted] πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 08 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

Did she say how often we would get episodes of the podcast??

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 1 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/thefamilyruin πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 06 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

Man this reminded me so much of Erin Brockovich - and its terrifying because things like this are buried all the time!!!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 3 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/NikkiXDesigns πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 06 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

Ahhhh I just watched the video!!! I’m freaking out, I work as a groundwater Geologist for my state (in the US) and a ton of my projects are about PFAS (PFOA, PFBS, etc...) sampling and findings in groundwater. There’s been a huge push from the EPA to get testing done too. It’s very toxic to humans (and animals) and still not a lot known about it.... I’m so shook Bailey talked about something I deal with day to day. There’s a good YouTube series about them if anyone is curious!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 11 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/lipgloss_nd_hotsauce πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 04 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

I just love her

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 2 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/[deleted] πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 03 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

I am in love with these earrings! They are beautiful. I couldn't stop staring at them!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 3 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/rhiskisnoir πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 03 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies

I have to say, the video format is way easier for me to be immersed in, compared to the podcast format. Perhaps it's because I'm so used to watching Bailey talk! There's always so many conspiracy theories surrounding things in our drinking water, so this story was interesting to hear about. I'm side eyeing my non stick pans right now...

Also, can we talk about how absolutely stunning this background is?! Fancy Victorian era library vibes. Bailey's shirt is incredibly flattering on her - she looks so freaking beautiful here. Also bonus points to great lighting and editing!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 10 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/EntityOfHostility πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 03 2021 πŸ—«︎ replies
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i've taken two dead deer and two dead cattle off this ripple the blood run out of their noses and out of their mouths they're trying to cover this stuff up wilbur tennant hi friends i hope you're having a wonderful day today thank you so much for joining me in my lair you know oh my god look at it so cute i'm so excited to be here welcome to my new podcast it's called dark history so you know maybe you're wondering why dark history well over on my youtube you know i do a series called murder mystery makeup you know where i talk about a true crime story it's been heavy on my noggin well i've always considered myself to be a little curious cat now and over the last few years while looking for true crime stories to talk about i've come across so many stories throughout history that were just like wow almost unbelievable babe this is murder mystery makeup to the 10th degree i mean there were some wild shenanigans going down around here things that make you wonder why in the world did nobody teach us this in school like i'm talking large corporations being shady as hell genocide birth control yeah suspicious zoot suit syphilis oh i'm talking about all the greats baby syphilis greats i said it now i don't know everything of course i'm not here trying to pretend i do so i've been reaching out for some insight from experts across different fields to help get these stories from history straight it's uncomfortable but it's the truth and there's always so much to be learned from it okay i will stop rambling and let's get into today's shady ass story so not to start off super negative but today's story affects all of us i know it's kind of dramatic but literally though this happened to all of us and it's still happening today today's story is about an experiment a cover-up a scandal a poisoning not really but like i just had to add that in you know anyways this story is about what can happen when a company is left unchecked with power control and some shadiness going on imagine for a moment your backyard if you don't have a backyard okay imagine that you're outside in a yard okay you see the grass a beautiful stream water there's some rocks the sun is streaming down on it all it's so beautiful you enjoy this yard for many years it's your yard your own little personal heaven there's cows mooing birds chirping you get it it's nice out now imagine one day you step out into your usual spot and you notice that the grass isn't as green as it used to be the water in the stream isn't as clear as it once was you don't hear the birds chirping no cows mooing there's now a darkness in your once happy spot it's just not the same well this my friends is what happened to wilbur tennant in the 1980s wilbur had run his family farm with his siblings for years now they weren't like crazy wealthy people these were small town cattle farmers you know they lived a simple kind of life but what they did have was a lot of bills and a lot of land eventually wilbur's family had decided to sell off some of their land to a nearby company but they still ran the farm on the remaining property it seemed like the right thing to do they needed some money it was a trusted company buying the land and they really didn't have anything to lose at that point besides the land you know so it just it worked out for them one morning in the early 1990s wilper is walking around the farm he's checking on his cattle he's doing his thing anyway he's walking around his property and he notices something strange there's a dead cow down near the lake like or the creek whatever it's called on his property now it wasn't just normal dead it was like all sorts of funky the poor cow had blood and foam coming out of its mouth and its nose it's pretty uncomfortable to look at even for wilbur who's been around farm animals all of his life he's seen a dead coward too you know but he's never seen one that has died looking like that so wilbur got a little suspicious and starts paying closer attention to what's going on the farm now wilbur was putting some bases together okay it's like coming together in his mind and realized that ever since the family sold part of their land to that company you know wilbur's cows had started acting real unusual now wilbur never had issues with his cows acting out of hand but he noticed some of the more gentle ones they were becoming just really nasty and aggressive towards him yeah like the cows were just going crazy and just getting mad oh my god not mad cow though but they were getting mad anyways some of the cows had weird gross on their bodies or lost patches of their hair and then more and more cows started dying they're just dropping like flies or cows i guess either way but it's just not making any sense to wilbur nothing had changed if anyone knows cows it's wilbur okay he's been working on a farm all of his life of course he knows cows so wilbur tennant tries to find some answers he goes a local vet but the vet suggests that maybe it's something wilbur was feeding them like it had to be he then goes to some lawyers politicians even journalists because he feels that something bigger is going on but nobody will give him the time of day no one will speak with him no one will give him any help so he's feeling frustrated obviously like great love this for me you know now at this point wilbur decides you know screw it i'm just gonna do it myself he decides to dissect the dead cows and he records the whole thing on vhs tapes for proof or it's for personal use i don't know i'm not judging either way he's got the tapes during one of the dissections he opened the mouth of a dead calf and discovered all of the teeth had completely gone black yes he examined internal organs and saw that some just didn't look right they were the wrong color or the wrong texture and wilbur ended up dissecting quite a few cows and they all had something more going on inside of them wilbur knew he hadn't changed their diet and it couldn't have been something that he was doing the only thing that had changed was the tenant family selling some of their land to that company what company was it you ask well it was the biggest employer in their hometown let's welcome to the stage dupont chemical love it now dupont wasn't just the biggest company in their town it was the wealthiest too anyone and everyone who lived in town worked for dupont hell even wilbur's brother's name's jim he worked for dupont it was the pride and joy of their town it's how like everyone made their money so what the hell is dupont chemical well dupont i'm keeping it simple by the way dupont made some groundbreaking materials like the iconic teflon mylar and lycra now these names they might sound familiar to you because like they're literally everywhere teflon is a coating that is used on non-stick pans to make them you guessed a smart little cookie non-sticky it was groundbreaking when teflon came into the market now lycra is basically spandex also groundbreaking okay and it's used for sports clothing bathing suits that kind of thing also changed lives you know all of your stretchy pants lycra so they are constantly innovating new ways to make material that is not natural but when making chemicals the process creates a lot of highly toxic waste the kind of waste that would make you melt like in the movie roger rabbit remember remember when the guy melts i think it was the cartoons that melt in the tart or something but it was terrifying as a kid i was terrified of that anyways that's what i think of the chemical waste does personal opinion though i don't know anyways so why did dupont chemical want the land anyway it turned out that dupont used the tenant farmland it bought as a landfill for the waste that was coming from its factory people within the company they named this area the dry run landfill which came from the name of the creek the same creek that flowed into wilbur tennant's property the same creek that these cows seem to be dying by now ain't that some turns out dupont put in a large pipe that was pumping waste into wilbur's creek not just any waste it was chemical waste that's right could you imagine the tenet family fully believed that dupont was putting poison in the water or some kind of chemical was coming from their plant and they had to know it but over time the family was getting more and more frustrated because no one seemed to care no one seemed to show any interest as to what was happening and a lot of people in the neighborhood they rolled their eyes or ignored the family's claims because dupont was again major further town like they didn't want to cause any drama any problems between you know the town and dupont as far as they knew it was between wilbur and dupont and nobody wanted any business with that you know they didn't want to ruffle any feathers so finally somebody recommends an environmental lawyer to the tenant family that they should contact now this lawyer was like the grandson of someone's friend of a friend and the tenants go out on the limb and they hope that this guy will work with them and shabang that's how the tenants meet attorney rob billet and this is where things kick up a notch when was the last time someone came up to you and said oh my god you smell amazing what perfume are you wearing yeah i know it's been a while for sure but fragrance is personal whatever scent you're wearing you know it's something that you like but most of all works well with your body chemistry but maybe you've been wearing the same perfume for the last couple of years because how do you even find a new fragrance that you actually like without wasting a bunch of money well with scentbird you can find a way to have great taste and change up your fragrances without breaking the bank i'm talking the gucci the tom ford versace uh scentbird.com will keep you smelling good month after month scentbird is a fragrance subscription service that gives you the opportunity to 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new fragrance by brand style occasion season and more oh there's a huge selection of high-end fragrances again just for sixteen dollars and for you my friends out here listening you can get thirty percent off your first month today that's only eleven dollars for your first fragrance just go to centerbird.com and use my code dark history for 30 off your first month again that's scentbird.com for you to try your new favorite perfume or cologne for just 11. get your smell on babe sign on and smell amazing a big thank you to scentbird for partnering with me on today's episode now let's get back to the story rob bella was an environmental lawyer he had just made a partner at a law firm that pretty much only took on larger corporate clients the law firm was called taft stenius and hollister i probably pronounced that wrong but it's totally fine it's funny because this firm and these lawyers were the kind of people that chemical companies would typically hire to defend against accusations that the tenants might make it's just kind of ironic i guess you know anyways on top of that dupont had worked with this firm so many times before so it almost seems like this is a bad idea for someone you know like rob who wants to help out the tenant family now it doesn't make obvious business sense to take on a case against people who could potentially be your future clients you know but rob had said that he had gotten into this specialty because he did want to do good in the world and he did want to make a difference plus something about wilbur's story just had really interest him and rob felt like he could really make a difference here so that's nice rob had a background specifically in compliance with environmental protection agency or epa regulations he would help his clients manage their waste safely or at least lawfully i should say but the point is that he knew very well the laws in this space what companies did put out toxic waste where they put it is that legal you know all that stuff so with all that knowledge plus a ton of vhs tapes photos and documents the tenant family had collected over the years rob the lot decided to take on the case against dupont chemical and in the summer of 1999 rob files a federal suit against dupont chemical in the southern district of west virginia now this is a big deal okay wilbur starts to feel like this is finally gaining momentum right like he and his family are maybe finally going to get answers and get justice for what they've been through i mean they lost their farm well they didn't okay look they lost like all of their cattle and whatnot and that is how they made their money so you know they've lost it all pretty much is what i'm saying so wilbur is on a high he's like yeah we're doing it but then seconds later dupont's in housewares like no stop actually we did a study and it turns out that all your cows dying was actually your fault not dupont sorry i mean these lawyers are hired to protect this large corporation what do you think they're going to do just take responsibility name my friend's name dupont's lawyer his name is bernard so bernard says that dupont and the epa had done a study together of the property next to the tenant's farm now they had six veterinarians three that dupont hired personally and three that the epa hired so that should be fair right but the study said according to bernard and dupont that dupont was not responsible for the deaths of the cows these veterinarians said that wilbur was responsible and had not given them proper care so wilbur's fault he's like get it together wilbur that's not us that's on you they would go on to say that he was a bad farmer he mistreated his cattle that he must be blaming dupont for some kind of financial gain that selfish man him i don't know what you're thinking wait bailey i thought the epa were the good guys nah just kidding i know you don't know what the epa is so the environmental protection agency according to their website is an independent executive agency of the united states federal government tasked with environmental protection matters super vague but okay government agencies like the epa have super close relationships with the companies and corporations in the same sector usually these relationships involve money and what i'm getting at is that the epa was working alongside dupont chemical you know they had a super intimate relationship the epa is supposed to be on top of dupont making sure that they are following the rules when it comes to their toxic ass chemicals but i don't know we're asking too much of the epa apparently so the tenants are feeling frustrated and also just really exhausted from all of this they're facing a ton of backlash from the community because the family was going after dupont i do have to tell you again it keeps the town running like how dare they so people are just not happy with them it's just drama oh my gosh we could do like a whole drama series on it exposed but the family said that they would end up having to switch churches four times during all of this due to people being super unwelcoming to the tenants love thy neighbor lol anyway this study wasn't making any sense to wilbur and his family and it felt a little suspicious like how did dupont chemical have this study quote-unquote ready so quickly did you pot anticipate something like this might have happened you know and just had the study ready to go well back with rob the lawyer he decides to go hard through the massive amounts of papers documents records vhs tapes from dupont's files then one day while he's digging around doing his research he finds a letter from dupont to the epa oh yeah it's worth like a second look right what is this this is a little weird in the letter it was mentioned by dupont that there was a chemical substance found at their dry run landfill site the one um near wilbur remember yeah well and this chemical substance was different it was one that they had never recognized before dupont managed a ton of chemicals at their dump sites all day every day so coming across a chemical that they didn't recognize was different this substance was called pfoa rob the lawyer he's like yeah what is pfoa yeah i know what what is pfoa he can't find anything on it in his usual resources not the library not lists of regulated materials it's just nowhere to be found finally he gets in touch with a chemistry expert on the phone he's like bing bing hey this expert tells rob like hey i don't know what pfoa is okay he's not familiar with it but he was familiar with something similar pfos which is the same thing but it's like along the same lines but it's not the same thing it's so complicated like chemistry is complicated and i'm not gonna try and like teach you chemistry right now but it's kind of the same okay anyways i think though that these companies they use like all these acronyms technical words mumbo jumbo because they don't want people like the tenants to understand what they're talking about they don't want to even like rob the lawyer to understand it's better for them to create confusion make people think they're just stupid or maybe that they just don't understand enough but hey what the hell do we know so rob the lawyer he goes to dupont and he asks like what in the hell is pfoa and that they need to hand over all the information and materials related to pfoa and duponts like no they refuse well luckily rob he is a lawyer so he files a court order which is granted to get dupont to share their documents dupont wins douche of the year because they sent over dozens of boxes filled to the brim with countless documents just like they wanted the paperwork to be confusing they wanted the materials to be overwhelming in number this is how a company like dupont can create darkness while seeming to operate in the light they act like they're helping and doing the right thing here are the documents and all the evidence you need oh my god we're amazing you know but the reality is they are bearing and hiding the truth knowing that whoever goes looking for it really has to work hard to find it the truth that is since we're talking about the truth it's hard to find so it's now the year 2000 and rob the lawyer he's been working hard sifting through all of these documents that dupont chemical had sent over it's been months months he's been going through all of the paperwork rob has been scanning and quickly reading the documents as best as he could eventually though like just going through tons and tons of information rob comes across a document that showed dupont knew that this chemical pfoa was indeed coming from dupont and that it was indeed dangerous not only were they acknowledging this but it was clear to rob that dupont had known about this like pfoa being dangerous for a very long time this episode is sponsored by apostrophe a prescription skincare company for people that are ready to take their acne seriously prescription acne 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your dermatology visit that's apostrophe a-p-o-s-t-r-o-p-h-e dot com dark history and use code dark history to get your dermatology visit for 15 off i want to say a big thank you to apostrophe for sponsoring today's episode and now let's get back to the story now remember teflon super iconic invention that made your food not stick to your pan groundbreaking well in order to make teflon you need the magic chemical pfoa and dupont began using more and more pfoa they were educated on the specific ways in which to dispose chemical like they're supposed to incinerate it or they were supposed to send it off to a specific chemical waste facility who then properly disposes it yeah trying to get rid of waste is like a whole process so yeah they were told this and of course there's that warning section at the bottom you know when they're getting their education on that says like hey this chemical shouldn't be flushed away into water or sewers but like nobody reads that far though you know anyway so with all this information was found within the documents dupont sent raw which also were revealing that dupont chemical had been pumping hundreds of thousands of pounds of pfoa powder from their parkersburg facility into the ohio river and not only that they had been pumping it into the river for decades yeah just putting it in the river cool so what happens when a company pumps out that kind of like substance and it mixes with the water well the tainted water goes through the pumps and lands into pits normally these pits would be lined for some protection but the parkersburg pits were not well when there's like no protection down in the pit the water then becomes one with the ground the ground the land it absorbs the water and then when the tainted water from dupont chemicals sat in those pits it was absorbed right into the ground baby and it sank right into the local water supply the drinking water supply for over a hundred thousand people in west virginia now for rob the lawyer this case went from the tenant family and their sad cows to now something that like affected a whole lot more people than they expected it was clear that dupont chemical had all these instructions telling them how to get rid of pfoa properly and they just didn't follow them but rob then found records showing dupont chemical had done their own funded top secret medical study on pfoa and its effects on people for 40 years they know a lot according to their own study dupont knew that pfoa could increase the size of liver in rats rabbits and dogs they knew that their parkersburg employee had high concentrations of pfoa in their blood oh and they decided not to tell the epa or anyone about it no they're too busy dupont knew pfoa could cause birth defects in rats they ran tests on their employees children yeah yeah that's right they tested on children and they determined that two of seven live births resulted in eye defects by 1991 dupont chemical had an internal safety limit for pfoa concentration in water dupont felt they knew how much could safely be in drinking water based on their own studies but they didn't want to say what that safe number was but they knew what it was but they're not gonna tell you what it was it's like you're just playing games with a three-year-old you know it's just whatever this secret number was dupont learned that a local district had three times the secret number amount in their drinking water there was just a ton of pfoa going on in the waters and nothing was said well dupont scientists found out that pfoa caused cancerous tumors in lab animals and might result in prostate cancer in humans after this discovery it was brought to dupont's attention but they did nothing with that information they were like okay thanks that's super helpful no action was taken dupont had bought the tenant farmland to use as a place to dump their waste waste that they knew had the poisonous pfoa in it they knew that it drained into the tenant's current property and they knew that the water in the shared creek had incredibly insanely high concentrations of this poison i'm gonna call it poison for a little while because that's what it is okay dupont knew it all along and they still produced that garbage report blaming the death of the cows on just poor care what douche canoes rob belot the lawyer he made his case and in late 2000 the tenants came to a settlement agreement with dupont chemical rob got his fee and the case was closed before it ever reached trial so is that it does this all go away quietly did the tenants get like i don't know some money to make up for the dead cows and dupont just gets to go on pumping that poison into the waters of west virginia well when you really think about it water just doesn't stop at state lines you know like water doesn't know what a state line is so maybe this story would end there but once again nae nae of course it does not now rob the lawyer he was really angry okay dupont didn't just know about the poison they had known about it for decades and they knew it was in the drinking supply and they hid that from the government and they hid that from the public in the year 2000 the manufacturer that they used to purchase pfoa from stopped making the substance so dupont then started making it themselves and they just kept raking in the profits so rob tried to take this information public he wrote a 972 page brief called for immediate regulations for clean water for those nearby now he sent this 972 page brief which like how was that brief but okay but he sent all of that to the directors of all the regulatory agencies in the u.s so i think the epa even the u.s attorney general dupont requested a gag order essentially confirming to the public that they didn't want this report to get out and people began to think like hmm you know maybe there's something more to this damn story like maybe this is worth paying attention to today's episode is brought to you by wicked clothes have 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yourself a favor and check out wickedclothes.com and use coupon dark history to get 10 off also if you want to save some time you can get that coupon automatically applied by going to the link wickedclothes.com dark history a big thank you to wicked clothes for partnering with me on today's episode now let's get back to the show the gag order was denied i think the real question here is like why do they call it a gag order because i mean it just sounds so violent like gag oh my god rob wanted this taken on across the country this wasn't just going to hit dupont this would affect all the players in the industry making these man-made or synthetic materials most people in the united states they thought or we think if something is dangerous it's regulated but that wasn't true oh and ps it's still not true but the 1976 toxic substance control act says that the epa can only test chemicals when they are provided with proof that the chemicals cause harm so what they're saying is they can't test it until they already know it's dangerous which makes a lot of sense but the epa isn't even in the business of making and finding new chemicals or new materials these large companies are the ones doing that right like they're the ones making it so the companies have that information and because of this law the companies control the epa's access to the proof that it's dangerous you know what i'm saying like they can hide the proof of harm and avoid epa testing and avoiding regulations you know they don't want to follow the rules or regulations because that would just cost them money i mean look how cheap they are they won't even um line their pits or properly dispose of the chemicals i guess in order to make a lot of money you have to cut a lot of corners greed is such an ugly color isn't it in 2005 thanks to rob the lawyer dupont reached a 16.5 million dollar settlement with the epa after they were finally found in violation of the toxic substances act they paid the fine which was the largest civil penalty the epa had ever charged a company within its history to someone like me and you like that seems like a lot of money you know don't get me wrong 60 million yeah i'll take it that's a lot of money but you and i both know okay you have to think about it the bigger scale here this is a giant company that made giant profits and they paid off that fine with less than two percent of what they made selling products that used pfoa in just that year in just the year 2005. and they'd been making those profits for decades so rob he also filed a civil action lawsuit against dupont chemical he had to prove that pfla was not safe that it was not at safe levels in the drinking water of the people he represented and through his tenacity and creativity he was able to get dupont to settle september of 2004. now the company agreed to install water filtration plants in the affected districts and they also agreed to fund a study without limitations to determine if there was a probable link between pfoa and diseases in human now if the link was found then dupont also agreed to pay for medical monitoring for all of the affected groups in this lawsuit the total settlement came to some of like 21.7 million dollars and the law firm didn't lose any money and the districts had clean water but there was a lot more to do the lawyers with the votes of all the people they represented used the settlement money for medical testing and research all of which dupont had to foot the bill for totaling around 33 million dollars so they do this big medical research study and it ends up taking seven years so friends the scientific study took quite some time and during that time a bunch of the class members aka the people who were in the lawsuit they were diagnosed with cancer sadly wilbur tenet was also diagnosed with cancer and then he would die from a heart attack and then his wife she also died of cancer two years later the team of scientists began releasing results at the end of 2011. they found that there was a probable link between pfoa exposure and get ready for this list kidney cancer testicular cancer thyroid disease high cholesterol pre-eclampsia alterative colitis i nailed that one pregnancy-induced hypertension and elevated cholesterol levels so it seems like rom the lawyer he finally had his proof pfoa was poison for sure we should be calling this aqua tafana and it was literally everywhere okay you might be thinking to yourself oh man that's super sad super messed up and like thank goodness i don't live in west virginia or like thank god i wasn't around back then but i want you to know that if you are in the united states nene you my friend may have been affected recently i've been looking for a new puzzle game to play on my phone that would give me a good challenge something that would actually challenge my noggin a bit you know and that's when i came across best fiends best fiends what is it you ask well it's a mobile puzzle game that will challenge your brain it's kind of like you did a workout but for your brain best fiends is way more fun than other puzzle games you know the ones that involve candy that you can't eat yeah i can't put it down plus best fiends has literally thousands of fun puzzles to solve i'm currently on level 30 with a lot more to go there's something new to play every day and the characters are just absolutely adorable best fiends is constantly putting out updates so there's always something new and exciting to explore whenever i'm feeling a little bored or have some time to kill between zoom meetings or on the toilet you know whatever i bust out my phone and go straight to best fiends to tackle some puzzles download the five star rated puzzle game best fiends free today on the app store or google play that's friends without the r best fiends now let's get back to today's story in 2002 the epa found that it wasn't just drinking water but also the general public at risk anyone who used teflon pans to cook with for example what the super iconic teflon pans that were literally in every household also had pfoa yes and it was being like cooked right into the food you ate it not you but like you know you might have but not you anyways the epa also found out that pfoa had made its way into american blood banks people were donating their blood which very nice of them we applaud them they didn't know that they had pfoa in their blood and it was donated so then like pfoa is just like it's raining pf away by 2003 it was estimated that the average american adult had a concentration of pfoa in their blood of four to five parts per billion in america today nearly every person is likely to have pfoa in their blood yes it's india manufactured chemicals have been found in 94 different water districts across 27 different states and they've been found pfoa it's been found in the blood of salmon swordfish sea turtles sea lions polar bears i mean the lists can really go on here you know so new studies on these types of chemicals appear all the time and the evidence continues to suggest that these man-made chemicals have complex effects in 2014 it was found that breastfeeding is a major source of exposure other studies found that exposure during infancy is associated with immune deficiency now researchers in italy let me tell you they found a link between exposure to these chemicals and lower sperm counts lower sperm mobility and shorter penises yeah you heard me right no need to rewind 15 seconds shorter penises in october of 2016 3535 people felt personal injury lawsuits against dupont chemicals the first actually to go to trial was carla bartlett i believe who survived kidney cancer now she was awarded 1.6 million dollars the company would pay out an additional 670 million to 3 550 people who were exposed to pfoa eventually dupont stopped producing and using pfoa in 2013 and the five other companies worldwide that used it also began phasing it out which reminds me i forgot to look up what those five other companies were oops go google it let me know anyways so in 2015 dupont made a new corporation called kemmers and now kemmers uses a similar different compound that is supposed to biodegrade at a faster pace i roll sure which they knew about this quote-unquote safer compound for more than 20 years but of course it took the lawsuits the epa national attention to make them think like hey maybe we should make the switch maybe we should care pretend to care this alternative compound by the way unregulated yeah said it unregulated so no idea if it's actually safe or not and they've given us no reason to believe them so once again cool love that but don't worry you guys don't freak out because cameras aka dupont they say it's totally safe it doesn't seem like rob the lawyer believes them either every single year rob writes a letter to the epa urging regulation of pfoa and drinking water they have an advisory setting for these levels but that is all and like nobody knows what that means do you know what that means no exactly nobody knows what that means nobody knows in 2016 rob told the new york times quote we told the agencies about this in 2001 and they've essentially done nothing that's 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 end quote kemmers which operates and runs the original facility in parkersburg still produces products to make teflon i'm laughing because like yeah they're still making them like oh yeah babe it's all around you turn around right now it's pfoa it's right behind you you know like it's everywhere they're still producing it and still dumping it away oh and and more dupont spin-off companies are out there like dowell inc it's like we're in some weird twilight zone you know so people were concerned and following closely the dupont chemical case but the message so far was dupont did something bad they painted a fine they did some testing and like found a backup or they changed their name move things around and no one went to jail the end you know like that's what the story was so anyways these corporations learned the true power or true lack of power that regulatory agencies have in the united states and in a world that mistrusts science underfunds research and allows for people to bounce back and forth between government jobs and corporate jobs in the same field what chances do we have to stop the next dupont chemical disaster i mean it's probably already happened unfortunately bad news for us uh different variations of this poison are still in our drinking water yes we are poisoned and it's in everyday materials that you think of as second nature remember how i mentioned the story affects you well it does because you have a very high chance of having pfoa in your blood to keep it simple our body just doesn't have the ability to break down the chemical and when you really think about it isn't that gross because of dupont you have this thing in you right and like you would think that would make more noise you know if the epa couldn't or wouldn't stop dupont well what can we do about it you know like who the hell are we and these large corporations they're just clearly making us ill what can we do about it i personally really admire rob the lawyer wilbur and the tenants for their bravery to go after a large company like dupont i mean that's ballsy that takes some serious balls also for the years of dedication to seeking justice and for seeking the truth i'm a sucker for a good old-fashioned david and goliath type story but i wish i could say like the little guy won here but we did not dupont is a good example as how important it is to push for actual environmental regulations not just to save the trees or the whales i mean yeah those things are great of course we want to save those but literally to protect yourself from these large corporations who want to take advantage of us and our bodies plus the lands that we live on look you don't deserve to get poisoned over eggs not sticking to your pan i just quickly wanted to take this moment and give a big thank you to dupont chemical for all of their beautiful secrets that have affected all of us i appreciate that oh also guys you can totally blame your small you know your small member on dupont just saying it's an opportunity when i first read about the story i found it super fascinating because rob uncovered a pretty large secret right dupont was poisoning the water and all of us with the chemicals in their products this was proven this was proven and nothing happened why this question literally keeps me up at night we have these chemicals in our blood from products that we've been sold and they've been proven to make people sick i mean isn't that enough you would think right isn't that a bit concerning to anybody you know what do we do with this information and honestly i think that's a great question i guess step one is bringing awareness right but if dupont got away with poisoning all of us for so long what could everyone else be hiding and what can we do to stop this from happening again i want to know i need because we need some answers here we need a plan let's continue this conversation hop on over to twitter using the hashtag dark history and uh let me know what you think anyways if you enjoyed this story join me over on my youtube where you can watch these episodes after the podcast airs and also catch my murder mystery and makeup which drops every monday now i told you today it would be a little dark it's in the title so let's get over it okay anyways thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day you make good choices try to get some sleep tonight even though you've been poisoned and i'll talk to you next week bye history is an audio boom original executive producers include chelsea durgan from slash management and brent montgomery ed simpson fannie badry avi gandhi and dariel christian from wheelhouse video directors trent barboza and spencer strathmore producer lexi kivan research provided by elizabeth hyman written by sarah camino and haley gordon and hosted by me princess of the dark bailey sarian
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Channel: Bailey Sarian
Views: 3,426,723
Rating: 4.957406 out of 5
Keywords: Bailey sarian, youtube bailey sarian, bailey sarian youtube, youtube bailey, bailey, sarian, mystery makeup monday, monday mystery makeup, mystery makeup, mystery makeup mondays, makeup artist, makeup 2021, new makeup 2021, new makeup tutorial, flawless makeup, makeup and story time, makeup story time, story time and makeup, story time, grwm, grwm and makeup, flawless foundation, mystery monday, mystery, monday story time, dark history, dark history podcast
Id: QjEYyLFtJcc
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Length: 43min 55sec (2635 seconds)
Published: Thu Jun 03 2021
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