Poisoned Lives: Secrets of the Chemical Industry | ENDEVR Documentary

foreign at the end of the 60s leotis Jones was a prisoner here in holmesburg a suburb of Philadelphia in the United States a prisoner but also a guinea pig for industry like thousands of other inmates Ace block this is where all the medical tests and the human experimentation was going on how many times have you taken that Corridor oh man that about uh maybe 25 30 times you know but it was different tests that they was running and sometimes I was on like two tests at a time you know okay this practice was confidential at the time because multinational chemical companies came here to test the risks of their products two earn a few dollars the prisoners participated in several tests but none of them knew what they were being given what they would do they would put the tape and stick it and Pull It sticking and pull the sticking and pull it then they would put a drop in the uh the substance whatever it was that was in it on that area and what happened after all over my body my skin pigmentation got light in certain areas how long did it last year somewhere around here and they had you signing a paper stating that uh it was informed consent but it was just some paper to weave them from being liable if anything go wrong [Applause] one company did everything they could to keep this a secret they even paid leotis Jones for his silence Dow Chemical the leading manufacturer of Plastics in the world and the third largest manufacturer of pesticides Dow Chemical has an annual turnover of 48 billion dollars and 50 000 employees around the globe in the wake of this chemical giant there's an industry of Staggering profitability an industry in a frantic race to innovate each year there are new toxic products reach the market these multinationals all have one thing in common a culture of secrecy [Music] you're following us [Music] polluting lands rivers and groundwater behind the fumes of these factories we have discovered tens of thousands of victims [Music] in India children are born with severe disabilities in the U.S those who have dedicated their lives to this industry everybody want to go there because for the money for the benefits it was Secure are now paying the price those guys are all dead and I should have been why they lie faced with these tragedies the chemical Giants have adopted a specific course of action [Music] lack of transparency cynicism denial in the meantime they continue to reap the profits [Music] in holmesburg prison Dao experimented on the inmates with one of the most carcinogenic products in the world dioxin [Music] it's one of the molecules in agent orange the powerful herbicide that Dow produced for the American Army during the Vietnam war the Air Force dumped it on the Viet Cong for a decade at the same time the tests were being performed at holmesburg from that time on Dao was already aware of the dangers of dioxin the company put it in writing in This Confidential note from June 1965. dioxin is exceptionally toxic some months later Dow would study its side effects on the prisoners amen can I say there's no way you know participate no no no no I wouldn't have been trying to accomp it up they want to buy you know we found one of the doctors that performed the tests at holmesburg in the 1960s today he's an oncologist at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago [Music] Higman Weitzman is preparing to retire he is one of the few Witnesses still alive every day I had a row of 20 convicts they were coming in all day so all day long people were coming oh absolutely it was a a machine in 1967 Sigmund Weitzman was only 21 years old he was an intern at holmesburg the senior physician overseeing the tests never told him the names of the products used on the prisoners he only realized later that he had administered dioxin to human beings we show him what Dow knew back then about the chemical toxic no wonder it's confidential This Is 50 years old yeah it's very upsetting this is the first time you you read these documents yes well I'm I'm appalled that I'm just very it's so casual I also felt personally guilty that I was participating something so horrible you don't give people poison it's just simple it's it you know it's as if these people aren't people they're just experimental animals nowadays it would be Criminal thou was never prosecuted when prisoners tried to take action against the company the statute of limitations had expired this multinational would not only poison inmates with dioxin but also tens of thousands of people in Midland Michigan in the north of the U.S [Music] Midland the birthplace of Dao here at the Dow Chemical Company in Midland Michigan revolutionary chemical killers [Music] this is where agent orange was manufactured [Music] its production created waste extremely high in dioxin Dao secretly dumped this waste into the river that flows through the city [Music] in 1981 one man would discover the truth we had a conclusion there that Dao was a major source and not the only source to the river and certainly to the community and that people were at risk at the time Milton Clark was a toxologist for the EPA the government agency responsible for Environmental Protection with his colleagues he wrote a report condemning Dao's practices but right before the report's publication the corporation would succeed in pressuring the acting chief of the EPA in Washington we went into shock we had never heard of such a thing being done ever that the company that we were regulating they would have the right to review a report comment on it before it's released and what did they ask you about that and it was critically important to say that people were at risk but they did not want that they just basically want to squash the report okay and eventually the the final report they prevailed and so they truncated it down and removed critical sections and all the conclusions were taken away pressured by his superiors Milton Clark was forced to censor the report the result pollution in Midland Michigan would continue for 30 years with impunity and the executives at Dao would continue denying the dangers there is no health problem in Midland there is absolutely no evidence of dioxin doing any damage to humans in 2006 one woman would attack the multinational again at the time Mary Gade oversaw all the offices at the environmental agency in the Midland region she had Leverage she'd been nominated by the president of the United States George W bush newly appointed she demands that more testing be done in the city we found these astronomically high levels of dioxin levels that my staff think may be some of the highest levels ever found in the United States one of the things that was astonishing to me when this came to my attention was that for almost 30 years this very serious problem had not actually been addressed where have you found these high levels so yeah we found it in a long and yards alongside the river system parks where children play where people launched their boats where fishermen put their boats in the water this is where people live so I immediately called Dow senior officials and said we're very concerned about these levels we need you to take action um as that unfolded um the company was not happy it's extremely expensive to clean up this much contamination hundreds of millions of dollars if not more larger complaint Dow goes directly to the White House I was asked on May 1st of 2008 to either resign or quit by the end of the day okay were you surprised yes very much so in my 30-some years of working in Environmental Protection and much of that spent in the government I would have never expected that that was acting in its own interest so Dao is trying to make sure that it saved as much money as possible as a result of these Maneuvers for decades thousands of people have lived surrounded by dioxin without knowing the risks we wanted to meet these victims but in Midland it's hard to loosen tongues Dao has supported the city for 120 years and reminders are at every corner at the bank the stadium the library the public park the high school the shadow of the company is everywhere [Music] only one person agreed to break the Code of Silence Alice bukelter has spent most of her life here near the river this is where she raised her family [Music] oh this is where we used to have the zip line way back here okay we used to have all trails that went down through here I don't even know if you can see any of them over here uh but 18 years and and the land is very fertile and it was used for a Motocross trails and hiking trails and dune buggy trails and um and just you know recreation in the woods for a kid it was like a Wonderland it was you know an adventure they could explore and they could build forts and they could do all those things no one advised you that there was dioxin down there nope we just thought we found a magical spot for us to play and raise a family for nearly 40 years the macalter family would live here blissfully unaware of their toxic surroundings Every Spring the river floods their Garden bringing in a fresh wave of dioxin Alice bukelter would not discover the true extent of the contamination until 2007. when tests were conducted in her garden by the local environmental agency the levels of dioxin were up to 17 times higher than the legal limit for toxicity Constance I have my oldest daughter has autoimmune diseases you have five kids how many of them do have autoimmune disease I would say all of them some to a lesser degree and some to a more severe degree and my husband had a very malignant colon cancer it was a real quick onset her late husband Herbert brookelter was a doctor a few days before he passed away he expressed a Last Wish meat was brave enough to when he was dying to have his blood drawn when he didn't have very much blood left dioxin levels were taken the Thursday before he died on a Sunday he was willing to do it to ascertain that there was a connection the results of my husband's this is his levels these These are the actual breakdown Alex boquelter's husband had 64.5 nanograms of dioxin per liter of blood three times the U.S average we had been married 46 years when he died and [Music] um and what I have treasured 10 more years yeah and you know that's been a major impact on my life the American Environmental agency has finally forced Dao to clean the river but the process has only just begun it could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars however no date is set for decontaminating neighboring yards like Alice berkelters Dao refused all our requests for an interview the multinational merely sent us an email stating that we seek science to based solutions that protect human health while also contributing to the well-being of the local community on the other side of the world another contamination is wreaking havoc as a result of one of the worst industrial catastrophes in history thousands of children have been affected but Dao has never dealt with it it happened in India in Bhopal [Music] in 1984 the local chemical plant exploded killing 20 000 people and releasing tons of toxic products at the time the factory belonged to Union Carbide a pesticide giant that Dow would buy up in 2001. the site of the Bhopal explosion is still saturated with chemical pollution over the years these products have spread into the city's groundwater systems for 15 years the inhabitants have demanded a full decontamination in vain Dao refuses to act [Music] decaying steel site is still accessible today here we meet Mr Shawan a former engineer at the time he was in charge of the storage of the chemicals in this Laboratory so what are all those bottles there's so many chemicals still remaining in this quality control lab very few bottles are now at present but after the day after this quality control layer was full of the chemicals mortal drums and after 32 years still they are lying is that dangerous yeah it is dangerous because there is no proper care of this permissions among the products stored in the factory there was lyndane an extremely toxic insecticide today it is forbidden all over the world according to our guide the soil surrounding the factory is full of it this whole area is highly contaminated and this is the local pit there they are dumping all toxic waste blend on the ground right now you can feel the smell of the Benzene hexachloride on this spot and it is dangerous to stay here for a long period Benzene hexachloride is the scientific name for lindane we go down to the area of the spill to take some samples smell is unbearable we'll have the soil analyzed just before leaving Mr Schwann shows us where the pesticides were made here beads of mercury lie exposed in the open air according to the World Health Organization this is one of the top 10 most dangerous chemical products in the world we take some more samples the results of our two tests are astonishing inside the factory the level of mercury is 5 million times higher than the environmental standard at this level of concentration the risks of developing liver skin or lung cancers are considerable the levels of lindane are just as alarming exceeding one hundred thousand times the standard level this can provoke severe cases of cerebral degeneration yet only 20 meters away we see children playing Cricket on the contaminated ground do you often come to play cricket here yeah yeah but do you know that's a chemical plant that is dangerous foreign these children come here every day to play on the land near the factory they don't seem to realize the risk that they are exposed to why are you playing inside the battery and not outside [Music] [Music] these kids are not the only ones in danger in Bhopal the chemical contamination stretches far beyond the walls of the factory toxic waste has penetrated the land and has polluted the water of many neighborhoods up to three kilometers from the factory 50 000 people live there we went to take water samples to identify the molecules present in their Wells [Music] lichen shakya's family home they've lived in this house for almost 30 years the water they consume contains 1.9 micrograms of mercury per liter two times the standard level of toxicity [Music] the problem is even in boiled water Mercury is still carcinogenic situations [Music] in other areas of Bhopal it's not Mercury but lindane that wreaks havoc on human lives this is a problem in preetnagar a neighborhood situated one kilometer away from the factory the municipality has had drinkable water since 2011 but for many years the inhabitants have been drinking severely polluted water that's the case for rukmani and her 13 year old daughter rachna since her birth she's suffered from limited mental development and muscular dystrophy she can neither talk nor stand up by herself rukmani her mother drank contaminated water every day during her pregnancy foreign [Music] a few months after rashna's birth a governmental study was conducted in the area the levels of lindane were extremely high in the water 17 times the World Health Organization limit did you know that the water you were drinking when you were pregnant was full of pesticides from the factory what's going to happen to Russia now due to her disabilities rashna has never been able to go to school every day she comes to the shingari rehabilitation center without these daily exercises she would be completely paralyzed today Rasheeda B is the founder of the center she has watched all these children grow up yes 850 children are now registered at rashidabi's Center um [Music] in 2015 Dow gave 4.5 billion dollars to its shareholders but not a single Cent has been given to the decontamination of Bhopal for weeks we tried to reach the Communications Department at Dow to get an interview without success what's going to answer those questions it's pretty important I I'm not aware of who that is right off the top of head we have 50 000 employees employees Dow never called us back so we decided to go to the company's general assembly in Midland in the U.S to ask our questions cameras are not allowed inside so we stayed in the parking lot sorry you're a dow shareholder yeah have you been talking about Bhopal this year were there any resolution sir well I'm asking you to please leave the property okay Stan here do you understand yeah we're interested yeah I understand we quickly realized that we were not welcome that's it okay so we carefully followed their rules for 45 Long minutes until the Communications Department at Dao decided to finally set foot outside hello sorry to disturb you I'm a French journalist yeah yeah can we talk sorry why you don't want to talk about Bhopal you don't want to talk about the kids that are sick there no I'm sorry it wouldn't be appropriate for me to say anything why so we thought of another solution we would bring our questions directly to the personal residence of the CEO of Dao Mr liveris along with this letter we displayed an american-style election sign to make sure that he wouldn't miss it uh hello sir I'm not on the property here don't worry are you working for Miss deliveries are you working for Dao are you concerned about security are you concerned about what's happening in Bhopal you know they are still contaminating look the kids look rational she's just 13 years old it's terrible I understand so why though is not doing anything I I don't know sir I couldn't tell you but it doesn't touch you you don't mind it affects everybody sir so what Dao is not doing anything a few days later we've finally received an email from Dao the company laments Bhopal was a terrible tragedy that we will never forget but they relieve themselves of all responsibilities stating that we acquired Union Carbide more than 16 years after the catastrophe of 1984. Dow continues to address Global issues through Human Solutions issues like clean water as important as life itself Dao is working to make water safe and readily available to people all over the globe the human element nothing is more fundamental nothing more Elemental in Dao's wake countless victims and human tragedies pile up without any damage to the company's profits in December 2015 Dao announced the biggest Financial operation in its history a merger of 130 billion dollars with another American Chemical giant DuPont a match made in heaven [Music] Dupont made its Fortune with dynamite dynamite nylon and flan the magical material that prevents food from sticking to pans [Music] however behind the success of Teflon Dupont hides a dark secret so I just can't believe the DuPont the money means more than the people there's people dying because of what they've done years ago what they were doing at best it's despicable and at the worst is Criminal at the heart of this drama is one city Parkersburg lost in the eastern U.S the city was built around the DuPont Factory Suzanne Bailey came here in 1978 to work on the Teflon production lines I went to work in May the 8th 1978. that was my glorious day right there they took our pictures it's you that's me without gray hair in the middle yep you know I was so happy you're smiling I was that was the elite job I mean everybody wanted to go there because for the money for the benefits and everything like that it was Secure the chemical industry is a growing one growing by leaps and bombs I mean you could just mention the DuPont name and door swung open it was like princess coming through the door you know in such an environment you can look to a bright future with confidence and optimism where are you at piso I was thrilled I was absolutely thrilled to death a few months after starting her job at Dupont Suzanne Bailey became pregnant in January of 1981 she gives birth to little Bucky I was born it was very traumatic they didn't know what to do with him they never seen anything like it I could not figure out what happened [Music] he had half a nostril a half a nose the eye as the keyhole pupil I didn't know what to do I was afraid he was going to die in my arms I had no idea what was wrong [Music] Bucky survived he is now 35 years old but his childhood was spent between his home and the hospital [Music] I had 30 surgeries in a span of you know six to seven years where they took a rib cartilage to form my nose I have a metal plate here they stretched my forehead out so that they could use that skin and bring it down and mold my nose here I still only have one one natural functioning nostril we had to put the hockey mask on him and the guards because he wasn't allowed to touch his face oh how long he had to wear those for I would say three months four months it's a long time yeah only the only way that he got to take him off was just to eat how is it as a kid to grow up and to have you know so many surgeries and I mean it's pretty intense you know walking out in public and going into a store or a restaurant and as soon as you enter all the eyes are on you and school when you go in and you're trying to make new friends um all they see is you're different after her maternity leave Suzanne Bailey began to suspect her job as the cause of Bucky's deformities a mysterious Source tips her off to one molecule in particular C8 the molecule in Teflon that stops food from sticking to pans when I went back to work the first day I went to the locker and I found the paper laying there I picked it up I began reading about it it was talking about how the rats were fed the C8 and what deformities that it had around her face and I thought that sounds just like Berkey it was very similar to what Bucky had absolutely very similar almost identical to what he had that's why I knew that there was something wrong that's why I connect the scientific study Suzanne Bailey found had been conducted by a subcontractor of DuPont it studied baby rats whose mothers were exposed to C8 they developed abnormal eye lenses I immediately walked out that door went down to Medical and I said is this what's wrong with my baby oh no no no nothing on this plant will hurt you that was the motto that's what they always say yeah nothing here I'll hurt you [Music] but in the meantime Dupont was secretly investigating the pregnant women working in their Factory two out of seven children born to the factory workers had facial deformities like Bucky shortly after Dupont decided to transfer Suzanne Bailey and her colleagues to other departments at the time Kenton Wamsley also worked in the manufacturing Department of Teflon he remembers the discussion he had with his manager he said Kim we sent all the women home out of Teflon all of them he said oh don't worry it won't hurt the men just the women we feel that it it can cause trouble so I saw him it won't hurt me Kenton Wamsley was a lab technician he handled C8 for 30 years breed that fumes from all the samples we breathe but we just you know at the time when we thought Dupont would take care of us and um so I just did my jobs for years and years you know and we didn't realize it our health was an issue then surgeon diagnosed me as having cancer it had take all my rectum part of my colon for every five years it says [Music] now Kenton wemsley has to live with an astronomy bag attached to his stomach changes at day and night at the factory he worked in a team with three other technicians my buddies people I really love seen them every day cared about them yeah those guys are all dead and I should have been they didn't even see retirement no no Wamsley and his colleagues were never warned about the risks of C8 however we procured a confidential document from DuPont stated 1982 34 years ago in it Mr Carr the medical director at the time expresses concern about the consequences of CH retained in the blood of employees recommends that practical steps be taken to reduce this exposure all employees not just Teflon area markers are exposed so rather than to do anything they just wrote it out I've never seen a letter like that I'm mad you can see why we could have prevented a lot of lies if they would have told us there's a problem why'd they cover it up why they lie why didn't they have us protected too costly we Tracked Down Bruce Carr DuPont's former medical director he is now enjoying a peaceful retirement by the ocean far from Parkersburg I have a document of 1982 showing that you are aware that she was toxic for workers why have you not told them the truth at that time they were all told the truth they were told everything we knew at the time actually no I have interviewed some employees and they were not aware of anything we told employees everything we knew as soon as we knew it we go back to 1982 you're trying to do reconstructionism history and you can't do that why have you not protected your employees Dupont would not only put their employees in danger once again tens of thousands of people would be affected they live up to 70 kilometers away from the factory one man would discover this a bit by accident Joe Kiger on October 31st 2000 he receives a letter from the municipality concerning the quality of the tap water it mentions C8 I was setting in my Courtyard and the wife was watering the flowers and we got our water bill and the mail and with that bill came a letter it's like you get form letters all the time see like I saw okay bang and you put it over and you don't think about next thing you know you throw it away and that's basically what this was it just caught my attention and I started reading through it and then the flag started popping up first of all what was C8 here which is used by Dupont Works what's Dupont have to do with our water Joe Kiger sought clarification on the matter I called Dupont to try to find out so they put me in touch with a guy um don't know Mr Kennedy and I said you know I'd like to know more about this C8 issue he just told me he's nothing to worry about about it was just a byproduct of Teflon and it wasn't anything to worry about and he was flat out lying to me I could tell that to get to the bottom of it he takes Dupont to court after a long legal battle the judge forces the company to declassify their internal studies on C8 Joe Kiger discovers the truth behind the factory at Parkersburg for decades they've been dumping C8 waste into the river to make things worse Dupont has known since 1984 that the molecules spread into the Region's tap water the company found astronomical levels in public taps up to 50 times the limit of toxicity according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency that was 1984 and we didn't come out until 2000. 16 years yeah before we even hit him up about it and they chose as you see right here they chose not to do anything about it and they knew what was coming with the liabilities if they got caught they were trying to slide under the radar people trusted Dupont for so long they have done nothing but lie for years to people about what this stuff's all about there's sick people out here because of what they've done there's people dying because of what they've done during all these years more than 70 000 people have been drinking contaminated water in 2011 both scientific research and the U.S justice system established that C8 could cause six diseases thyroid disorder high cholesterol ulcerative colitis high blood pressure kidney cancer or testicular cancer today 3500 people in the Parkersburg region are ill they've all filed complaints against DuPont this is the case for Earl and Gwen botkin [Music] um I had an ulcerative colitis for about 17 years and it's about killing me a couple times I still have thyroid problems and I have high cholesterol and those are all associated with CA [Music] today Earl botkin doesn't have a colon anymore he too is living with an astronomy bag so all of a sudden you don't function normally but you have your bowel movement on your side that's what I live with until I die and there's not any hope that that's called change it controls where I go what I do and what I eat and this controls a lot of things in my life but uh anyway I lived through that a document reveals that all of these victims could have been spared on May 22nd 1984 a meeting took place at the DuPont headquarters the directors are worried about the consequences for the inhabitants they plan to eliminate all C8 emissions I wanted to show you these sentences here but finally no measures are taken their argument it's not economically attractive that was in what year 84. that's where we were married that's a long time ago yeah long long time ago that's crazy that's what makes it so bad you know that they had evidence all along just disregarded it and kept doing what they were doing it was company greed that caused this whole situation they knew what they were doing to us and they continued to do it with for money that's the only reason they'd continue to do it [Music] Dupont refuses to collectively compensate the 3500 sick people they prefer to study the cases one by one as a result since 2012 only one victim has been able to get a trial Dupont was sentenced to pay her 1.6 million dollars the 3499 remaining victims like Earl botkin are still waiting at the current pace of the trials the last one would take place in 100 years do you still trust and you're still confident that you will get a trial at some point oh it lives to be 150 I'm right there will be a trial someday but uh the chances of me living long enough to ever see that price slim to none but we're just another document another number of cases to be tried and Dupont has made billions of dollars I think they should stand up to what they've done and make it right with the people that made sick [Music] Dupont refused all of our requests for an interview so we drove to their headquarters in Delaware on the East Coast to convince them to answer our questions the other end of the line we reached the head of media relations Daniel Turner we are doing a documentary piece the best way is you know we meet and and and to to make a proper interview you know at some point but first let's meet you know I'm just here I think you can see me here I'm making signs of the on-camera interview um I will provide you with a statement you know there is like an incredible amount of documents showing that you have known that Dupont for the past 30 years that C8 was toxic I knew that you were poisoning your employees at the Washington Works plant and the Parkersburg citizen why are you not recognizing the fact that you have delivery poisons thousands of persons okay so is are those the questions you're asking yeah this is my questions okay uh I'll be uh happy to uh provide with our state today we are in 2016 there are still 3500 person with severe disease that are waiting to just have the right to get a trial I mean for how long are you going to deny your responsibility are you waiting that they all die so provide you with nothing else no like I said we will provide you with a statement thanks so much bye we did receive a press release from DuPont but without a single word for the victims they claim to have studied C8 carefully for decades and affirm to have always acted responsibly in 2015 Dupont finally stopped using C8 the company was also ordered by the courts to clean up the region but how many generations are still to experience the after effects of this contamination in the chemical world history inexorably tends to repeat itself it takes decades to reveal the truth and just as many years for the multinationals to be prosecuted

Channel: ENDEVR

Views: 1,219,057

Keywords: Free documentary, documentaries, full documentary, hd documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), Business Documentary, chemical industry, chemical, industry, pesticide, pesticide industry, chemical companies, Poisoned Lives, Secrets of the Chemical Industry, investigative Documentary, ENDEVR Documentary, dark waters

Id: wRmwppLFL90

Length: 52min 20sec (3140 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021