Other

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service East Asia

Outlook: The lawyer, the chemical giant, and the contaminated water

Magazines & Reviews

The lawyer, the chemical giant, and the contaminated water.

15/06/2020 GMT

The lawyer, the chemical giant, and the contaminated water

BBC World Service - Outlook, The lawyer, the chemical giant, and the contaminated water

Robert Bilott's case for a farmer became a fight for 70,000 people

Robert Bilott was an attorney who defended big US corporations. Then a call from a farmer changed his career forever, and uncovered a crisis affecting  thousands of people.

Robert Bilott is an American lawyer who, in the 1990s defended big corporations, including chemical companies. One day he got a call from a farmer called Wilbur Earl Tennant, whose cattle were dying. Mr Tennant thought something was wrong with his cattle's drinking water.

Robert took on what he thought would be a simple case. But what he uncovered was an environmental crisis affecting thousands of people.  It became a fight against one of the world’s biggest chemical companies, DuPont.

A chemical – PFOA - used in the production of Teflon - had been making its way into the water supply of several towns along the Ohio River. Now this was an unregulated chemical - but studies obtained by Robert as part of the lawsuit against DuPont appeared to show that it could cause cancer in rats and that it could make its way into human blood. 

Robert became concerned people didn’t realise the chemical could be found in drinking water. He launched a class-action lawsuit against DuPont on behalf of 70,000 people whose water was affected by PFOA. It took six years for a team of independent scientists to conclude a "probable link" between PFOA and a list of health conditions including kidney cancer and thyroid disease.  

In 2017 DuPont settled over 3,500 PFOA lawsuits for a total of 671 million dollars. 

DuPont denies any wrongdoing - the company told us: "We are committed to upholding the highest standards for the wellbeing of our employees, our customers and the communities in which we operate.  In 2006, historical DuPont announced its commitment to discontinue manufacture, purchase, or use of PFOA”.

Robert has written a book about what happened called 'Exposure', and a major feature film has been made about his story called 'Dark Waters' where Robert is played by the actor Mark Ruffalo. 




Producer: June Christie
Presenter: Emily Webb

(Photo: Robert Bilott. Credit: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

The lawyer, the chemical giant, and the contaminated water

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service