DuPont and Dark Waters

I've lived in Florida since 2012, but I was born in Ohio, in a county that touches the Ohio River. The city of Parkersburg, WV, where the DuPont C8 scandal took place, was a 45-minute drive away from me. We used to visit the neighboring city Vienna to go to the mall and to Borders (RIP Borders.)

DuPont secretly did health studies on employees who worked closely with Teflon and dumped PFOA pollution into the Ohio River. The story is a damning and scary one, and will make you realize just how many chemicals were grandfathered in as "safe" on the EPA's list.

The story continues to inspire how I approach my writing (both fiction and academic) and how I approach the Anthropocene, scientific uncertainty, attitudes towards corporations, and how individuals can keep fighting the difficult Anthropocene fight.

I highly recommend seeing the movie Dark Waters, both because it's a good story and because it's pretty true to the source material, all things considered. Also read "Nathaniel Rich's article The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare" at NYT.

Additional reading:
What's Fact and What's Fiction in Dark Waters
DuPont's Worst Nightmare: "Dark Waters" Speaks the Truth About PFAS Science
How the EPA and the Pentagon Downplayed a Growing Toxic Threat
Basic Information on PFAS

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