Synopsis
The story centers on Parkersburg, West Virginia, where the DuPont facility that manufactured Teflon was located and follows the personal stories and tribulations of several people who worked at the facility. The film includes footage of public hearings, news reports and corporate ads, along with input from scientists and activists.[6][7] The film's title refers to an internal DuPont memorandum of sticking with "the devil we know" in the continued use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), rather than spending funds to develop a safer alternative.
Teflon was originally created in 1945, and soon found its way into products including stain-resistant carpets, carpet-cleaning liquids, microwave popcorn bags, outdoor furniture, baking pans, and frying pans. 3M originally created the PFOA compound, the key substance in Teflon, before selling it to DuPont. Despite a memorandum from 3M to specifically avoid dumping the substance into water, DuPont "dumped, poured and released" at least 1.7 million pounds of PFOA between 1951 and 2003.[8]
After DuPont began dumping PFOA into the water, local farmer Wilbur Tennant's cattle began dying off, though he was unaware of the cause. Their teeth would turn black, and calves would be born with very specific facial deformities. Ken Wamsley, a Parkersburg resident, says in the film that his neighbors began reporting that their children's teeth were turning black. Sue Bailey, one of two women working at the Parkersburg DuPont facility, gave birth to a son, Bucky, who suffered the same type of facial deformity as that of Tennant's cattle. The other female DuPont worker, not shown but mentioned in the documentary, gave birth to a child with deformities as well. Ken Wamsley relates to how at least fifteen of his DuPont colleagues all died of cancer, specifically testicular, thyroid and rectal cancer - in the years since, studies have shown a correlation between high PFOA exposure and six health outcomes: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and pregnancy-induced hypertension.[9]
Footage of Charles O. Holliday, the CEO of DuPont at the time, Bruce Karrh, DuPont's corporate medical director, and Kathleen Forte, DuPont's public relations officer, is shown where they admit knowingly polluting the local water. DuPont had been conducting its own medical studies for more than four decades, which had shown that PFOA caused cancerous testicular, pancreatic and liver tumors in lab animals.
The documentary touches on the detection of PFOA in the blood of more than 98% of the general US population in the low and sub-parts per billion (ppb) range, with levels much higher in chemical plant employees and surrounding subpopulations. The only samples clean of PFOA were found in US Army blood samples taken at the beginning of the Korean War in 1950.
