Lights camera p fasts. Today on Parts Pavilion, we take a look at a new Hollywood movie about toxic chemicals, and we hear from the attorney who now finds his life story up on the silver screen. Hello, and welcome back once again to Parts Pervilion, the podcast from Bloomberg Environment. I'm your host, David Schultzen. Sorry about my voice this week. I'm a little under the weather. So if you've listened to Parts Rebellion before, you know this is a pretty
nerdy podcast. Most of our episodes deal with things like litigation or environmental remediation or international climate policy, but not today. On this episode, we're heading to Hollywood to talk about the new based on a true story movie, Dark Waters, which arrives in theaters this week. It stars Mark Ruffalo as a corporate defense attorney who learns about problems with a chemical called PFOA or PFOA and then decides to switch side, so to speak, and take on the chemical makers.
That attorney's name is Rob Blot, and all of that stuff actually happened to him in real life. The film is based on Bilot's book recounting his transformation into a plaintiff's attorney, and his journey towards realizing that pifoa could be a major public health threat. Bilot spoke to us a few weeks ago from Cincinnati, where his firm Taff,
Statinius and Hollister is based. He's been working on this issue since the late nineties, ever since mysterious health problems started arising in Parkersburg, a small town in West Virginia that happens to be located right next to a factory that made PFOA. Also, I should say, PIFOA is an acronym that stands for perfluorooctanoic acid. It's one in a large class of nonstate chemicals that are used in a number of products, but are also non biodegradable and potentially toxic.
Bilot has been fighting according against the makers of these chemicals for years, but among the general public this issue has been pretty obscure. That's why Bilot was eager to participate when Hollywood came calling, and that was one of the main reasons I agreed to do this. I wanted
to get that information out to the public. It was, you know, very frustrating to have worked on this all these years and sending letter after letter to the federal EPA to state agencies trying to raise awareness and trying to sound the alarm on this public health threat. And I'm hoping that if you know, putting it in a movie form like this, putting the story out there in a way that's accessible to folks, will help elevate awareness
of it. Of course, this is a story that involves really complex issues, not just of law, but also of science, and at the risk of unfairly maligning the motion picture industry, Hollywood doesn't necessarily have a great track record of sticking to the facts when fictionalizing stories like these. But but Lot says he was convinced by the unimpeachable credentials of the team that would be bringing his story to the screen.
In addition to the Oscar nominated Ruffalo, who portrays Bilot himself, Dark Waters directed by the Oscar nominated Todd Haynes, It was also produced by Participant Media, the film studio that brought you politically minded ferris such as an Incymy in Truth,
Spotlight and The Green Book. The folks at the studio and Mark Ruffalo, I mean, they were very concerned about making sure it was done the right way and that the accurate, correct story was put together, and I think they did a tremendous job doing that, and it sounds
like the admiration runs both ways. Ruffalo himself testified before the House Overset Committee this week about the problems with these chemicals and he praised on Rob for his courage and for his willingness to bite the hand that feeds. Rob has risked everything, including his career and his own health, to uncover one of the greatest corporate environmental crimes in history, so he should be seen as a true American hero.
I myself haven't seen Dark Waters yet, so I'm not in a position to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down, But I will say that a lot of people who work in environmental issue are watching very closely to see if the movie turns PFOA into a household acronym. But a lot it says it's time for the broader public to catch up with what communities like Parkersburg have been dealing with for so long. We have been working through the court system for twenty years. You know, this
whole issue originally started through court cases. And I think all of that, all of these different efforts, you know, on different fronts have really raised awareness within all these different communities across the country. And it's the community members now with that information that are demanding action at the you know, at the legislative level, or that their local or state or even federal representatives take steps to do something.
And indeed, there are numerous bills in Congress right now that would change the way we regulate PFOA and other chemicals in this class, but none of them are moving very quickly through the famously convoluted Capitol Hill legislative machine. Well, dark waters create a ground swell of outrage and that changes that too soon to say, but a lot can say one thing. Watching an OSCAR nominated actor reenact scenes from your own life is very very strange. Well, you know,
it's it's it's surreal. It's definitely surreal, particularly to have somebody you know of of Mark Ruffalo's stature playing you in a movie. But you know, I couldn't have asked for anybody better. You know, he's got not only a you know, great acting talent and you know, a wonderful person, but he's also just got incredible passion and dedication to the story into this this whole issue of drinking water contamination.
So I really couldn't have asked for anybody better. That was Rob a Lot, an attorney based out of Cincinnati, talking about Dark Waters, the new movie based on his life. If you want to learn more about how this movie could affect the ongoing debate over these chemicals, visit our
website news dot Bloomberg, environment dot com. That website once again is news dot Bloomberg environment dot com, and if you want to chat with us on social media, use the hashtag parts per B. That hashtag, once again is parts per B. Today's episode of Parts per Billion was produced by myself along with Marissa Horn and Jessica Coombs. The music for this episode is a message by Jazar, who was used under Creative Commons license. Thanks for listening.
Hi there, I'm Amanda Icone, co host of Talking Tax. Each week we dig into the biggest tax and financial accounting challenges and opportunities for policy to on the ground realities. We bring you corporate leaders, accountants and industry insiders. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. For more, check us out on news dot Bloomberg, Tax dot com.