#DarkWaters DC Day 11.19.19
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8 am ~ Our day begins at the Washington Post where the live-stream interview of Rob Bilott, Mark Ruffalo and Emily Donovan would take place. We were in the company of our fellow advocates Bucky Bailey, Mark Favors and Mindi Messmer. This interview was where Emily would share the list of names of the members of her family, and close friends with obscure cancers. I ask you all to read the entire transcript as provided by the Washington Post. See if those cancers don’t look familiar to you:
“Through his legal work on behalf of affected residents, Bilott discovered DuPont exposed their workers and the general public to C8 through direct contact and contaminated water.
In 2011, an independent panel of scientists found that C8 was quote “more likely than not linked to ulcerative colitis, high cholesterol, pregnancy-induced hypertension, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer.” DuPont eventually paid a historic fine from the EPA and spent $670 million to settle over 3,500 personal injury lawsuits.
DuPont has consistently denied any wrongdoing. And yesterday, they issued the following statement to The Washington Post, and I’m going to read it in its entirety.” ….
10:00 am ~ Press Conference on The Hill ~ The Triangle.
We would listen in as the bipartisan leaders of the PFAS Task Force, Representatives Dan Kildee of Michigan and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania would outline their efforts of the PFAS pandemic in their communities and the work they are doing on Capitol Hill to ensure passage of PFAS language in the NDAA, as well as various other bodies of work regarding PFAS legislation.
Rob Bilott would engage the press with his relentless pursuit of regulating these chemicals, while he educates at every opportunity how these chemicals slipped past the TSCA :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_Substances_Control_Act_of_1976
Mark Ruffalo would then make his passionate plea to the press, advising that this is a bipartisan issue.
“Are we a country that is going to be responsive to the people… or are we going to be responsible only to the bottom line of corporations and their greed?”
“We’re in this incredible moment right now when we can actually do something about a chemical that has gone completely unregulated for 50 years,” he added. “We’re here today to make sure this chemical is finally regulated.”
Our friends at Environmental Working Group had arranged meetings with the legislators we had requested to speak to in order to advance our issue of Firefighter PFAS Exposure Recognition. https://www.ewg.org/release/dark-waters-mark-ruffalo-urges-congress-clean-forever-chemicals
Many of these folks we speak to on a regular basis. Most have been involved with us for years now. Jimmy McGovern was the first to hear us back in 2016. It was Jimmy who first spoke to Rob Bilott in 2017 about funding for firefighter PFAS Studies. We could not prouder of our Massachusetts Congressman from Worcester.
Our group consisted of EWG’s Senior Scientist Dr. Dave Andrews, Toxicologist Dr. Lexi Tempkin, Legislative Director Colin O’Neil, and from Natural Resources Defense Council Katie Hobbs, Legislative Advocate. We would also be joined by our dear friend and Environmental Scientist and Former NH State Representative Mindi Messmer, as well as intermittent visits with EWG’S Founder Ken Cook, Senior VP Government Affairs; Scott Faber , Legislative Attorney Melanie Benesh, and Policy Analyst Jared Hayes. Talk about a dream team !!!
11:00 am ~ Rep Jim McGovern’s office. We were able to see our old friend and our very informative legislative agent John Swords and convey our concerns as well as update Jim’s office on the pending study of University of Notre Dames’ Dr Graham Peaslee :
and express our desires for the outcome of his study that will include protocols, PFAS free gear, fire station PFAS testing, AFFF safety standards and protocols and a national hearing.
12:00 ~ Senator Warren’s Office. We asked that she lead the investigation into the corporate deception, conflicts of interest, omissions, lies, and deflections of the corporations that knew PFOA and PFOS were harming their own lab animals, and their own employees, but remained silent when they saw firefighters drenched in AFFF and wearing staggering amounts of PFAS in turnout gear, while ingrained in the very institutions of the fire service that would ensure their ability to control what aspects of their chemicals were disclosed.
2:00 ~ PFAS Hearing ~ House Oversight Committee
Millions of Americans continue to be exposed to these dangerous “forever chemicals,” often by living on and around military installations and industrial sites, since PFAS have been used in firefighting foam and common household items such as non-stick cookware. Witness Mark Favors has stated that he “had 16 aunts, uncles, or cousins diagnosed with cancer who had all resided in the contaminated areas for at least 10 years, unknowingly using tap water contaminated with PFAS that was eventually found to have toxic levels exceeding the EPA’s unenforceable ‘safe’ limit.”
At 1hour 29min listen in as Mark Favors, Veteran talks about the 16 members of his immediate family.. and.. the contrast of health with family members not in the poisoned Air Force community.
Statements: https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=110236
Take a look at the statement from EWG’s Scott Faber.. and open the documents he provides:
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO28/20191119/110236/HHRG-116-GO28-Wstate-FaberS-20191119.pdf
3:00 ~ Senator Markey’s Office. Senator Markey’s team is on point with every aspect of our work. They are fully engaged and Senator Markey is a fierce protector of first responders. We shared our most recent updates with his team and as anticipated, his team was aware of what our needs are.
4:30 ~ Senator Johnson’s Office. This was our first introduction to Senator Johnson’s team. We gave a detailed outline of our work, and Dr Peaslee’s findings and soon to be released study. We expressed this study was done by the combined efforts of firefighters. With no assistance from government or fire institutions.
Testimonial Video ~ Diane and Paul ~ Paul and I would give a very personal detail of the events of our 5 year PFAS story. And how we ended up here in DC. Even we still can’t believe it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yyeMFPvaUo
6:00 ~ Special Screening of Dark Waters ~ The 20 year story of Rob Bilott’s fight to bring justice to the 70,000 residents of Parkersburg, WV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAOuhyunhY
As we watched Rob and Mark speak again on the subject of corporations that have no accountability to the environment, that have no moral obligation to the end user, to the neighbors, and who use endless funding to offset their liabilities, it could not have prepared us for the movie. We thought we knew the story. We did not. You will not believe the stunts and deceptions you will see.
I do think you will understand the parallels however. I think you will say to yourself this looks shockingly familiar… Here’s DuPont introducing the IAFF’s Health and Safety Officer at the 2018 IAFF Cancer Summit.. Watch for the flashing ‘DuPont’ sign over, and over, and over, and over….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kosFHv6Ub4
Diane Cotter, Your Turnout Gear and PFOA.. 11.23.2019