Original subtitles

Bye.

Last week tonight, Angela Oliver, thank you so much for joining us. Just time

for a quick recap of the week in which the US surpassed 700,000 COVID deaths,

R. Kelly was found guilty, and there was a gas crisis in the UK thanks to a COVID

-induced shortage of truck drivers exacerbated by Brexit. It caused massive

panic buying, but also this incredible moment.

Cue in for petrol.

Cue in for petrol.

Cue in for petrol.

But I'm on a horse.

I mean, that is just excellent.

Taunting people waiting for petrol in their stupid cars by singing that your

horse runs on carrots is objectively hilarious.

Although, I will say, while yes, horse owners don't need petrol. It's also true

that car owners don't have to clean up their vehicles' enormous shits either.

So, the grass is always greener. But let's focus on the events in Congress

this week. For a start, the Senate held a hearing on Facebook and Instagram's

impact on teenagers' mental health, a very important issue, but one that

unfortunately prompted this bizarre question from Senator Richard

Blumenthal. Will you commit to ending Finsta?

Senator, again, let me explain. We don't actually do Finsta.

What Finsta refers to is young people setting up accounts where they may want

to have more privacy.

Finsta is one of your products or services. We're not talking about Google

or Apple.

It's Facebook, correct?

No.

Finsta is slang for a type of account.

Okay, well, you end that type of account.

We... I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're asking.

Yeah, of course you don't, because what he just asked you made no sense.

And even Blumenthal's aide seems aware of that, as he visibly winced in pain

immediately after hearing it. That is the expression of someone who knows

they're gonna have to stay late tonight, explaining to their boss yet again what

Finster is, but also what Twitter is, and why he's currently getting roasted

on it.

But the real drama this week concerned the fate of the Build Back Better Act, a

key part of Biden's agenda projected to cost around $3.5 trillion over ten

years, with Democrats intending to pay for it through increased taxes on the

wealthy. It contains a lot, among other things, funding for at-home care,

universal pre-K, free community college, steps to address climate change,

expanded Medicare, and an extension of the child tax credit, which alone is

estimated to mean 4.3 million fewer children in poverty. It is a big deal

and would make this country a better place.

But there is a problem here, because to pass the bill, Democrats are using

something called reconciliation to evade a filibuster, which requires the support

of every single Democratic senator. And unfortunately, moderates like Kyrsten

Sinema and Joe Manchin argue it costs too much. Now, to counter that,

progressives have said that they will oppose the bipartisan infrastructure

bill, which both Manchin and Sinema want, unless the larger bill is

guaranteed to pass alongside it. And if all of this seems a little chaotic, Jen

Psaki attempted to reassure reporters earlier in the week that it was... It's

all part of the process.

This is why we all came to Washington.

Uh, it's like an episode of a TV show, uh, where we... I-I'm not in a position

to put... lick on a crystal ball here. Maybe the West Wing, if something good

happens. Maybe Veep, if not.

Um, I'm not sure.

Of course you want to be the West Wing. Every administration wants to be the

West Wing, and why wouldn't they? It's American fan fiction written by a man

drunk on liberal righteousness and weapons-grade cocaine.

Unfortunately, though, this White House might be more of a Mr. Robot, in that

I'm not sure even the people involved know exactly what's going on, unless

they're very careful, it might stop after four years.

Although, I will say this, to Biden's credit, he seems, so far, to be siding

with the progressives, or at the very least, not... selling them out, which

does make sense. This bill contains policies that he ran on, and its

contents are broadly popular.

But Sinema and Manchin seem unmoved by that. In Manchin's case, he wasn't even

moved when some West Virginians even tried to make their case to him in

person this week, paddling out to his boat in kayaks to hear him explain why

he's holding things up.

You know, West Virginia's a little bit different than it usually is.

There's a lot of poverty.

What are you gonna do for the poor in West Virginia?

We're gonna be working everything we can to create good opportunities.

Wow. I am not sure which stage of capitalism we've reached if we're now...

kayaking out to a politician's yacht to beg him to help the poor, but it's got

to be one of the last ones. I'm pretty sure it goes, ocean on fire, bookstore

billionaire leaves the planet, then boat bitch says no, and then it is basically

all over at that point.

But I will say, at least Manchin's actually engaging with people. Kyrsten

Sinema has been much more evasive. She's made a name for herself as trying hard

to be the fun one in the Senate, dressing here like a powerpuff girl in

witness protection.

It's been a lot less fun this week watching her turn basic questions about

her bargaining position into a shitty game.

Oh,

fuck right off.

And it gets worse. When that reporter asked her a second time, she said, I'm

clearly right in front of the elevator, which is about as maddening as when you

tell your dad, I'm hungry, and he says, nice to meet you, hungry, I'm dad.

I mean, yeah.

You technically got me there, and you certainly have a playful way with words,

but I've got a fucking problem that you are supposed to solve.

And that evasiveness may have reached its peak when she took off in the middle

of negotiations for Arizona, where she attended a fundraiser at a high-end

resort and spa in Phoenix last night. And amid all of the frustrations with

cinema... Her supporters have tried to cast her eccentricities as an asset,

with one saying she doesn't think in a linear process, like, okay, will this

impact my reelection? She just beats her own drum. When she leaves in the middle

of something and says, I've got stuff to do, it's because she has plans.

Sometimes she's just more interested in training for an Ironman.

More power to her, man.

Except here's the thing, no, not more power to her, man, because that is one

of her own supporters basically telling you she's impossible to understand,

doesn't think in a linear process, and wonders... in the middle of a

conversation, and it's not great when a senator's strengths are how I would

describe any cat.

Those qualities in a civilian might make you a fun eccentric, but when you're a

senator, it just makes you bad at your fucking job. Look.

This bill could materially benefit people's lives, and if you are blocking

it, you owe people more than vague platitudes shouted from the back of a

boat and a cutesy, I'm in the Senate comment. Because if these two keep this

shit up, their window for saying, I'm in the Senate, may rapidly be closing.

And now, this.

And now, newscasters take issue with the term, leak peeping.

Leaf peeping. You guys have heard of it, right? Leaf peeping. I had no idea. No,

come on. Yes, leaf peeping. It's a thing.

What did we say yesterday? Peeping leaves?

Yeah, that's right. We're going leaf peeping today. Leaf peeping. That's a

little creepy.

Leaf peeping, I think they call it. Leaf peeping. I've always thought it sounded

a little pervy, but I think that's what they actually call it. It is leaf

peeping season. I don't like that phrase.

Peeping. It's weird, right? It seems creepy. Leaf looking. There's nothing

creepy about this. Leaf looking is good. Yes, it's a beautiful time. I find leaf

peeping to be just mildly disturbing.

I still say leaf. Peeping sounds a little dirty, but that's just me. Get

your leaf peeping on.

Leaf peeping. I've never said that before.

This is the first time.

It's the type of peeping that's legal.

Yeah, just go get your windowless van and go leaf peeping. That's like the

creepiest thing on earth.

I've never heard anybody call it that. Except for the producer that wrote it.

Thanks, Claudia.

Moving on.

Our main story tonight concerns chemicals.

The substances that, along with spaghetti, Heineken, and human arms,

should never be kept in a vat in your neighbor's garage.

Specifically, we're gonna be talking about a particular class of chemicals

tonight called PFAS, which stand for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

They go by a wide variety of chemical names, like all of these, and they are

used by recognizable brands like Gore-Tex and Teflon, among many, many

others. But the main thing they have in common is that they make surfaces that

don't get stuff stuck to them. which is something a lot of us care about,

although arguably some more than others.

Bissy. Yes, sir?

If you saute scallops in a nonstick pan, they won't stick. That's why it's called

fucking nonstick!

I don't know what nonstick means in Texas, sweetheart, but fuck me!

You know...

As tempted as I am to mock Gordon Ramsay, as a British person who's also

inexplicably made a career out of shrieking obscenities in Americans and

not understanding Texas, game has no choice but to recognize game.

And while I scream, you scream, he screams, we all scream for non-stick

pans. There's just two big problems here. First...

These chemicals have been linked to a massive array of health issues.

High exposures to these two major PFAS alone have been linked to high

cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, thyroid

disease, testicular and kidney cancer, and decreased response to vaccines,

which is clearly terrible, although also shouldn't really be that surprising to

you, seeing as the original name for this show was That Thing You Like Is Bad

With Sadie Longlegs.

And second, PFAS are what's known as forever chemicals.

Studies have estimated they have lifetimes... in the thousands of years,

and that combination of toxicity and longevity is a real problem, as one

chemical engineer tried to explain to Congress a few years back.

It doesn't go away.

This is a man-made chemical. We just pass the baton to our generations of

kids. In fact, if you were to incinerate and cremate me, I would technically be a

fluorochemical hazardous source.

The Teflon mesh that's used in my hernia produces a very toxic gas and decomposes

to something called devil's piss, which is hydrofluoric acid.

You can't kill this beast.

You can only control it. Yeah.

That doesn't sound great, does it? Also, it is hard to believe there's something

called devil's piss that isn't Gordon Ramsay's very real line of alcoholic

sparkling water, Hell Seltzer, which you can apparently get in flavors such as

Mean Green, Berry Inferno, Knicker Twist, and That's Forked. Hell Seltzer,

for people who hate water and themselves.

But the thing is, that man is absolutely right. To an extent that you may not

currently realize, the world is basically soaked in the devil's piss

right now, and not in a remotely hot way. So tonight, we thought we'd take a

look at just how bad these substances are, how long some of their major

manufacturers knew about it, and how hard this will all be to fix. And let's

start by looking at one of the most ubiquitous PFAS, PFOA, also known as C8

because of its eight carbon molecules.

3M. started selling C8 back in 1951 to the chemical giant DuPont, which then

used it to make Teflon, which it marketed through ads like this.

I used to be a slave to scraping and scrubbing pots and pans, but I've been

liberated by Teflon.

Food doesn't stick to Teflon like it does to other things.

See?

I used to be a slave is just not something that should be coming out of a

white child's face, unless it's Pinocchio after he becomes a real boy,

and even then, he's still not really free, is he? He's a slave to society and

a prisoner of his own mind, just like the rest of us. Your nose might not be

growing anymore, gnocchi, but make no mistake, you are lying to yourself.

But the thing is, by the time that ad aired, 3M and DuPont already knew that

these chemicals accumulated in humans and animals, that they didn't degrade in

the environment, and that they could increase the size of the liver in rats,

rabbits, and dogs. So the warning signs were very much there before they had a

white child slave claim that Teflon liberated her from the back-breaking

labor of scraping muffin trays.

And in the decades that followed, they learned even more. In 1981, 3M found

ingestion of PFAS caused birth defects in rats. And when they told DuPont about

this, and DuPont then tested the children of employees in their Teflon

division, they found that of seven births, two had eye defects.

Information that, interestingly, DuPont did not make public.

And by 1991, it had gotten unambiguous warnings that it then spectacularly

ignored.

3M told DuPont that under no circumstances should you put it in

waterways. It's right there in the document.

Don't put this in the waterways.

But at the end of the day, they start dumping so much C8 into the water that

they at one point lose track of how much they've actually put out there.

Wow. Harmful chemicals are just not something you should lose track of.

They're not your car keys or your middle child.

Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I lose him in a supermarket one time and suddenly I'm a

bad parent.

Calm down.

It's not like he was gonna run out of food.

But wait, it gets even worse. Two years after that, in 1993, a DuPont memo shows

that for the first time, they had a viable candidate to replace C8, one that

appeared to be less toxic and stayed in the body for a much shorter duration.

but the company decided against it because the risk was too great.

Specifically, the risks to their bottom line and the fact that Teflon products

were worth roughly a billion dollars in annual revenue to them, proving once and

for all, corporations truly are people, specifically sociopaths. And yet,

despite knowing all of that, DuPont kept pushing for Teflon to be used in more

and more places.

And in this ad from 1994, they basically present it as being wizardry.

Chemistry is the practice of magic.

People think of Teflon, they think of frying pans.

Teflon is not one thing.

Putting Teflon on a surface will stop bugs from crawling up trees.

They'll fall right off the tree.

Teflon as a chain lube is something I've come up with for bicycles.

You know, only DuPont makes Teflon. You can use it in satellites, on fabrics, or

leather. When's the last time you heard about a leather raincoat?

You can let your imagination run wild. It's not often that you get to make

something new in this world.

Okay. There's a lot that I don't understand about that ad, including why

it was shot by someone who's still testing out the Zoom function on their

camcorder, or why that incel Santa giggled so menacingly at the idea of a

non-stick leather raincoat. Although I will say, if that's his bar, it does

seem pretty easy to make something new in the world. I'll show you. Leather

umbrella, leather flower, leather snake, and leather Elmo. That is four great

ideas I just came up with, and I'm not even a PhD in a Cosby sweater.

And if you are wondering where the EPA was in all this, you should know they

were more than a little hamstrung here.

Under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA can require testing for

chemicals only when it's been provided evidence of potential harm, a setup

which largely allows chemical companies to regulate themselves, which is an

absolutely terrifying sequence of words right up there with incoming FaceTime

from Jeffrey Toobin. Nobody wants to hear that.

And even when the EPA has taken steps, they've been pretty limited. For

instance, in 2016, they issued a health advisory for two of the biggest PFAS,

including C8, setting an acceptable level for them in drinking water of 70

parts per trillion, which, incidentally, a lot of people still think is too high.

But also, crucially...

An EPA health advisory is non-enforceable, and no one is going to

respect a rule if it's not enforced.

It's like one of those signs that everyone sees but ignores, like, please

take one on a candy bowl, or please no sculpture fucking at Madame Tussauds.

I'm doing it. I'm taking two fun-sized snicker bars, and then I'm gonna fuck

wax Michael Buble. I'm doing it. It's already done. Get over it.

And that lax level of oversight, combined with dumping on a scale so high

they lose track of it, had severe consequences.

When epidemiologists studied the medical history of people who lived near a

DuPont plant, they found residents with high exposure to drinking water

contaminated with C8 had much higher rates of kidney and testicular cancers.

And it was even worse for the people working inside the facilities, as this

man, who worked in one of DuPont's testing labs and has since been

diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and rectal cancer, can attest.

People would handle that product on their job every day.

Day in, night out.

And then when we went to 12-hour shifts at 12 hours at a time, we heated it and

breathed it every day.

Ken worked on a four-man team at DuPont's plant, testing C8 between 1974

and 2001.

Of the four, he's the only one still alive.

The people that I loved, they died.

And we were like a family.

Look. That is clearly awful, but you don't actually even have to live in a

town where PFAS are dumped or work in a factory that makes them to be affected

here. Remember... PFAS last a long time.

So if they sink into the groundwater or are released into the air, they can

travel and they can bioaccumulate, meaning that they build up in your body

over time. And that brings us to a shocking discovery. Because in the

1970s, DuPont and 3M started testing workers to check the levels of PFAS in

their blood. And 3M wanted a control group with clean blood so that they'd

have a baseline. But as this environmental activist points out, the

company quickly realized something truly horrifying.

There was no clean blood. They tested kids, they tested adults, they went to

Asia, they went all over the world, and everywhere they looked, practically,

they found their chemicals in people's blood.

Eventually, they did find some clean blood.

It turned out it was the blood that had been taken from army recruits and

archived, saved, at the start of the Korean War.

Yep, it's true.

In fact, a CDC study has found that C8 is now in the blood of 99.7% of

Americans. Meaning, at the very least, Vin Diesel and I finally have something

in common.

Every single thing about our genetic makeup, general attitude, and vocal

timbre is dramatically different, but when it comes to toxic chemicals in our

blood, it's potato-potato, my friend.

Or should I say, my family.

And while DuPont may be a particularly stark example, they are far from the

only entity involved here, the military.

uses PFAS in foam to extinguish fires, so PFAS have built up around military

bases. And many companies have used a lot of PFAS in a lot of their products.

For instance, a shoe company called Wolverine used PFAS in its waterproof

Hush Puppies. But it was only after local reporting that residents near its

factory in Belmont, Michigan, knew to get their water tested. And for one

family, the McNaughtons, the results were pretty striking. And before you

watch this, remember, the EPA's acceptable level in drinking water is...

70 parts per trillion.

They'd lived in their house about three years when Tobin learned she was

pregnant with their son, Jack.

We were really excited.

I wanted that to go really well, so I drank eight glasses of water a day. I,

like, kept track.

I ate really healthy.

In April of 2016, Jack was born.

He had an immense appetite for water. He was thirsty all the time. Tests showed

almost 2,000 parts per trillion of PFAS in the McNaughton's water.

As soon as they could, Tobin and Seth had Jack's blood tested.

The results?

484,000 parts per trillion, more than 100 times the national average.

He's the highest level of PFAS that we know right now of any child in the

United States.

He gets sick more often and his vaccinations haven't worked.

Wow. That is incredible.

Usually when your child is the highest in something, your instinct is to brag

about it, but good luck finding a bumper sticker with, my child has the highest

level of PFAS in the United States on it. Nobody wants that shit.

And look, I have to tell you, Wolverine says that it's moved to fix the problem

for homeowners in that area, although you should know, it is just not a simple

thing to go about doing.

This is what I affectionately call Megatron, my whole home filter, this

right here. But it goes through each of these tanks. These are full of

granulated carbon, and it goes through them in order and then comes out this

one and is clean.

So every week they come and test it at the intake and then also at the

exit so that we know that the water is empty of that.

Oh! Great news.

You did it, Wolverine. Problem solved.

All it takes is a four-tank system affectionately nicknamed Megatron, a

spare room large enough to house it, and a weekly visit from a tank technician

for the rest of your life. Water problem? More like, what's your problem?

This is a system that fucking works.

But clearly, a Megatron in every home is not a viable solution for this, or

indeed, any problem.

And maybe because of that, and definitely because of a court-approved

settlement, Wolverine has since gone to the trouble and expense of switching

that woman from her tainted well water to the municipal water supply.

And yet, many companies are continuing to do the bare minimum here, or even

trying to evade responsibility.

DuPont, for instance, settled a class action lawsuit with residents of the

town where it was dumping C8, and shortly afterward, agreed to evade... to

eventually phase out using the chemical, which sounds good.

But there are some significant asterisks on that. Because while they did stop

using C8, they simply switched to a different kind of PFAS, something called

Gen X, spinning the manufacturer of it off into a separate company, Chemours.

Now, did they do that so that any legal liability wouldn't stick to them and

instead slide right off them like bugs on a Teflon tree? Who can say?

Apparently not me, legally.

What I can say is...

But while Chemours claims Gen X is safer, scientists still have significant

concerns about its presence in our water supply.

This is, in my view, more of a risk than we should be forced to take. This

compound's a member of a class of compounds...

that are all thought to be able to make people sick. With cancers of various

kinds, other kinds of dysfunction, we don't know the full extent of it. So

with what these scientists do know, we asked them if they think the water is

safe enough to drink.

Nope. I drink tequila straight, but I won't drink tap water.

Well, that doesn't sound good.

If Casual Friday Scientist over here won't drink the tap water, there might

be some cause for alarm.

And while we have just focused on a handful of individual PFAS tonight,

there are hundreds, if not thousands of them. So the problem is, if and when Gen

X is eventually found to be harmful, companies can presumably just move on to

another one, then on to another one, and so on and so on. And at this point, you

might be thinking, holy shit, this is absolutely terrible. Should I start

immediately throwing away all of my pans?

Well, I will start with the good news.

Meghan McCain is no longer on The View, this rock looks like Cookie Monster, and

no, you don't necessarily need to throw away all of your pans.

Experts say that it's very unlikely PFAS will be released if the pans aren't

overheated or scraped. Now, you're under slightly more risk of exposure from

clothing that contains PFAS, which is, unfortunately, most stain-proof or

waterproof fabrics, including certain items from companies like Lululemon,

North Face, and Patagonia, or indeed, from food wrappers. that contain PFAS,

which are, unfortunately, used by multiple chains, including some of the

packaging at Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Subway. And all of these companies

insist that they are working to remove PFAS from their products completely in

the coming months and years, and I hope that that is true, but we have heard

things like that before, and yet, here we fucking are.

And it is not like it is easy to know which products you're buying do and

don't contain PFAS. It's not like they have to carry labels stating, this

product contains devil's piss.

Although, that's actually a very good idea and they should absolutely have to

do that. But the bigger issue is, no matter how responsible consumers choose

to be, if the factory that makes the chemical does not dispose of its waste

properly, it's likely getting into your bloodstream anyway, which is pretty

frustrating, as the activist you saw earlier points out.

No one said, hey, you know, I'm good with a little Teflon chemical in my

baby's blood.

No one said that.

They said, I love these pans.

Exactly. No one loves pans so much that they'd be willing to put poison in their

baby's blood.

Well, to be honest, one person does, but in his defense, the pans don't fucking

stick!

Now, if you are worried...

About what the water is like where you live, you can go to this address, ewg

.org slash PFASmap. And if you don't like what you see, you can consider

solutions like drinking bottled water or using a reverse osmosis filter.

But the truth is, it shouldn't just be on us as individuals.

Because PFAS should not be in most consumer products at all. And as

companies seem unlikely to all take them out voluntarily, we badly need

legislation limiting their use to only essential items like certain medical

devices and protective clothes. but not just that. We need to change the way

that we regulate PFAS completely.

Instead of regulating them one at a time, as we do now, we should do it as

an entire class of chemicals.

This would enable the EPA to more effectively regulate not just the PFAS

already in use, but replacements like Gen X when they are introduced.

And in the meantime, if companies are going to keep leaning in on the

convenience of their products without acknowledging the cost, maybe we can

help them by providing their ads with some much needed... Context.

Chemistry is the practice of magic. Like abracadabra. Zonks and wizards. All

chemistry. People think of Teflon and they think of frying pans.

Big hot plates with smooth, long sticks.

Teflon is not one thing.

It's disease, sickness, and it's fucking everywhere.

That's DuPont magic.

Ta-da!

It's not close to my mouth, right?

You know I'm self-conscious about the mouth. You know about that.

Did you say yes or no?

Putting PFAS on a surface will stop bugs crawling up trees.

I'll tell you how.

They'll contract ulcerative colitis and just fucking die in front of your eyes.

Thousand little bugs right in front of your eyes. Dying. You know I'm self

-conscious. You know I'm self-conscious about the mouth and the close-up stuff

and the spitting. You said it's going to be a normal shoot. No focusing on here.

Nothing like that. Nothing like that.

I put PFAS in a bicycle chain.

Why? Because I suffer from chronic insomnia. Probably got it from PFAS. And

they're everywhere. The same chemicals that are in me are in you. And even in

your child.

I put something in your child.

And when this stuff gets in the water... Whoa!

That's the real bippity-boppity magic.

Bippity-boppity magic.

Bippity-boppity magic.

Contamination levels like you've never seen.

It's incredible.

When was the last time you heard about a leather raincoat giving you kidney

cancer?

You can let your imagination run wild.

Mine's running right now. It's not often you get to put something toxic in the

world.

That's our show. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next week. Good

night!

Okay, okay.

Can I say it with a British accent?

No?

You know I'm self-conscious about my little mouth.

You said this would be a normal shoot.

That's a terrible British accent.

But I'll do it anyway.

You know I'm self-conscious about my little mouth.

You said this would be a... So fucked up.