The Devil We Know (2018) on Netflix
NR20181h 28mDocumentary
In Parkersburg, West Virginia, DuPont's Teflon plant released PFOA into the water. Farmer Wilbur Tennant's cattle sicken, and neighbors report that their children's teeth are turning black.
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- Netflix4.5/5
- IMDb7.8/101,465 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
The DuPont facility in Parkersburg, West Virginia, made Teflon, and PFOA, the compound behind it, was first created by 3M and then sold to DuPont. A memo from 3M warned that the substance should not be dumped into water; between 1951 and 2003 DuPont released more than 1.7 million pounds of the chemical. Wilbur Tennant, a local farmer, watched his cattle die, their teeth black and their calves born with facial deformities. Ken Wamsley, a resident, recalls neighbors whose children's teeth were turning black. Sue Bailey worked at the plant alongside one other woman, and her son Bucky was born with the same deformity.
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Devil We Know (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- DuPont dumped at least 1.7 million pounds of PFOA into the water near Parkersburg, West Virginia, between 1951 and 2003, despite a 3M memorandum warning against dumping the substance into water.
- The film's title comes from an internal DuPont memorandum about sticking with "the devil we know" and continuing to use PFOA rather than spending funds to develop a safer alternative.
- DuPont ran its own medical studies for more than four decades showing PFOA caused cancerous testicular, pancreatic and liver tumors in lab animals.
- The only blood samples found clean of PFOA were US Army samples taken at the beginning of the Korean War in 1950.
