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An article in The Times Magazine has laid bare the unconscionable decades-long efforts of the DuPont company to hide the dangers of an obscure chemical and bamboozle regulators into allowing toxic pollution to continue long after the dangers were known to the company. DuPont deliberately continued to allow this toxic waste to be spilled into water sources. The chemical that DuPont was protecting is known as PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid. It is used in the production of Teflon for non-stick frying pans, a huge source of profits for DuPont. When the Toxic Substances Control Act was enacted in 1976, PFOA was one of a multitude of untested chemicals allowed to remain on the market. The act also made it extremely difficult for the Environmental Protection Agency to require safety tests or crack down on chemicals known to be hazardous. Only a handful have been restricted over the past 40 years. They continually covered their tracks to hide this from the public to continue making a huge profit. What they did then was put everyone within a certain distance at risk of this chemical. What’s even worse is to know that even I have a possible chance of having this awful toxin in my body today. Nathan Rich stated in his article, “if you are a sentient being reading this article in 2016, you already have PFOA in your blood. It is in your parents’ blood, your children’s blood, your lover’s blood. How did it get there? Through the air, through your diet, through your use of nonstick cookware, through your umbilical cord. Or you might have drunk tainted water.” The reality of this is sickening that a company could willingly put so many people including their workers at risk without a care. So where does the problem begin? The real problem is that corporations can saturate the environment (and all of our bloodstreams) with any chemical they come up with until we fund a multi-year study proving exactly how it is harmful. Its too late then, the damage is done. The law should be completely opposite. It should be illegal to flood people with chemicals until you’ve first studied that chemical and proven that it is safe. Why are large corporations allowed to do this? Are consumers not valued enough to be well taken care of? DuPont destroyed these farmers livestock, lives, and worse eventually killed them. I’m actually speechless at how this was able to happen and how it went on for so many years the first case surfaces in 1998. Bilott is currently prosecuting Wolf v. DuPont, the second of the personal-injury cases filed by the members of his class. The plaintiff, John M. Wolf of Parkersburg, claims that PFOA in his drinking water caused him to develop ulcerative colitis. That trial begins in March and when it concludes, there will be 3,533 cases left to try. That’s insane, the E.P.A. needs to have a better way to monitor what large corporations are doing and releasing into our environment. Bilott doesn’t regret fighting DuPont for the last 16 years, nor for letting PFOA consume his career. But he is still angry. ‘‘The thought that DuPont could get away with this for this long,’’ Bilott says, his tone landing halfway between wonder and rage, ‘‘that they could keep making a profit off it, then get the agreement of the governmental agencies to slowly phase it out, only to replace it with an alternative with unknown human effects — we told the agencies about this in 2001, and they’ve essentially done nothing. That’s 14 years of this stuff continuing to be used, continuing to be in the drinking water all over the country. DuPont just quietly switches over to the next substance. And in the meantime, they fight everyone who has been injured by it.’’ This is an overall mess and nothing is being down to prevent this from happening again. It’s tragic.