I test for PFAS in a commercial lab, and every time I tell someone what I do for a living they have never heard of PFAS. Thank you for bringing it the attention it needs!
It's crazy to me how unaware people are of these type of issues. I've found that some people just really don't wanna know and the majority are so distracted by nonsense. Doesn't help that the media amplify the nonsense and either won't touch or just dip the tip of one toe in on what's seriously important..I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do w who owns them and where their money comes from🙄
@@XalphYT yes it really is, along w thousands of other harmful chemicals. We have literally created a hazardous environment that damages our health daily.
13 years ago, for CC speech class, I gave a report on the dangers of fish farming(I've done commercial salmon fishing in Alaska). One topic I couldn't help writing about was PCBs, but I couldn't find a solid study showing their dangers besides the fact that they don't break down, and get passed up the food chain. I got a B instead of a A for that😥
who never fucking die. never pay taxes. take no responsibility for killing people. hide evidence of killing people. and bribe governments around the world. they're great citizens.
They need not worry. We have a Supreme Court which not only made them people with their Citizens United decision, but is also perfectly poised to tell us sociopaths need love too.
Everyone can say a big thank you Robert Billot! This man put his career on the line multiple times, and to this day is still fighting these bastards in court to get them to pay out the settlement
As a former USAF Firefighter, we were told in the early 80's to not allow AFFF to reach storm drains or run off onto grass or dirt. I used AFFF for over 4 years while serving. Sometimes we become covered in the stuff while training on pit fires or while refilling AFFF into our trucks. I have been completely soaked in AFFF and we were never told it was bad for us, just the environment. Thanks for reporting on this story. Firefighters from all over are trying to get more information on our exposure and who will be responsible for our failing health due to AFFF. Thanks again John.
Unfortunately, accountability isn't something our Government is even remotely good at providing. At best, a class action lawsuit is filed. (In which case, is typically settled for literally less than .5% of Dupont's quarterly earnings AND, ends up being paid decades after most of the victims have already suffered and died from whatever it was that caused their illness in the first place.) At worst, what we currently have now. Which is as any third grader could guess, absolutely zilch.
Dupont was basically that one nightmare child in chemistry class. They were given specific safety instructions to avoid hazardous situations, they ignored all of it, put the chemicals in the water, and made everyone drink it.
@@AirQuotes See it is nothing special about the company. I wish it were and we could just replace Dupont with another chemical company and it would all be better. But the economy system we have designed, demands companies put profits before public safety. Dupont is the company that happened to achieve a near monopoly on the chemical industry so that's the one we hear about, but any other company in their position would be doing the exact same thing.
@@pierrecurie How the hell.... didn't expect to see myself mentioned here lol In all seriousness though, I do have 100g of pure liquid PFAS just sitting in my fridge rn so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised lol. It's a short carbon chain one, so it ain't nearly as bad as Dupont's versions. However, the synthesis i'll be doing is coincidentally somehow just 1 simple step away from turning it into DuPonts C8 😅.That's what led me here. Luckily it's not something accidentally made. I'm making a video that should shed some more light on these chemicals and their affects to the environment and people
Me looking at scraped non-stick pans, my glass of tap water, water-proof clothes, a can of spray to water-proof regular clothes: *swallows a Xanax* I'll be a miracle if I survive another decade...
Dude a new nonstick pan and a plastic scraper (instead of the metal one that kills the teflon coating) cost you maybe $30 total. It’s not worth pushing that expense forward if it is truly killing you.
In the 80s scientists were saying statements like, "we don't really know what causes cancer" Today scientists say, "Yeah, we know what causes cancer, but companies like Dupont and other juggernaut conglomerates own the legislators so we can't do anything about it." 🤔🤔
@P Pierre European here... Likely not. EU tries to do its best, but people are over alarmed about everything, so actually serious issues just blend among pointless stuff (see gliphosate "scandal", where we know the safe limits and still people are crying over well below levels because "yah, that's bad and I can't understand that not all bad things are equally so"). We'll probably get lost in some other issue.
As a scientist (ok, still a student, but on my way): yeah, we're the last people to be listened. When some are they're usually some nuts who spit conspiracies. They ask influencers opinions about medicine and blantly ignores pharmacists, no way companies do what they want in a world where competent people aren't listened.
management would also choose profits over their own health, or if not they don't have the job anymore. the biggest problem human kind has ever faced is perverse incentives. only way to control this behavior that I've heard is regulatory agencies with resources, powers and will to act, except of course then people start moaning about big government and free market capitalism. 🙄
That’s a bit of a misnomer. There was a period of time when the general consensus was that radium was good for you. Now you can get into the weeds about when people started learning about radiation poisoning and how that was sent down the pipeline. Even so it’s not the greatest example of the evils of capitalism.
Not true. Need proof? Some compagnies actually try to have principles and act in accordance, evoid getting morally curropt Okay that's dishonest i'm cherrypicking the few good apples in the apple filled olympic swiming pool :p let me find another argument. Okay i've got it, your statement is false because most compagnies will take bad decisions or even bankrupt themselfs for the benefit of employes. There Okay maybe not all employés. Okay maybe only the most senior. Okay fine they will only jepordise their compagny for the benefit of the handful of guys making the decisions... which makes sense ^^
@@666t Can you imagine if they got as mad at the actual chemicals that are flowing around with provable damage being done as they do about whatever their on about today?
Here’s an idea: every December 31st John Oliver needs to revisit all of his call to actions and update us on whether or not anyone did anything Edit: or better yet, right before state elections lol
Yeah, man! Like, no joke! Well, you know what I mean. I haven’t laughed that hard in years. Only some genius can make something so dark and deadly be something hilarious. It’s like magic!
FINALLY, coming from an environmental geoscience background, hearing someone talk about PFAS is amazing. Just don't forget that companies replaced them with chemicals with similar properties for the same uses, and cursory evidence shows they likely have the same effects on the body, possibly in even lower concentrations. (PFAS is considered toxic at anything >1ppt. That's about on par with a raindrop compared to around 24 Olympic sized swimming pools.)
My question would be, is it possible to get the same properties in products that this chemicals provide without the harmful toxins? Because if it is impossible, those products just need to be banned. People can survive without waterproof coats.
@@EdithEsquivel , How DARE YOU ask people to give up on waterproof anything! ; > ) As long as the ones with all the dirty money get their way, cancer and other diseases will increase. : >(
If PFAS does not like to form chemical bonds, thus giving it the non-stick property… How does it biochemically interact with the body to cause cancer and other disease Or is this all based of statistical correlation Genuinely curious here
The saddest thing about this video is that poor child. The obscene levels of PFAS in his blood will never decrease. He's stuck with that poison inside him for the rest of his life. What an absolute tragedy.
Now i am not an expert, but blood is naturaly switched out over time, so without a new PFAS source you would think it goes away eventualy, but i guess for that the old blood would have to not loop its components back into the system, which it likely does, but you can kind of get around that with blood transfusions. So you could lower it over time, but as i understand it blood transfusions shorten your life expectancy if done frequently so the solution to the problem is probably expensive, uncomfortable and also bad for your health.
@@chuckkandzierski86 Talking about a system that doesn't want to bond to anything. It's going to take something serious like that just to get drinking water to a safe level... when our rivers are full of it?
@Norm MACdonald lipophobic, anways yes eliminating the sources of his intake is probably impossible, but the point is more that a "normal" amount of intake while reducing his current levels would still make his condition better in an ideal scenario. Honestly i cant describe how angry i am and more importantly the degree to which this is criminal is insane. They literally poisoned every living thing on the planet for thousands of years to come, they would probably have to rot in jail until the end of the universe if you added up all the individual cases against them, yet they probably walk free.
Just watch Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, it’s the true story movie about a lawyer fought DuPont about this forever chemical and how corrupted American capitalism in reality, highly recommended movie.
Dark Waters is so good! It was kind of slept on because there were so many good movies in 2019, but it's one of my favorites from that year. Also one of the best movies based on a magazine article.
I honestly do not need the documentary to know that American capitalism is currently the worst cancer on Earth, cause of most of its problem. But I will take a look, since it looks nice.
I love how in this country, you legally can’t state that a company is clearly subverting the law because our government is that enslaved to corporate interests
You're doing great work, thank you! I do have a question for you, if you don't mind. Is there any promising research being done on how to potentially remove it from the body? Maybe similar to chelation for heavy metals? TIA!
You, Sir, and your team, are changing the world! It's 2024 right now, and I know where my PFAS are. I also know what the EPA is starting to do about them as an entire class, and that they are requiring all municipal water supplies to remove PFAS from the water they pass on. You've all educated the public about this whole thing and effected change on a massive, nation-wide scale, and you should be commended for this! You all deserve a Nobel Prize and a Congressional Medal for this, and if you personally were still British, I would think you should be Knighted for it. You've all saved millions of lives with this one video and all your hard work on this one project. Thank you for alerting everyone to this!
Finding out that almost everyone has PFAS in their blood has an eerily similar feeling to the characters in the walking dead finding out they’re all infected.
but like I just watched a TEDed video about teflon and they said its basically harmless (though they might be talking about a different chemical). I dont know what to believe !!!
i am a PhD student working on PFAS. Glad to see mainstream media talking about it. and Moreover let me tell you there are many other harmful waste for example antibiotic drugs that end up in the surface waters even in developed nations and god save the third world countries.
Over in Belgium it's 3M that has been doing the dumping for years. They new about the associated problems, politicians new about those problems and about the dumping, still nobody cared...
Interesting that I work in insurance and today I got a carrier email saying they are adding this as an exclusion to pollution policies....meaning no coverage for any loss attributed to this chemical. They are getting ready to avoid lawsuits. I wanted to mention also: PLEASE do NOT use Teflon coated cookware if you have birds. The overheated Teflon fumes are deadly to birds.
How much evidence do we need to prove, time and again, that corporations WILL NOT adequately regulate themselves for the protection of the general public?
Tell it to the shareholders and portfolio managers who trade in these companies futures. Undoubtedly, theres an algorithm that determines the financial tipping point between a corporation's investment interests and said same legal accountability due to their product's lethality. You don't know the math. I don't know it, either. But someone does. And we need to find that someone(s) and put their head on a proverbial pike to set an example.
@@eongoosm Nah, it ain't even that sophisticated. Where is the math in Steven Donziger's case? ua-cam.com/video/tivHvgJlseM/v-deo.html It's just straight up corruption.
Thanks, I teach the Boy Scout Chemistry Merit Badge in Delaware. The term “Devil’s Piss” is a real technical term used in DuPont during my career there. When acid hits the employee’s eye ball, the on-site doctor is trained to pluck it out since the acid keeps eating into the flesh until it reacts with calcium in the bone. There is no bone behind the eye so the acid would penetrate into the brain. Employees learn this quickly and wear acid goggles and safety glass eye shields like the DuPont Magic spokesperson in the video.
John offers a great idea to label all PFAS chemicals with the Devil’s Piss warning logo. They surprised me by diving deep into testimony …It comes from an Oversight Committee hearing from 2019, at around 3:18:00 here ( ua-cam.com/video/zCOMDB5In9A/v-deo.html ).
I love you John Oliver. I do. But I hate that I always (almost), when I watch you pointing at some serious issues, I feel guilty for not knowing/caring enough about it... I do really thank you for caring. For all of us.
I thought my wife was being overly concerned when she insisted we get stainless steel pans instead of anything nonstick. When I complained that I didn’t have a good pan for omelettes she got me a ceramic coated one. Thank you, John, for reminding me that my wife is smart and awesome.
@@3mtech Or don't. HF is a nasty liquid dragon that eats calcium and passes right through skin and gloves. NaF is the _ash_ of sodium that's been burned in fluorine, and all it does is bind to your tooth enamel slightly increasing its acid resistance as NaF is pretty much done reacting with anything until the stars go out. Fluorides are pretty final things as salts go.
Currently in a class action lawsuit bc the drinking water in my community (where I've lived for 29 years) was contaminated with PFAS from the Air Force using experimental fire fighting foam that seeped into the ground water. I was only able to switch to bottled water about 6 years ago. Getting my blood tested next week, I'm nervous to find out exactly how bad it is.
@j.snakehole6552 I had several specific types of pfas in my blood that put me in the 90th percentile for ppl in my age group across the country. Some I was only at or above 50th percentile, so not great.
@@elizabethward5159why would you even test for it? Not like you can do anything about it now... We should all just live our lifes to the fullest before were killed by are lovely corporations
@@baboon0285 one could say Penguin and Frank are quite similar. 😊 And I enjoyed both. But the real disagreement I have is about filth. That DuPont scientist is filthier than Penguin and Frank together. At least those two could be cleaned with a bath… 🤣🤣
Peter Valkins, do not give us too much credit, the shitty companies here are dodging the law as well. Pfas is in the Dutch waters at the moment, they dumped gravel with pfas despite being told not to. ZEMBLA has a documentary on it. As far as I know, an English one too.
"Dark Waters" from 2019 is a film with Mark Ruffalo based on one lawyer's fight against Dupont over PFAS. What a coincidence... I just watched that last month. Highly recommend it.
This was kind of skimmed over in the episode, but it’s important to note that PFAs are found in most food packaging and also most plastic containers (of any and all consumer products) in general. It’s not just in the products of the specific companies mentioned in this episode.
That's true, and yes while they are equally as hard to get rid off after those products reached their end of life, the risk of those products gassing out due to being overheated or scratched and that way getting in your food is lower...
Hoo-boy, if that makes you concerned, do not look up "microplastics". PFAS: causes cancer and all sorts of nasty deceases. Microplastics: causes chromosome instability and is a possible cause of many mental illnesses.
Thanks for this John Oliver but I would like to add that much of the clothing worn by firefighters contain PFAS and AFFF firefighting foam was not just used by the army. Many fire departments throughout the country used it as well. Cancer in firefighters was linked to PFAS by a University of Notre Dame study.
Cheers from Maple Wood Minnesota Land of many adhesives and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Best of luck as from where I stand we are truly F'd in the A
And don't even own a Teflon pan if you have a pet bird and enjoy its company, or you will discover the true meaning of "canary in a coal mine" when you wake up one day to a dead pet.
Yep! I make sure to toss any scratched pots and pans. Unfortunately it just goes back to the earth (eventually) and seeing as it's in clothing and water. 😬
That’s been standard practice for most of human history. Alcohol had been in the most part safer than water. Why do you think the drinking age is as young as 16 in some countries
Everyone forgets we already had non-stick pans before Teflon: pans made of cast iron. Don't knock em till you've tried them. And don't tell me they are too expensive; a single good cast iron pan can literally last you a lifetime. When my grandparents passed away, I inherited their cast ironware. Use them everyday. Want to know the real reason why we don't use cast iron anymore? Because manufacturers figured out they could sell you an inferior product that you would have to replace every few years. Screw them. I will never have to buy a pan again.
Not everyone has huge biceps and strong joints like you, Steve :( cast iron is so heavy! That's my issue. Especially when I have to do cleanup after and regularly season the pan, that's so much handling. There's gotta be a good in between...
I've had all my cast iron pans for at least 20 years. My mom uses them and so did my tiny frail grandmother. It does take a little while to get the hang of using them properly but totally worth it in the long run. Another replied about having to always reseason them. I gotta say that I've never had to reseason my cast iron unless I accidentally burnt something beyond repair and had no choice but to scrub it out with soap. If you stick with the old fashioned 'wipe don't wash' your pans will go years without needing to be reseasoned, and they'll get slicker and easier to use every time. Oh as far as cost goes, I got all of mine at 2nd hand stores for less than $5 each. I love 'em!
Poor people don’t buy cast iron because “lasting a lifetime” making something financially the wiser purchase in the long run only is possible when you have the extra money to buy quality, rather than what’s the most affordable NOW.
@@nnuggit Small price to pay for not having cancer. The worst part of this pfoa thing is that the need wasn't even all that essential. Just a convenience. And at what cost. Surely we could have waited to come up with a safer solution.
How do you figure it’s innocuous if it’s actively poisoning you? That’s not what innocuous means. Perhaps it was seemingly-innocuous at one point, but once you definitively learn that it is toxic it can no longer be considered innocuous. In this case, the PFAs that DuPont has been poisoning the American people with for years.
@@JoshuaReifsteck exactly…anybody with parrots knows that if you accidentally leave a Teflon pan on the stove and it overheats, you’ll kill any birds in the house. After learning that I stopped using it completely (I don’t have parrots either).
“Gore-Tex is toxic, and you are already poisoned” is not the hot take I was expecting in my lifetime, or the tens of consecutive lifetimes it takes for PFAS to go away.
The movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is a beautiful movie about this exact subject from the perspective of the main lawyer fighting Dupont and Teflon.
There's also a documentary called "The Devil We Know," perhaps the best doc I've ever seen (on Prime). It's so enraging that you've no idea what to do with your anger, other than to throw your Teflon pans away. But since Teflon never dies, all you're really doing is spitting in the wind. It's this kind of thing that creates such polarization in something like a pandemic. While I've chosen to be vaccinated, do I really blame friends who don't trust Big Pharma, after all the nightmares they've put upon us? And I'm not talking about innocent mistakes but rather deliberate actions based in greed. I do believe the Covid vaccine data is accurate and that good people are in charge of the research and distribution, but I don't have the rage some do at those who won't vaccinate. It's because of stories like these.
Do the executive bigwigs making these decisions not realize this is also a problem that affects them as well? And their loved ones? You’d think they’d eventually decide to do the right thing IF ONLY out of self-interest
@@lucaferrieri3753 No, I'm afraid we're far too high up the Democracy index for that haha. Need to be at least a flawed democracy for that clearly. Also can't be higher than number 44 on the press freedom index.
@@TerriblePerfection I don't know about that specific product. My point is that the EU parliament is on the whole a lot better than what certain people give it credit for. Hell I think it's better than the Swedish parliament atm and I'm a leftist.
@@faarsight You know, I might be wrong but it is the Swedish parliament, and Germany, that is fighting to get this ban through. And no, it's not actually banned yet, they just hope they'll convince everyone to agree to it by ~2025-2030 But I agree that the EU all-in-all is better than what a lot of people says.
I love horror films, but I was truly scared when I left the theatre after watching Dark Waters (which covered this topic). Being reminded of how poisoned we already are is not how I intended to start the day, but it's somehow important.
Definitely one of the most haunting movies I've ever watched. They picked a great cast, too. I think I'll never forget that scene where he explains the whole thing to his wife after she wakes up in the middle of the night due to the noise in the kitchen.
PFAS in the tap water, micro plastics in the bottled water. Unless you can learn to live without water, there's no avoiding pollution. It's all unsafe to drink.
That whole Danny DeVito ad is one of the most delightfully ominous and surreal pieces of editing I've seen in a while, and the fact that it's from a mainstream show is absolutely hilarious.
@@RisenThe Only 5 years, in response to killing people and the environment? The EPA needs to be given the power it needs to properly enforce its rules, including ability to prosecute and disband corporations.
@@jasonsilverman3125 whoa man that goes against the American Dream. You trying to stop me from killing the planet and population to make a profit? COMMUNISM! /s
My boyfriend’s father lives within the Wolverine contamination zone, and he gets his water from a well source. He was recently (within the past two years) diagnosed with colon cancer, but thankfully it was caught early on and so far all cancerous legions seem to be gone for good. I suspect that my boyfriend will need to be extra careful in monitoring himself for certain cancers, since he spend the first 20 years of his life growing up on well water from the contamination zone.
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol? Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes. Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water? Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes. Ripper: Well, do you know what it is? Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no. Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
Remember when you used to get your livingroom carpet, your couch and lazyboy Scotchgarded so they didn't get stained by food or drink? You could even buy it by the spray can and apply it yourself. The compound perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), a PFOS precursor, was an ingredient and, also has been described as the "key ingredient" of Scotchgard.
See if he's doing anything and go support him. I got to see Robin when he did a tour for the troops in Iraq. Was the hairiest man in the middle-east by a large margin. Guy was like a yeti. I honestly don't think he had ever actually felt anyone bump into him. lol I know this because he said so. Never afraid to make fun of himself for some laughs. Brilliant people with big hearts.
@@Krystalmyth , I was a kid who became an instant fan of Robin back in Mork and Mindy. My mom even bought me his rainbow suspenders and I wore them with pride lol.
@yuoop noke that's what always kills me, there's so many 'real' conspiracy theories, ie examples of evil rich ppl working together to ruin our lives, with all the hidden information they don't want you to know about that conspiracy theorists thrive on, and yet ppl are worried about stuff that's not even happening
SO glad the people who made these sociopathic decisions are now dead, yet their legacies continue and we have to clean up their mess. Because, you know, you can take all those billions with you to the grave, dontcha know. ;-) By the time we figure out how to fix all the problems we've got, it'll be too late. So, who's taking bets on which Garbage Island will wash up on a U.S. shoreline? =P
@@Trox2018 this comment literally shows up on the App as soon as you open the video. You don't have to do a thing, it's just right there for you to read. Maybe you're good at ignoring stuff but my brain automatically reads shit that shows up in front of me.
This episode is one of the best. Entertaining, yet informing us about something important that not many people know about. Wonder how much this reduces life expectancy by, worldwide and in the US.
Me "oh well I'm in Africa so PFAS won't be a problem here" John: "They tested children in Africa and they had PFAS" Honestly I'm scared to think of what else is in the containers, clothes and food we eat everyday.
Bro , I can name on one hand the number of cities that have truly clean uncontaminated drinking water in the continent Pfas is a worry for sure but before that we need to worry about reaching the safe for human consumption standard first
I love and respect each and every episode. The amount of writing, effort, research, production, etc that goes into each episode is a very impressive (and yet rewarding) task. I salute you John Oliver and also special thanks to Danny Devito for this one! He was epic!
For about 2 years I cleaned carpets for the biggest carpet cleaning company in Milwaukee. I often sprayed carpets and furniture with a product called Scotch Guard. It's made of you guessed it, Teflon. This might explain recent health issues.
@@AdamWestish Yes I plan to. I feel like I need to get my blood tested and see what my PFAS levels are. I never had any PPE on when spraying Teflon and surely breathed it in way too often.
it is if you're a libertarian who loves freedom and hates communism. edit: since people are making assumptions, I just want to clarify that I'm not a libertarian myself. I actually like critical thinking and functioning societies.
This world is such a cold and cruel place. To think governments don’t rule out any harmful materials when manufacturing anything humans use/consume is just crazy!! Stay safe people, be vigilant and GOD bless you all.
Just realize, they knew this in 1970. They still produce PFAS today. That's 50 years of "fuck yous" pumped into the water everyday, 50 years worth of chemicals that will not break down until the year 4030. Humans may be extinct by the time we correct the issue
going back to the days where everyone knew the water was contaminated with awful stuff and only drank alcohol because they knew it was distilled and cleaner than the water.
Careful with that though. At least back then, you knew that the alcohol in the drinks destroyed the problem. Now, an alcoholic drink could be accidentally distilling extra high levels of long-lived molecules.
@@peterknutsen3070 I would assume that they don't evaporate faster than water, but there's more than one way to distill. I would imagine that freeze distilling would remove (mostly) just the pure water, leaving concentrated everything-else behind in the drink.
Ah, yes. I've seen enough John's to know that the equation USA + no regulation + corporations self-regulating = not gonna enjoy my lunch (or my afternoon. Or the rest of the day) properly
So not long ago my husband bought me these new pans called “Green Pans” and I found out one of their big selling points is not having PFAS in them. After I saw this I looked that up. Not a sales pitch but they are great pans.
Yup. BOTTLED water is a huge part of the problem. Started with the 70's when the big old 5-gallon containers were being shipped around by companies like Alhambra and plenty more. Small, personal bottles came soon after, and the rest... is history. They even get absorbed into the atmosphere and 're-distributed' as RAINFALL. Yes, that's right (look it up). Doesn't matter where you go now, either. You could be in the most remote location on Earth and the rivers and trees and dirt and rainfall would still contain... plastics. I'm POSITIVE some won't believe me. Do your *own* research. I did. 🤮
I don't know about Green Pans let hope they are nice. But a lot of compagnie do greenwashing these day by, for exemple, replacing PFAS by an other foreverchemial as harmfull but aloing them to claim that their product don't have PFAS. If a product is anti-adhesive you can safely assume forver-chemical is in it.
I originally picked government surveillance for my advanced comp problem/solution essay, but I changed it to PFAS after I saw this. I knew nothing about these before watching this video. Gave my seminar in large group a couple weeks ago and killed it. Thanks John, you’re doing a public service. Also thanks DuPont, for fucking all of us up.
@@ideadlift20kg83 deglazing and scraping is something you learn in serious cooking circles. The majority of the developed west swears by nonstick because it means we can cook our bland food with less cleaning.
I've known about this for years, many people have known about this. I remember in 2009 grocery stores were selling pink Teflon pans to support breast cancer research. It is sickening. Thanks John O!
The FDA/EPA allows pesticides and carcinogens to be UNLISTED in perfumes and colognes? Lead tastes and smells sweet... and so do pesticides. Your perfume/cologne is almost certainly toxic and carcinogenic. Limit how much you use! Be careful about what you buy. If it's not obviously natural, it's probably toxic
The Bayer company has a chemical that you put at the roots of trees and it poisons the whole tree against bugs. And then people wonder why there are fewer and fewer birds. (No bugs = no birds)
I always think of that Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is playing in a sandbox with a bulldozer, and he narrates a company burying nuclear waste: "cancer rates in the nearby town triple" and then he goes to hide under the bed. I want to hide under the bed.
at this rate, it'll probably only change when their former consumers found their own country and NEVER make any trade deals with them EVER, even under "military coercion"
I liked this video simply because I'm a middle child, and my parents lost me in a supermarket once. They finally found me when they came out of the mall, crossed the street to where their bike was, and found me there sleeping standing with my head on the seat. How did i find my way there? Yes.
I test for PFAS in a commercial lab, and every time I tell someone what I do for a living they have never heard of PFAS. Thank you for bringing it the attention it needs!
Is it really everywhere?
Tell us more about your work!
It's crazy to me how unaware people are of these type of issues. I've found that some people just really don't wanna know and the majority are so distracted by nonsense. Doesn't help that the media amplify the nonsense and either won't touch or just dip the tip of one toe in on what's seriously important..I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do w who owns them and where their money comes from🙄
@@XalphYT yes it really is, along w thousands of other harmful chemicals. We have literally created a hazardous environment that damages our health daily.
13 years ago, for CC speech class, I gave a report on the dangers of fish farming(I've done commercial salmon fishing in Alaska).
One topic I couldn't help writing about was PCBs, but I couldn't find a solid study showing their dangers besides the fact that they don't break down, and get passed up the food chain. I got a B instead of a A for that😥
“Who can say? Apparently not me, legally…”
I DIED OMG
Same lol. Some afterlife we got here. The only place we will be free from b holes
Nice how they can do whatever they want and normal people pay for it
Truly we are F***ed
That has got to be the most effective way to implement "legally I can't say" into a conversation.
@@roundcube2948 watch Desus & Mero
Their producer includes a graphic saying *Allegedly" whenever they say something spicy
Well, RIP if you did actually die 🤷🏼♀️
“Corporations are people - specifically sociopaths” is the take our society needs
Absolutely
who don't pay taxes and are protected by the politicians we elect with our tax dollars
who never fucking die. never pay taxes. take no responsibility for killing people. hide evidence of killing people. and bribe governments around the world. they're great citizens.
It really is, and it's kind of a fascinating truth.
They need not worry. We have a Supreme Court which not only made them people with their Citizens United decision, but is also perfectly poised to tell us sociopaths need love too.
Everyone can say a big thank you Robert Billot! This man put his career on the line multiple times, and to this day is still fighting these bastards in court to get them to pay out the settlement
Nah
As a former USAF Firefighter, we were told in the early 80's to not allow AFFF to reach storm drains or run off onto grass or dirt. I used AFFF for over 4 years while serving. Sometimes we become covered in the stuff while training on pit fires or while refilling AFFF into our trucks. I have been completely soaked in AFFF and we were never told it was bad for us, just the environment. Thanks for reporting on this story. Firefighters from all over are trying to get more information on our exposure and who will be responsible for our failing health due to AFFF. Thanks again John.
I sincerely hope that you find accountability and support in mitigating the effects of that deadly substance
@@doricetimko332 As do I!
Unfortunately, accountability isn't something our Government is even remotely good at providing. At best, a class action lawsuit is filed. (In which case, is typically settled for literally less than .5% of Dupont's quarterly earnings AND, ends up being paid decades after most of the victims have already suffered and died from whatever it was that caused their illness in the first place.)
At worst, what we currently have now. Which is as any third grader could guess, absolutely zilch.
"as a former paid murderer..."
big shoutout to DuPont for poisoning us forever
It's a tough job, but someone was gonna get it done.
YEET!!
Someone had to re-enact Ron Howard's Inferno to cut down on overpopulation :v
Please!
It's got to be their corporate policy. Since it's what they are best at.
"Apparently not me, legally" had me laughing for minutes.
14:06
ua-cam.com/video/_9cDJmH2BQQ/v-deo.html
I laughed at "...incoming FaceTime from JeffreyToobin"
Explain please, thought it's a little bit funny, but I'm sure it's because I don't get it, enough.
@@destructoooo Maybe because he's been sued multiple times 😉
Dupont was basically that one nightmare child in chemistry class. They were given specific safety instructions to avoid hazardous situations, they ignored all of it, put the chemicals in the water, and made everyone drink it.
Right I've never heard anything good about them. Every product they make has evil origins. And they seem to love screwing people over.
@@AirQuotes See it is nothing special about the company. I wish it were and we could just replace Dupont with another chemical company and it would all be better. But the economy system we have designed, demands companies put profits before public safety. Dupont is the company that happened to achieve a near monopoly on the chemical industry so that's the one we hear about, but any other company in their position would be doing the exact same thing.
sounds like nilegreen
I’m from duponts home turf I can only imagine how positively fucked my blood is
@@pierrecurie How the hell.... didn't expect to see myself mentioned here lol
In all seriousness though, I do have 100g of pure liquid PFAS just sitting in my fridge rn so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised lol.
It's a short carbon chain one, so it ain't nearly as bad as Dupont's versions. However, the synthesis i'll be doing is coincidentally somehow just 1 simple step away from turning it into DuPonts C8 😅.That's what led me here. Luckily it's not something accidentally made. I'm making a video that should shed some more light on these chemicals and their affects to the environment and people
Me looking at all of our scraped non-stick pans : **chuckles** I'm in danger
You can get your blood tested and then throw all that crap out lol.
Me looking at scraped non-stick pans, my glass of tap water, water-proof clothes, a can of spray to water-proof regular clothes: *swallows a Xanax* I'll be a miracle if I survive another decade...
Without looking I know that my very old, most-used teflon pan has much of the teflon missing--I wonder where that teflon ended up?
@@ecosta -slugs whiskey- bruh, it will be a miracle if we all survive another decade
Dude a new nonstick pan and a plastic scraper (instead of the metal one that kills the teflon coating) cost you maybe $30 total. It’s not worth pushing that expense forward if it is truly killing you.
In the 80s scientists were saying statements like, "we don't really know what causes cancer"
Today scientists say, "Yeah, we know what causes cancer, but companies like Dupont and other juggernaut conglomerates own the legislators so we can't do anything about it."
🤔🤔
Pretty much yeah
@P Pierre European here... Likely not. EU tries to do its best, but people are over alarmed about everything, so actually serious issues just blend among pointless stuff (see gliphosate "scandal", where we know the safe limits and still people are crying over well below levels because "yah, that's bad and I can't understand that not all bad things are equally so"). We'll probably get lost in some other issue.
In the future, they will just be like. Yeah, pay us more and we will quit.
ua-cam.com/video/lZ2Gb1YWhew/v-deo.html
As a scientist (ok, still a student, but on my way): yeah, we're the last people to be listened. When some are they're usually some nuts who spit conspiracies. They ask influencers opinions about medicine and blantly ignores pharmacists, no way companies do what they want in a world where competent people aren't listened.
The Radium girls would like you to remember that companies will always choose profits over their employees and the rest of us. Always
management would also choose profits over their own health, or if not they don't have the job anymore. the biggest problem human kind has ever faced is perverse incentives. only way to control this behavior that I've heard is regulatory agencies with resources, powers and will to act, except of course then people start moaning about big government and free market capitalism. 🙄
That is literally the only responsibility for a company. Elect better politicians. In the meantime, use Stainless Steel pots and pans.
Damn, the radium girls were the first thing I thought of here.
That’s a bit of a misnomer. There was a period of time when the general consensus was that radium was good for you. Now you can get into the weeds about when people started learning about radiation poisoning and how that was sent down the pipeline. Even so it’s not the greatest example of the evils of capitalism.
Not true. Need proof?
Some compagnies actually try to have principles and act in accordance, evoid getting morally curropt
Okay that's dishonest i'm cherrypicking the few good apples in the apple filled olympic swiming pool :p let me find another argument.
Okay i've got it, your statement is false because most compagnies will take bad decisions or even bankrupt themselfs for the benefit of employes. There
Okay maybe not all employés. Okay maybe only the most senior.
Okay fine they will only jepordise their compagny for the benefit of the handful of guys making the decisions... which makes sense ^^
I really wish all the Qanon and anti-vax conspiracy theorists would for a change latch onto actual issues like this
Imagine how much we’d get done
Dude. JFK Junior is in Dallas. Why are you even talking about this?
Common sense!! That will be the fu#&@n day!!!
Foam the runways, their coming in
@@666t Can you imagine if they got as mad at the actual chemicals that are flowing around with provable damage being done as they do about whatever their on about today?
Here’s an idea: every December 31st John Oliver needs to revisit all of his call to actions and update us on whether or not anyone did anything
Edit: or better yet, right before state elections lol
If he also covered the ones that went unanswered, we'd be here until February.
Next February*
This is actually a great idea
@@AmanKumarPadhy I never said WHICH February, maybe I meant the one in 2023? But thanks for being a Grammar Nazi.
It'd be a short segment, just a building sized all capital NO for 30 seconds of silence.
Danny Devito parodying “DuPont Magic” at the end was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
I started crying I had to rewatch it three different times! Incredibly funny
We all have a little Danny Devito in us all :)
Yeah, man! Like, no joke! Well, you know what I mean. I haven’t laughed that hard in years. Only some genius can make something so dark and deadly be something hilarious. It’s like magic!
Hes a national treasure.
Totally
FINALLY, coming from an environmental geoscience background, hearing someone talk about PFAS is amazing. Just don't forget that companies replaced them with chemicals with similar properties for the same uses, and cursory evidence shows they likely have the same effects on the body, possibly in even lower concentrations. (PFAS is considered toxic at anything >1ppt. That's about on par with a raindrop compared to around 24 Olympic sized swimming pools.)
My question would be, is it possible to get the same properties in products that this chemicals provide without the harmful toxins? Because if it is impossible, those products just need to be banned. People can survive without waterproof coats.
@@EdithEsquivel , How DARE YOU ask people to give up on waterproof anything! ; > )
As long as the ones with all the dirty money get their way, cancer and other diseases will increase. : >(
fellow environmental engineer🤝, PFAS is so widely accepted as toxic in my circles sometimes I forget the general public isn’t aware
20 Olympic sized swimming pools*
If PFAS does not like to form chemical bonds, thus giving it the non-stick property…
How does it biochemically interact with the body to cause cancer and other disease
Or is this all based of statistical correlation
Genuinely curious here
They put weed smokers in jail but not these dupont suits...
Deep man, deep
Danny DeVito saying "I put something in your child" and laughing maniacally is so villainous I love it
He's always there when it's about the really important issues. He's a good human being that actually cares about people.
@@cg986 You're totally right. But I also appreciate another classy performance of the Penguin.
@@uriadelavaro3956 "i played this stinking city like a harp from hell"
Well he did play Penguin in Batman 2
@@sneekypeet He indeed did. Very playful villain. :D
The saddest thing about this video is that poor child. The obscene levels of PFAS in his blood will never decrease. He's stuck with that poison inside him for the rest of his life. What an absolute tragedy.
and he's already stuck at home from trying to avoid every disease his body cannot fight off
Now i am not an expert, but blood is naturaly switched out over time, so without a new PFAS source you would think it goes away eventualy, but i guess for that the old blood would have to not loop its components back into the system, which it likely does, but you can kind of get around that with blood transfusions. So you could lower it over time, but as i understand it blood transfusions shorten your life expectancy if done frequently so the solution to the problem is probably expensive, uncomfortable and also bad for your health.
I would think they could filter most of them out with a "microtron" system similar to the one in the woman's basement.
@@chuckkandzierski86 Talking about a system that doesn't want to bond to anything. It's going to take something serious like that just to get drinking water to a safe level... when our rivers are full of it?
@Norm MACdonald lipophobic, anways yes eliminating the sources of his intake is probably impossible, but the point is more that a "normal" amount of intake while reducing his current levels would still make his condition better in an ideal scenario. Honestly i cant describe how angry i am and more importantly the degree to which this is criminal is insane. They literally poisoned every living thing on the planet for thousands of years to come, they would probably have to rot in jail until the end of the universe if you added up all the individual cases against them, yet they probably walk free.
Just watch Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, it’s the true story movie about a lawyer fought DuPont about this forever chemical and how corrupted American capitalism in reality, highly recommended movie.
Dude I just watched that trailer and I have to see it tonight. The cinematography makes it look like enviro-horror
It should be required viewing. #DarkWaters.
I believe that anywhere capitalism works, you have people that are better at keeping secrets.
Dark Waters is so good! It was kind of slept on because there were so many good movies in 2019, but it's one of my favorites from that year. Also one of the best movies based on a magazine article.
I honestly do not need the documentary to know that American capitalism is currently the worst cancer on Earth, cause of most of its problem. But I will take a look, since it looks nice.
I love how in this country, you legally can’t state that a company is clearly subverting the law because our government is that enslaved to corporate interests
This is madness! Corporate interests should not be more powerful than the government, and they should not be treated as if they own the country.
Exactly. Towns along rivers all over America are poisonous to live there. Because of Industry being along the rivers. Have Mercy .
We can all thank Reagan and the Conservative party since for that
Gotta get that Bread
3M- "Do not dispose off chemicals in surface water."
DuPont- "I am gonna dispose chemicals in surface water even harder"
How bout I do.... anyway.
Don’t tell us what to do! We’re corporate citizens!
It's the cheapest way so.....*I will!*
It's unhealthy? Too bad...
"What's that? We can't hear you over the sound of us disposing of chemicals in the surface water"
They did it in Parkersburg, and they repeated it in Cape Fear
As always equally; entertained, informed and horrified of the world we live in. Thanks
Too true (an absolutely perfect description of this show)
Yep!
Dupont: Do you Feel me Joshua? Do you feel me inside of you?
Perfect!
We laugh so we don’t have to cry… Right now. We’ll cry later.
This is my research, I’m so glad it’s getting attention!
Awesome! What specifically are you researching?
Thank you for performing an important public service.
Just asking, by buying and using goretex shoes am I at risk as well to accumulate said chemicals? How big of a risk it is?
You're doing great work, thank you!
I do have a question for you, if you don't mind. Is there any promising research being done on how to potentially remove it from the body? Maybe similar to chelation for heavy metals? TIA!
Also, what is a healthy practical alternative?
You, Sir, and your team, are changing the world! It's 2024 right now, and I know where my PFAS are. I also know what the EPA is starting to do about them as an entire class, and that they are requiring all municipal water supplies to remove PFAS from the water they pass on. You've all educated the public about this whole thing and effected change on a massive, nation-wide scale, and you should be commended for this! You all deserve a Nobel Prize and a Congressional Medal for this, and if you personally were still British, I would think you should be Knighted for it. You've all saved millions of lives with this one video and all your hard work on this one project. Thank you for alerting everyone to this!
Painfully unfunny
When John brought up Hell's Seltzer I realized that "Very real" and "and this is true" are like our Last Week Tonight safe words.
Finding out that almost everyone has PFAS in their blood has an eerily similar feeling to the characters in the walking dead finding out they’re all infected.
Hah, just said the same thing. The Walking Dead moves from fiction to documentary.
I think I found the source of several of my mental health problems.
but like I just watched a TEDed video about teflon and they said its basically harmless (though they might be talking about a different chemical). I dont know what to believe !!!
Spoilers
@@coyotethunderbeard4257 Probably several sources
This show is just my weekly reminder to never be relaxed ever
Maybe take a month off the show and see how much more relaxed you are when you stop focusing about all the worlds problems.
Don’t be caught lacking
Correct.
Oh B relaxed , just watch where u step
Sometimes I try to break up with it, but John’s just pointing out the future I was given. :)
i am a PhD student working on PFAS. Glad to see mainstream media talking about it. and Moreover let me tell you there are many other harmful waste for example antibiotic drugs that end up in the surface waters even in developed nations and god save the third world countries.
Well it's probably still the first world countries dumping shit in the 3rd world.
Unfortunately many many decades later even after it has played out in the courts and even after a hollywood movie portraying the battle.
funny i was on reddit and someone said the pan has to be billowing smoke for hours for a teflon plan to be dangerous
@@dabadoo7631”someone” lol
You've wasted your life
I love Danny Devito so much. This was a genius casting decision.
I agree. He nailed it!
It was nice to see Frank from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
I lost it at "I put something in your child, muwhahaha!"
ha ha ha
3M- "Do not dispose of chemicals in water."
DuPont- " So anyway, I started dumping chemicals in water"
ua-cam.com/video/neNKzb3yP_Y/v-deo.html
There was a massive GenX spill in the cape fear NC,, which is the source of New Hanover county water just down stream
Alex jones was right
Over in Belgium it's 3M that has been doing the dumping for years. They new about the associated problems, politicians new about those problems and about the dumping, still nobody cared...
3M: "Do not dispose of chemicals in water
*The Gang Dumps Poison in the River*
“That thing you like is bad with Saddy Longlegs”
Favorite line of the season thus far.
I want a hat and t-shirt with that statement.
Yes, that’s cool
Please do not ever retire. This is the most frightening of all the frightening problems we face.
Interesting that I work in insurance and today I got a carrier email saying they are adding this as an exclusion to pollution policies....meaning no coverage for any loss attributed to this chemical. They are getting ready to avoid lawsuits.
I wanted to mention also: PLEASE do NOT use Teflon coated cookware if you have birds. The overheated Teflon fumes are deadly to birds.
Thats more evil than we can shake a hotplate with smooth long stick at!
Holy shittt
wait is that what that means? I Did books for a company that was doing that for a few weeks a month or 2 ago
Uhhn uh, you know how much they made during the pandemic? Effing christ
How much evidence do we need to prove, time and again, that corporations WILL NOT adequately regulate themselves for the protection of the general public?
Tell it to the shareholders and portfolio managers who trade in these companies futures. Undoubtedly, theres an algorithm that determines the financial tipping point between a corporation's investment interests and said same legal accountability due to their product's lethality. You don't know the math. I don't know it, either. But someone does. And we need to find that someone(s) and put their head on a proverbial pike to set an example.
@@eongoosm Nah, it ain't even that sophisticated. Where is the math in Steven Donziger's case? ua-cam.com/video/tivHvgJlseM/v-deo.html It's just straight up corruption.
ua-cam.com/video/280U9-5v8I0/v-deo.html اللهم اهدنا فيمن هديت 😍🥰🥰😍
We need enough monetary evidence that outweighs why the evidence doesn't persuade politicians.
This is how: don't buy their products. Buy cast iron, or stainless steel.
2:13 Any educator who uses the term "Devil's piss" is someone I would be proud to have as a teacher for myself and my kids.
Thanks, I teach the Boy Scout Chemistry Merit Badge in Delaware. The term “Devil’s Piss” is a real technical term used in DuPont during my career there. When acid hits the employee’s eye ball, the on-site doctor is trained to pluck it out since the acid keeps eating into the flesh until it reacts with calcium in the bone. There is no bone behind the eye so the acid would penetrate into the brain. Employees learn this quickly and wear acid goggles and safety glass eye shields like the DuPont Magic spokesperson in the video.
ua-cam.com/video/Fvq3_D7mT0c/v-deo.html🔥🔥
John offers a great idea to label all PFAS chemicals with the Devil’s Piss warning logo. They surprised me by diving deep into testimony …It comes from an Oversight Committee hearing from 2019, at around 3:18:00 here ( ua-cam.com/video/zCOMDB5In9A/v-deo.html ).
@@glennevers4952: That's horrifying, that the only way to save the patient is to reenact _King Lear._ Nice to know the goggles actually do something.
I love you John Oliver. I do. But I hate that I always (almost), when I watch you pointing at some serious issues, I feel guilty for not knowing/caring enough about it... I do really thank you for caring. For all of us.
I thought my wife was being overly concerned when she insisted we get stainless steel pans instead of anything nonstick. When I complained that I didn’t have a good pan for omelettes she got me a ceramic coated one. Thank you, John, for reminding me that my wife is smart and awesome.
Quality stainless cookware is a tad expensive, but worth it.
It's totally worth it, & lasts forever.
I find carbon steel great for non stick applications. It will develope a seasoning with use. But it's still relatively non stick at the first use.
It's too late bruh
@@kidzfromthebloc it's not too late for your children
"I drink tequila straight, but I won't drink tap water..."
DAAAAAAAAAMN!
ua-cam.com/video/Fvq3_D7mT0c/v-deo.html🔥🔥
Too be fair so do i but its not because im health consious
Boil tap water. Refill water bottles.
@@andrewe6839 mate i just listen too 20 minutes about why that doesnt work
@@andrewe6839 boiling doesn't get rid of PFAS 😞
Ive studied chemistry for 6 years now and this is how I learn that another named for hydrofluoric acid is “Devil’s piss” ? 😂
it fits, no? the shit that stuff will do to your bones...
Same, first that I hear that nickname
I've never heard it called that either but it works.
Think of that next time you brush your teeth
@@3mtech Or don't. HF is a nasty liquid dragon that eats calcium and passes right through skin and gloves. NaF is the _ash_ of sodium that's been burned in fluorine, and all it does is bind to your tooth enamel slightly increasing its acid resistance as NaF is pretty much done reacting with anything until the stars go out. Fluorides are pretty final things as salts go.
Currently in a class action lawsuit bc the drinking water in my community (where I've lived for 29 years) was contaminated with PFAS from the Air Force using experimental fire fighting foam that seeped into the ground water. I was only able to switch to bottled water about 6 years ago. Getting my blood tested next week, I'm nervous to find out exactly how bad it is.
😢 sending love
How did it turn out?
@j.snakehole6552 I had several specific types of pfas in my blood that put me in the 90th percentile for ppl in my age group across the country. Some I was only at or above 50th percentile, so not great.
Bottled water also contains PFA's
@@elizabethward5159why would you even test for it? Not like you can do anything about it now... We should all just live our lifes to the fullest before were killed by are lovely corporations
the beutifully nonchalant way that man said "devil's piss" in congress is admirable
Pretty brave of him to admit he has a hernia in front of like 150 people
You can tell it's something he is serious about.
For something that doesn't stick it sure as hell follows you forever
ua-cam.com/video/fL0NySP4amo/v-deo.html,,,
My ex be like
ua-cam.com/video/lZ2Gb1YWhew/v-deo.html
Lmfao 🤣 nice one
Exactly
Danny clearly channeled his Penguin role from Batman Returns as the DuPont scientist and it was fucking gold.
nah that was definitely his frank reynolds character from its always sunny in Philadelphia, except he doesn't look like he's been living in filth.
ua-cam.com/video/lZ2Gb1YWhew/v-deo.html
@@baboon0285 one could say Penguin and Frank are quite similar. 😊 And I enjoyed both. But the real disagreement I have is about filth. That DuPont scientist is filthier than Penguin and Frank together. At least those two could be cleaned with a bath… 🤣🤣
Glad someone else caught that 🤣 yeah, totally!
@@vanbusto8870 why are you plugging here
I love how silent the crowd is in this segment. Everyone is scared cause we’re all affected.
Like the Walking Dead?
In Europe , chemical companies must show their products are safe before marketing/// US products must be shown to cause harm before regulation!?😮😢
Peter Valkins, do not give us too much credit, the shitty companies here are dodging the law as well. Pfas is in the Dutch waters at the moment, they dumped gravel with pfas despite being told not to.
ZEMBLA has a documentary on it. As far as I know, an English one too.
"Dark Waters" from 2019 is a film with Mark Ruffalo based on one lawyer's fight against Dupont over PFAS. What a coincidence... I just watched that last month. Highly recommend it.
Great film - everyone should watch it
I'm watching it at class with the 16 year olds. They all ask how something like that could happen so little time ago
Thanks!!
@@sabrina.natalie uggghh hate the ending ...will still watch
@@1hawtMetz - 💕 Here’s the link to the documentary. It’s on UA-cam.
ua-cam.com/video/NJFbsWX4MJM/v-deo.html
This was kind of skimmed over in the episode, but it’s important to note that PFAs are found in most food packaging and also most plastic containers (of any and all consumer products) in general. It’s not just in the products of the specific companies mentioned in this episode.
So they're marketing food containers as BPA free and safe...while not mentioning the PFA. Nice.
That's true, and yes while they are equally as hard to get rid off after those products reached their end of life, the risk of those products gassing out due to being overheated or scratched and that way getting in your food is lower...
Hoo-boy, if that makes you concerned, do not look up "microplastics".
PFAS: causes cancer and all sorts of nasty deceases.
Microplastics: causes chromosome instability and is a possible cause of many mental illnesses.
just great!
@@StevesGenericIndustriesInc. oil companies will literally kill everyone, including themselves, for the sake of a short time spent in extreme luxury
danny devito is pure magic in this skit. mr devito is a living legend, absolutely love his performances.
Yeah Dude, I thought there was something wrong with the audience, they were not laughing near enough.
He IS from NJ 💕
I might cry when he goes
@@catgirlgaming6107 I KNOW I will shed a tear for sure...until then I celebrate him and his work!
Thanks for this John Oliver but I would like to add that much of the clothing worn by firefighters contain PFAS and AFFF firefighting foam was not just used by the army. Many fire departments throughout the country used it as well. Cancer in firefighters was linked to PFAS by a University of Notre Dame study.
If we limited the PFAS to only extreme and life saving cases, the pollution wouldn't nearly be as bad.
So the exposute to chemical smoke from all the fires had nothing to do with it, right?
3M is under fire for this in Belgium at the moment. It has had a lot of side fallout so far and will probably have more to come.
Cheers from Maple Wood Minnesota Land of many adhesives and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Best of luck as from where I stand we are truly F'd in the A
Keep learning, grow thy own food and unplug my brothers 🙏🏼🌎🌍🌏🕊️
@@zanewalsh1812 Willful ignorance does not solve the issue.
@@zanewalsh1812 What, you don't care about your sisters?
Well, duh.
If you keep shooting at it, stuff will leak out from the sides.
I remember being told as a child quite a while ago to be careful with Teflon pans for they contain toxic material if the surface get scratched.
Yep. That, and never to allow the surface to overheat dry, because it would release toxic stuff into the air.
And don't even own a Teflon pan if you have a pet bird and enjoy its company, or you will discover the true meaning of "canary in a coal mine" when you wake up one day to a dead pet.
If they are higher than 500 degrees they kill parrots!!
Yep! I make sure to toss any scratched pots and pans. Unfortunately it just goes back to the earth (eventually) and seeing as it's in clothing and water. 😬
@@Twielyeght same, it feels like lose lose
this is an important public service message
👍👍ua-cam.com/video/HpdYNTcu4UM/v-deo.html
A PSA for PFAS
ua-cam.com/video/Fvq3_D7mT0c/v-deo.html🔥🔥
@@rachael5099 ²²4⁴4⁵⁵⁵09
Facts
Oh John. Every time I doom scroll and get bummed about the state of the world you're always there for me, softly whispering "hold my beer."
Hey friend, listen. I know the world is scary right now but...
it's gonna get way worse.
The guy who said "I'll drink Tequila straight but I wont drink tap water." actually got me to laugh out loud.
I've been saying that to people for years! "Water is dangerous shit! People die in pools, lakes and rivers every year."
"I never drink water, fish make love in it."
--W. C. Fields
@@sdfkjgh well now I can't get this thought out of my mind.
That’s been standard practice for most of human history. Alcohol had been in the most part safer than water. Why do you think the drinking age is as young as 16 in some countries
Well, why do you think people drank beer waaaay back in the day 😨
Everyone forgets we already had non-stick pans before Teflon: pans made of cast iron. Don't knock em till you've tried them. And don't tell me they are too expensive; a single good cast iron pan can literally last you a lifetime. When my grandparents passed away, I inherited their cast ironware. Use them everyday. Want to know the real reason why we don't use cast iron anymore? Because manufacturers figured out they could sell you an inferior product that you would have to replace every few years. Screw them. I will never have to buy a pan again.
Not everyone has huge biceps and strong joints like you, Steve :( cast iron is so heavy! That's my issue. Especially when I have to do cleanup after and regularly season the pan, that's so much handling. There's gotta be a good in between...
I've had all my cast iron pans for at least 20 years. My mom uses them and so did my tiny frail grandmother. It does take a little while to get the hang of using them properly but totally worth it in the long run. Another replied about having to always reseason them. I gotta say that I've never had to reseason my cast iron unless I accidentally burnt something beyond repair and had no choice but to scrub it out with soap. If you stick with the old fashioned 'wipe don't wash' your pans will go years without needing to be reseasoned, and they'll get slicker and easier to use every time. Oh as far as cost goes, I got all of mine at 2nd hand stores for less than $5 each. I love 'em!
@@dannystarling1 Yes! I've had some of my cast iron for decades. Most of my items were rescued, and cost little to nothing.
Poor people don’t buy cast iron because “lasting a lifetime” making something financially the wiser purchase in the long run only is possible when you have the extra money to buy quality, rather than what’s the most affordable NOW.
@@nnuggit Small price to pay for not having cancer. The worst part of this pfoa thing is that the need wasn't even all that essential. Just a convenience. And at what cost. Surely we could have waited to come up with a safer solution.
I glad John is back with terrifying me about every innocuous thing in my life.
Oh, they're only *seemingly* innocuous.
How do you figure it’s innocuous if it’s actively poisoning you? That’s not what innocuous means. Perhaps it was seemingly-innocuous at one point, but once you definitively learn that it is toxic it can no longer be considered innocuous. In this case, the PFAs that DuPont has been poisoning the American people with for years.
@@JoshuaReifsteck exactly…anybody with parrots knows that if you accidentally leave a Teflon pan on the stove and it overheats, you’ll kill any birds in the house. After learning that I stopped using it completely (I don’t have parrots either).
Indeed... The harbinger of fear and knowledge lol
Lol 😆 Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just grateful someone out there cares enough to warn us about all the ways corporations are trying to kill us. ❤
“Gore-Tex is toxic, and you are already poisoned” is not the hot take I was expecting in my lifetime, or the tens of consecutive lifetimes it takes for PFAS to go away.
The movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is a beautiful movie about this exact subject from the perspective of the main lawyer fighting Dupont and Teflon.
100% agree. Great movie.
this comment had me go back and watch this for the second time.... f**k dupont.... really....
There's also a documentary called "The Devil We Know," perhaps the best doc I've ever seen (on Prime). It's so enraging that you've no idea what to do with your anger, other than to throw your Teflon pans away. But since Teflon never dies, all you're really doing is spitting in the wind.
It's this kind of thing that creates such polarization in something like a pandemic. While I've chosen to be vaccinated, do I really blame friends who don't trust Big Pharma, after all the nightmares they've put upon us? And I'm not talking about innocent mistakes but rather deliberate actions based in greed. I do believe the Covid vaccine data is accurate and that good people are in charge of the research and distribution, but I don't have the rage some do at those who won't vaccinate. It's because of stories like these.
John Gotti was dubbed the Teflon Don because charges never stuck to him
That's all I got🤷♂️
@@Sedna7 I'm gonna have to watch it again too and get more and more angry as it goes on
DuPont: "Agent Orange is the worst mistake we could make."
Also DuPont: "Hold my napalm!"
*Edited from nepalm to napalm
one of the many nazi-murikkkan companies 🤷🏿♀️
Can we kill them now?
And yet people gladly buy DuPont stocks to further the problem and endanger themselves. Go green folks.
@@andrewhansen4179 you think that's _why_ they buy it? Are you kidding?
lol thicc
Corporations are destroying humanity’s future to make a meaningless buck. Money isn’t a resource, a hospitable environment is.
Humanity's future to make a meaningless buck is being destroyed by corporations?
@@ArifRWinandar no read the comment slower.
Yeah and no one will ever do anything about it. We will kill the planet and suffocate ourselves for pieces of paper
Do the executive bigwigs making these decisions not realize this is also a problem that affects them as well? And their loved ones?
You’d think they’d eventually decide to do the right thing IF ONLY out of self-interest
@@coyotelong4349 it doesn't affect them if they'll be dead by the time the bill comes due.
I love living in the European Union. Our representatives have already banned PFAS and are considering further actions.
@@lucaferrieri3753 No, I'm afraid we're far too high up the Democracy index for that haha. Need to be at least a flawed democracy for that clearly. Also can't be higher than number 44 on the press freedom index.
There's so much more to be done. I'm in Germany and you can buy Drano in any hardware store. Why is that still allowed? 😔
@@TerriblePerfection I don't know about that specific product. My point is that the EU parliament is on the whole a lot better than what certain people give it credit for. Hell I think it's better than the Swedish parliament atm and I'm a leftist.
No they have not. They consider doing it until 2030. But for now, only the twomentioned by John are banned.
@@faarsight You know, I might be wrong but it is the Swedish parliament, and Germany, that is fighting to get this ban through. And no, it's not actually banned yet, they just hope they'll convince everyone to agree to it by ~2025-2030
But I agree that the EU all-in-all is better than what a lot of people says.
"...apparently not me, legally."
I won't be surprised if a year or two from now, there is another musical number on a lawsuit.
Can't wait for John to tell the Dupont CEO to eat shit.
This story is 70 years old.
@@whiteraven1992 Which CEO .. All of them should be dragged to court
I love horror films, but I was truly scared when I left the theatre after watching Dark Waters (which covered this topic). Being reminded of how poisoned we already are is not how I intended to start the day, but it's somehow important.
"Somehow"? I'd call that CRITICALLY important
I respect you for being willing to take in the information. Most people have avoided the truth vigorously. Just too painful.
Definitely one of the most haunting movies I've ever watched. They picked a great cast, too. I think I'll never forget that scene where he explains the whole thing to his wife after she wakes up in the middle of the night due to the noise in the kitchen.
I recommend watching the movie, “Dark Waters” to get a dramatic retelling of the terrible reality of PFAS
It pretty much was that dramatic irl too sadly
Yeees with Mark Ruffalo, great movie!
Would Pirates of Dark Water be close enough?
I thought Erin Brockovich might be more apt, but both movies work. XD
I watched Dark Waters after watching John Oliver's segment on specifically Teflon pans a while back...and let me tell you, that scared me silly.
PFAS in the tap water, micro plastics in the bottled water. Unless you can learn to live without water, there's no avoiding pollution. It's all unsafe to drink.
That whole Danny DeVito ad is one of the most delightfully ominous and surreal pieces of editing I've seen in a while, and the fact that it's from a mainstream show is absolutely hilarious.
Nice pfp
It's the perfect intersection of very good and very dumb
It's like all these companies should be held responsible for the information they withhold and the life cycle of its products and materials.
Psh, like that’s ever gonna happen.
What of load of [toilet flushes]
This is easier than most of us think.
If caught illegally disposing of chemicals, you must surrender all profits for five years.
@@RisenThe Only 5 years, in response to killing people and the environment? The EPA needs to be given the power it needs to properly enforce its rules, including ability to prosecute and disband corporations.
@@jasonsilverman3125 whoa man that goes against the American Dream. You trying to stop me from killing the planet and population to make a profit? COMMUNISM! /s
@@clevelandite153 Great idea, let's nationalize these companies!
As an expert on the fate and treatment of PFAS, this video makes me happy that this information is being spread.
My boyfriend’s father lives within the Wolverine contamination zone, and he gets his water from a well source. He was recently (within the past two years) diagnosed with colon cancer, but thankfully it was caught early on and so far all cancerous legions seem to be gone for good. I suspect that my boyfriend will need to be extra careful in monitoring himself for certain cancers, since he spend the first 20 years of his life growing up on well water from the contamination zone.
“You cant kill this beast, you can only control it” sounds like something I would see on tshirts at the gym
The gym with a BDSM dungeon in its basement on the third Saturday of the month.
@@fruitygarlic3601 I have it embroidered on my underwear.
Thanks for the business idea
The sad part is that those shirts were made out of PFAS
nah can't be tamed 💅
As someone who's been in toxicology research in NH for the last 2 1/2 yrs. thank you so much for bringing this up 😭💕 wassup Ryan if you see this
NH? That wouldn't be New Hampshire would it? Anything toxicology related we should know? Asking for a friend...
I live there. Anything I should know? The PFAS map doesn't look great and I'm not sure why tbh.
"I drink tequila straight, but I won't drink the tap water."
Me everyday.
lol I drink tap water and have been for my whole life
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
The translation of Wodka is "pure water" ... and some guys take this personally.
@Jack B - You’re gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company for that comment. You’re probably one of those PREVERTS
Remember when you used to get your livingroom carpet, your couch and lazyboy Scotchgarded so they didn't get stained by food or drink? You could even buy it by the spray can and apply it yourself. The compound perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), a PFOS precursor, was an ingredient and, also has been described as the "key ingredient" of Scotchgard.
the bright side about this all is that Danny Devito is still a national treasure
💯
I have only shed a tear for two celebrities. Leonard Nimoy and Robin Williams. The third will be for Danny when he passes away.
See if he's doing anything and go support him. I got to see Robin when he did a tour for the troops in Iraq. Was the hairiest man in the middle-east by a large margin. Guy was like a yeti. I honestly don't think he had ever actually felt anyone bump into him. lol I know this because he said so. Never afraid to make fun of himself for some laughs. Brilliant people with big hearts.
@@Krystalmyth , I was a kid who became an instant fan of Robin back in Mork and Mindy. My mom even bought me his rainbow suspenders and I wore them with pride lol.
Can we just acknowledge that neutering the EPA during the Bush administration was a bad idea...
Would be nice if "pro lifers" cared about life...
@yuoop noke that's what always kills me, there's so many 'real' conspiracy theories, ie examples of evil rich ppl working together to ruin our lives, with all the hidden information they don't want you to know about that conspiracy theorists thrive on, and yet ppl are worried about stuff that's not even happening
Reagan and Trump were also big on NOT regulating industry. Didn’t want to jeopardize those big campaign contributions!
SO glad the people who made these sociopathic decisions are now dead, yet their legacies continue and we have to clean up their mess. Because, you know, you can take all those billions with you to the grave, dontcha know. ;-) By the time we figure out how to fix all the problems we've got, it'll be too late. So, who's taking bets on which Garbage Island will wash up on a U.S. shoreline? =P
*Fixed that sentence for you:
Can we just acknowledge that the Bush administration was a bad idea...
I'm so glad Danny Devito was able to reprise his role as The Penguin.
Epic
I hate when UA-cam comments put spoilers up front before I even start the video.
@@mr-mo8uq thats on you for reading comments before you watch
@@Trox2018 this comment literally shows up on the App as soon as you open the video. You don't have to do a thing, it's just right there for you to read. Maybe you're good at ignoring stuff but my brain automatically reads shit that shows up in front of me.
This episode is one of the best. Entertaining, yet informing us about something important that not many people know about. Wonder how much this reduces life expectancy by, worldwide and in the US.
I love John’s Monday morning horror stories. Good morning everyone.
Danny is a treasure. 🥰
Good Day
Good evening
Unfortunately for us all, they're not just stories.
Me "oh well I'm in Africa so PFAS won't be a problem here"
John: "They tested children in Africa and they had PFAS"
Honestly I'm scared to think of what else is in the containers, clothes and food we eat everyday.
Bro , I can name on one hand the number of cities that have truly clean uncontaminated drinking water in the continent
Pfas is a worry for sure but before that we need to worry about reaching the safe for human consumption standard first
ua-cam.com/video/lZ2Gb1YWhew/v-deo.html
Then you should listen to Dr shana swan she has become popular for her book on this endocrine disrupting chemicals “countdown” is her book
How many containers and clothes are you eating?
Our trash goes to Africa ...
I love that he got the Penguin who's actual plot point was poisoning water.
LOL I totally forgot that was a Danny Devito role for a second. Great reference
I thought his plot was about killing children. Which corporations seem to have no problem doing.
I love and respect each and every episode. The amount of writing, effort, research, production, etc that goes into each episode is a very impressive (and yet rewarding) task. I salute you John Oliver and also special thanks to Danny Devito for this one! He was epic!
"Who can say? Apparently not me, legally."
this is the shit why I still get back here from time to time
For about 2 years I cleaned carpets for the biggest carpet cleaning company in Milwaukee. I often sprayed carpets and furniture with a product called Scotch Guard. It's made of you guessed it, Teflon. This might explain recent health issues.
Cleaning and coating chemicals are the worst. Get those issues looked at. Please!
Use Steel utensil, they are dishwasher safe, easy to clean, sustainable and can never give adverse affect.
@@AdamWestish Yes I plan to. I feel like I need to get my blood tested and see what my PFAS levels are. I never had any PPE on when spraying Teflon and surely breathed it in way too often.
@@Songs-lr4wt Steel has nickel. Try titanium utensils instead
@@enokcho what's wrong with nickle
"company"
"self regulated"
"not enforceable"
i mean... thats just nyot things you are supposed to put together
it is if you're a libertarian who loves freedom and hates communism.
edit: since people are making assumptions, I just want to clarify that I'm not a libertarian myself. I actually like critical thinking and functioning societies.
@@snowballeffect7812 LMFAO, sounds like you don't know what words mean. Are you also a Trumper, by chance? Wouldn't be surprised!
Chose two out of three. Still don't work.
Also triple Aaa game developers in the us
That's also the company owned by (the family of) the guy who killed the wrestler dave shultz.
Foxcatcher was a good movie.
This world is such a cold and cruel place. To think governments don’t rule out any harmful materials when manufacturing anything humans use/consume is just crazy!! Stay safe people, be vigilant and GOD bless you all.
Just realize, they knew this in 1970. They still produce PFAS today. That's 50 years of "fuck yous" pumped into the water everyday, 50 years worth of chemicals that will not break down until the year 4030. Humans may be extinct by the time we correct the issue
Sounds like we all just need to start drinking a lot more tequila straight
Probably in the water in the tequila, at this point…
@@robertb6889 yea, but the Tequila gets distilled. That should remove atleast some of the acids.
That's going to be my rational from now on. :-)
@@emilychb6621 pfas isnt an acid
ua-cam.com/video/lZ2Gb1YWhew/v-deo.html
going back to the days where everyone knew the water was contaminated with awful stuff and only drank alcohol because they knew it was distilled and cleaner than the water.
Careful with that though. At least back then, you knew that the alcohol in the drinks destroyed the problem. Now, an alcoholic drink could be accidentally distilling extra high levels of long-lived molecules.
Yeah, and no one realizes that alcohol is a poison, either. Same goes for nicotine...
@@peterknutsen3070 I would assume that they don't evaporate faster than water, but there's more than one way to distill. I would imagine that freeze distilling would remove (mostly) just the pure water, leaving concentrated everything-else behind in the drink.
Here in Texas some 32 ounce beers are cheaper then a 32 ounce bottle of water.
So what you're saying is that we should all become drunk pirates? Where do I sign up?
I'm glad there's at least one mainstream show that doesn't have to give a crap about potential corporate sponsors. Eff Dupont and 3M.
So big pharma arent corporate sponsors?
Petition to add "We've heard this before, yet here we fucking are" to the growing list of proposed titles for this show.
Thank you for always uploading your main story to UA-cam John.
Ah, yes.
I've seen enough John's to know that the equation
USA + no regulation + corporations self-regulating = not gonna enjoy my lunch (or my afternoon. Or the rest of the day) properly
So not long ago my husband bought me these new pans called “Green Pans” and I found out one of their big selling points is not having PFAS in them. After I saw this I looked that up. Not a sales pitch but they are great pans.
thank you for sharing, I might look into that
That’s great, but the pfas already the water supply 😑
Yup. BOTTLED water is a huge part of the problem.
Started with the 70's when the big old 5-gallon containers were being shipped around by companies like Alhambra and plenty more. Small, personal bottles came soon after, and the rest... is history.
They even get absorbed into the atmosphere and 're-distributed' as RAINFALL. Yes, that's right (look it up). Doesn't matter where you go now, either.
You could be in the most remote location on Earth and the rivers and trees and dirt and rainfall would still contain... plastics.
I'm POSITIVE some won't believe me. Do your *own* research. I did. 🤮
New Teflon pans don't have PFAS in them either. Is Thermolon(coating name on GreenPans) safe either?
I don't know about Green Pans let hope they are nice. But a lot of compagnie do greenwashing these day by, for exemple, replacing PFAS by an other foreverchemial as harmfull but aloing them to claim that their product don't have PFAS. If a product is anti-adhesive you can safely assume forver-chemical is in it.
I originally picked government surveillance for my advanced comp problem/solution essay, but I changed it to PFAS after I saw this. I knew nothing about these before watching this video. Gave my seminar in large group a couple weeks ago and killed it. Thanks John, you’re doing a public service. Also thanks DuPont, for fucking all of us up.
"As long as pan aren't over heated or scraped"... Yeah that's ever teflon pan I've ever seen
What was that? I couldn't hear you over the scraping and overheating of my teflon pan!
Noted: don’t get nonstick pans for my fallout shelter. And just passed the part where he says 99.7 percent have contained by pfas….
Crap
I got a really good water filter and cast iron pans. Cast iron sucks. But it's worth it.
Yeah I'm sure nobody would ever use the wrong cleaning utensils or leave the pan on the stove.
@@ideadlift20kg83 deglazing and scraping is something you learn in serious cooking circles. The majority of the developed west swears by nonstick because it means we can cook our bland food with less cleaning.
I've known about this for years, many people have known about this. I remember in 2009 grocery stores were selling pink Teflon pans to support breast cancer research. It is sickening. Thanks John O!
I can’t believe that scientist talked about making nonstick trees and laughed as if that’s probably not the most crazy idea he’s coming up with.
For real. I was very creeped out by this man giggling about bugs sliding off trees.
The FDA/EPA allows pesticides and carcinogens to be UNLISTED in perfumes and colognes? Lead tastes and smells sweet... and so do pesticides. Your perfume/cologne is almost certainly toxic and carcinogenic. Limit how much you use! Be careful about what you buy. If it's not obviously natural, it's probably toxic
That's actor Danny DeVito...but he does play a great 'mad scientist'!
@@sablethompson1212 And what for? Bugs kinda belong in trees, just let them be.
The Bayer company has a chemical that you put at the roots of trees and it poisons the whole tree against bugs. And then people wonder why there are fewer and fewer birds. (No bugs = no birds)
Thank you so much for addressing this. I’m very sick among many others because of chemicals.
I always think of that Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is playing in a sandbox with a bulldozer, and he narrates a company burying nuclear waste: "cancer rates in the nearby town triple" and then he goes to hide under the bed.
I want to hide under the bed.
Then you find out the carpet under your bed has been treated with chemicals, that.....
nahh, let me steal a trillion dollar rocketship and find a new planet to colonize
I'm already hiding under the bed that's under my bed's bed!
ua-cam.com/video/Fvq3_D7mT0c/v-deo.html🔥🔥
Corporations focusing on short-term profits over long-term health and environmental effects isn't going to change unless it affects their bottom line.
It won’t change until the decision makers are held accountable.
at this rate, it'll probably only change when their former consumers found their own country and NEVER make any trade deals with them EVER, even under "military coercion"
Regulations are written in blood, after all.
It won't change until we publicly execute the people responsible
@@JochemVO98 ngl I was thinking about killing the CEO of Dupont the entire time I was watching this
Glad this is getting more light.
ua-cam.com/video/fL0NySP4amo/v-deo.html,,,
ua-cam.com/video/lZ2Gb1YWhew/v-deo.html
Well there was a movie.
@@Elephantstonica That apparently nobody saw.
I liked this video simply because I'm a middle child, and my parents lost me in a supermarket once.
They finally found me when they came out of the mall, crossed the street to where their bike was, and found me there sleeping standing with my head on the seat.
How did i find my way there? Yes.