Uncovering Global “Forever Chemical” Contamination: Legal, Regulatory, and Scientific Challenges

7 January 2021

Uncovering Global “Forever Chemical” Contamination: Legal, Regulatory, and Scientific Challenges

Robert Bilott gained international prominence by raising awareness and exposing the global environmental contamination produced by highly toxic fluorinated chemicals (“forever chemicals”) associated with the production of Teflon. His book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (2019) is a personal account of the litigation process leading to DuPont ceasing…

A recording of this lecture will be posted soon.

Robert Bilott – American environmental lawyer and author

Mr. Bilott gained international prominence by raising awareness and exposing the global environmental contamination produced by highly toxic fluorinated chemicals (“forever chemicals”) associated with the production of Teflon. His book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (2019) is a personal account of the litigation process leading to DuPont ceasing production and use of “forever chemicals” in 2013, and was also the inspiration for the feature film, Dark Waters (2019) and the documentary, The Devil We Know (2018). Among his many distinctions for his environmental work, Mr. Bilott has received the 2017 International Right Livelihood Award (also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”), the 2020 Kentucky Bar Association Distinguished Lawyer Award; he was also the 2016 “Giraffe Hero” Commendation Honoree, and named the Clarence Darrow Award Honoree, Mass Tort Bar in 2014.

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