This article comes from WeChat public number: Sir Movie (ID: dustevv) , author: poison Sir, original title: “Oscar Pearl, shoot the hero of China’s most recognized”, the title figure comes from: the movie “Blackwater”

Oscar missed it.

The star of this year is definitely Parasite, but if you stretch the time for decades, another movie may be even more important.

Movies not only expose reality, but also change it. It has happened many times, both at home and abroad:

  • The “Philadelphia Story” has promoted the anti-AIDS discrimination campaign in the United States;

  • The “Beautiful Rosetta” promotes the adoption of the “Rosetta Act” to protect the rights of young workers in Belgium;

  • The “Furnace”, leading to the “Amendment to Prevent Sexual Injury” in South Korea;

  • The “drug god” has promoted the introduction of domestic anti-cancer drug price reduction measures.

    The one I am going to talk about today is deeply rooted in each of us-“Blackwater”.

    Here, I have to mention a company—Participant Media (Participant Media) The films they participated in were: “Infectious Illness, Focus, The Washington Post, and Green Paper.

    From mass rumors and fears to exposing church sexual assault, reaffirming the ideal of press freedom and reflecting racial discrimination.

    And this time, they brought their new work Black Water.

    An equally sharp social event has really made Sir far in China, and also felt terrified.

    01

    Before telling the story of a movie, Sir tells a story. The protagonist of the story is called Teflon. (sometimes written as Teflon) , the chemical name is: polytetrafluoroethylene.

    It has excellent chemical stability and corrosion resistance, and is one of the best corrosion resistance materials in the world today. It has tightness, high lubricity and non-stickiness, electrical insulation, good aging resistance, and excellent temperature resistance. (can work for a long time at a temperature of + 250 ° C to -180 ° C) .

    In 1936, after Teflon was artificially developed and synthesized, it was immediately used in World War II to make anti-melt sealing gaskets for weapons such as atomic bombs and artillery shells. It was also used to make the first tank waterproof coating in history.

    And after the war, in the tide of military technology to civilian use.

    The characteristic of Teflon being insoluble in water is favored by businessmen to produce a household-known product-non-stick pan.

    Since the 1950s, non-stick pans made with DuPont’s Teflon technology have become the favorite of thousands of housewives.

    Selling all the way to the world, entering millions of families.

    But when DuPont was making a lot of money, things were changing quietly.

    In the beginning, DuPont, which produces Teflon, found that workers on the production line were often hospitalized because of fever and nausea.

    To find out why, DuPont mixes Teflon into cut tobacco, gives workers cigarettes and smokes for free.

    Without exception, almost everyone went to the hospital.

    People who survive are also tortured by cancer for life.

    According to the survey, it is evident that the average life expectancy of workers on some of DuPont’s production lines does not exceed 50 years.

    Of course, even more devastating are the female workers on the production line. There are no exceptions when pregnant during work.

    More than 30% of the fetuses have deformed (high-energy warning ahead) :

    The boy in the picture, bucky, in order to live like a normal person, his small body underwent more than 30 operations before the age of five.

    What is wrong with a child?

    However, DuPont turned a deaf ear to a huge market with $ 1 billion in annual profits.

    Teflon is poisonous? Although Teflon will decompose harmful substances when heated above 380 degrees Celsius, it is not toxic to human body under normal use.

    Here is the “good friend” of Teflon —— There is an auxiliary agent for producing Teflon, PFOA, ammonium perfluorooctanoate, also called C8.

    Since Teflon has been in production for more than half a century, without supervision, DuPont has discharged production waste containing PFOA into the air, dumped it into rivers, buried it in land, and through non-stick pans, it reaches In every family.

    Because the PFOA in it does not dissolve, it does not degrade.

    They enter the body from various ways, cannot be excreted by metabolism, and continuously accumulate in the body.

    Over time, tragedies have come into being.

    Someone may ask, what about the environmental protection department? This kind of bereavement is left unattended?

    Sir wants to say that the paradox is here. U.S. ringThe Agency has no alternative.

    Because of the establishment of the Environmental Agency in 1976, the list of hazardous substances that law enforcement relies on is provided by DuPont, which was established in 1802.

    In other words, DuPont is both a rule maker and an athlete.

    The PFOA additive for Teflon is an example of a substance that is not on the list. It all depends on DuPont’s self-examination and correction.

    Therefore, the U.S. Environment Agency can only help publicize repeatedly: “Teflon is absolutely safe.”

    So, DuPont was able to legally poison the whole society for decades …

    Time has come to 1998.

    Finally, a man accidentally lifted the cover of this evil. He is the protagonist of “Black Water”, environmental lawyer, Robert Bilot. (Mark · Ruffalo) .

    He spent 17 years perseveringly suing DuPont, forcing DuPont to pay sky-high compensation.

    It has also been described by the New York Times as “a lawyer for the nightmare of the DuPont Group.”

    His hometown is where the DuPont Teflon factory is located, Parkersburg.

    A small town that accepts DuPont’s emissions.

    Here, DuPont arbitrarily piles more than 7,600 tons of production waste and pollutes groundwater.

    From the land under your feet, to the source of drinking water, to the breathing air.

    No one can escape Teflon.

    Here, a large number of livestock are dying, the per capita cancer rate is high, and people ’s livelihoods are languishing.

    But even BiloAttorney Tefir has discovered the problem. For various reasons, from the existing laws, Teflon and carcinogenesis are not positively related.

    Don’t look at DuPont’s bloody GDP.

    But just like the high-pollution factories in China, whether it is workers or local governments, they point at it to eat, and there are many supporters.

    Billot sued DuPont, under great pressure. Attorney Billot himself, previously a defense lawyer for a large chemical group, had a good relationship with DuPont.

    That is to say, he continues to make money. When he sued, he suffered from the enemy.

    Do you want to blow this whistle?

    Yes, “Black Water” is another movie about how ordinary people become heroes-how an ordinary person can stand up to speak for more silent ordinary people in the face of huge crimes.

    Even if you are misunderstood, do you want to be against the interests you have defended for conscience and fairness and justice.

    In Sir’s view, people who shoot at others like this and at themselves are respectable.

    Behind a movie, however, you should do more than just move.

    02

    Do you think the story of “Black Water” is just a tragedy on the other side of the ocean, a place called Parkersburg?

    Unfortunately, no one can stay aside.

    Remember the scariest character in this movie- PFOA .

    The more frightening fact is that when the PFOA research team investigated blood samples from 2005 to 2012, they were surprised to find out:

    Except for the blood stocks of veterans who participated in the Korean War, the United States could hardly find a sample containing no C8 in the body.

    In other words, Teflon has begun to be put into civilian production in large quantities. For half a century of wanton emissions, everyone has been polluted.

    Not only the United States, but also Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan, Korea, and more regions of the world.

    The next thing we care about most is, what about China?

    The domestic version of “Blackwater” is also brewing.

    The movie story happened in 1998 and ended in 2015.

    At the same time that the lawsuit was fermenting, in 2004, the Chinese media that got the news also set off a big discussion on “毒 锅 门” .

    The background at the time was that Teflon technology’s non-stick pans had occupied 90% of the European and American markets.

    Teflon is not sticky since China was introduced in the 1980sSince the pot production line, non-stick pots have also entered millions of families in China.

    In the first three years of the 21st century, some organizations estimate that the annual sales of non-stick pans will reach 400-450 million yuan.

    Teflon technology has become an important selling point for brand advertising.

    On July 11, 2004, the CCTV Economic News column broadcast news that the United States DuPont may have environmental pollution due to the use of PFOA in the production of Teflon.

    Subsequently, due to the non-stick carcinogenic potential of domestic media, the domestic media questioned the domestic companies using this technology, which triggered a big discussion involving the whole people.

    For example, some experts have made it clear that the harm of Teflon is PFOA.

    But the harm of PFOA to the human body was not confirmed at the time, and no expert dared to make a conclusion, which caused consumer panic.

    Looking at the news fever at that time, you can see the popularity of this matter.

    The tipping point of the incident occurred in Beijing’s intern lawyer, Guan Zhenfeng , on the grounds that the relevant instructions were not given on the package and the safety warning, and the domestic non-stick production leader was used for fraud Enterprise Supor sued in court.

    “Supor” means “there must be food on the pot when cooking, and dry cooking is strictly prohibited”, “Aishida” is “the best temperature for this pot is below 290 ° C”, “Good Kitchen Easy” is “non-stick coating” Can withstand temperatures of 260 ° C “,” Chunlin “is” non-stick coating can withstand temperatures of 250 ° C “.

    It’s too messy. The same Teflon non-stick coating, how can the use conditions differ so much? Where is the national temperature limit mandatory standard? As a legal worker, I have the responsibility to discuss with consumers and require non-stick cookware manufacturers to clearly indicate the temperature limit of 250 ° C and to indicate which cooking methods cannot be used.

    —— “China Consumer Network”

    At that time, two important public opinions had formed.

    One, it is related to DuPont, that is, whether Teflon non-stick products have carcinogenic risk, which is the basis of all problems.

    Another is whether domestic enterprise manufacturers should unify standards and mark safety warnings.

    During the domestic boom, DuPont issued an emergency statement saying that the risk of PFOA has not been proven.

    And emphasized that PFOA will continue to be used.

    No doubt gave many domestic distributors a peace of mind.

    The AQSIQ has also urgently dispatched additional staff to investigate the non-stick pan.

    The debate finally ended on October 13.

    AQSIQ determined after testing:

    Through the inspection of 18 brands and 28 varieties of non-stick pan products which account for 90% of the market, no PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts) Residual, the “suspect” of the non-stick pan up to 100 days is conclusive, and it also gives Chinese old hundredA satisfactory answer.

    In the country, the sales of the non-stick pan industry at that time were cut, and products were taken off the shelves. The industry also found its own way:

    For example, Nippon Electric, one of the largest domestic manufacturers of rice cookers at that time, completely removed Teflon products and announced a claim of $ 10 million from DuPont.

    Galance, Midea and others said that Teflon products have been discontinued for a long time.

    Supor continues to sell, but the store has already been sold.

    The word Teflon is extremely secretive in the industry. This domestic storm seemed to be resolved after the official announcement by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

    But is it really solved?

    Today, there are no regulations in China that require temperature to be marked. Even the hazards of Teflon products and PFOA have not been explained or warned.

    At the same time that domestic Teflon products were “returned innocent”.

    In the United States on the other side of the ocean, things are beginning to climax.

    03

    During the domestic turmoil, when DuPont China’s senior executives and technical experts were interviewed by the media, they justified this:

    In the request form of the “Toxic Substances Control Law” of the US Environmental Protection Agency, “ammonium perfluorooctanoate” is not included in the scope of declaration … We believe that “ammonium perfluorooctanoate” is harmless to the human body and is not on this list. There is no need to declare and there is no obligation to do so.

    Maybe Bilot’s lawyer is a nightmare for DuPont.

    But if no such person exists, unlimited profits will be a nightmare for everyone.

    In the Teflon story,We already know that emissions of PFOA are the source of all tragedies in the small American town of Parkersburg.

    The problem is how to prove this requires scientific verification.

    When the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China ended the opinion with a hammer.

    In 2005, an anti-PFOA group in Parkersburg initiated a large-scale investigation and study of PFOA.

    Involves physical health inspections of nearly 70,000 residents to verify the harm caused by PFOA emitted by the DuPont plant.

    After that, I spent seven years doing statistics and analysis.

    Conclusion, it is also a final word: Confirm that six serious diseases are related to exposure to PFOA, including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, preeclampsia, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis .

    Although 3535 people have participated in the survey, they have already contracted this kind of disease, and many more may be harmed.

    This conclusion was reached in 2012. In the movie, Bilot’s lawyer discovered that DuPont should have recognized the dangers of Teflon production in 1962.

    Sin has been hidden for half a century.

    According to the confidential information of 3M’s (supplier of PFOA) , they knew this material earlier than DuPont. Harmful.

    In the experiment.

    Monkeys exposed to PFOA will die. When mice are exposed to the C8 chemical preparation for a long time, the embryos will be abnormal, which is mainly manifested as ocular developmental abnormalities.

    First, PFOA is toxic and can be fatal.

    Second, PFOA can affect heredity and cause teratogenesis in the fetus.

    For this reason, DuPont was reminded not to rinse the C8 with water.

    But DuPont, in the decades that followed, still rushed more than 50,000 pounds of C8 directly into the river, polluting the environment.

    The reason is simply unwilling to bear the high cost of sewage treatment.

    DuPont’s internal memorandum indicates that the company also discovered the hazards as late as 1979.

    In 1993, the company had the idea to replace PFOA with another that is less toxic and less harmful.Compound.

    However, it was stopped because PFOA was already a $ 1 billion business.

    At this time, Teflon was not only applied to non-stick pans, but also widely used in airplanes, automobiles, outdoor clothing, umbrellas, food packaging bags, contact lenses, etc., becoming a pollution disaster that spread across the world.

    Because PFOA is not metabolizable, those that enter the body will always remain.

    It can’t be reversed in the past. Can we rewrite the future? At the time the lawsuit was fermenting, the countries concerned had already begun to take measures.

    In 2004, Australia ceased the production and import of PFOA-containing polymer products and severely restricted its use in irreplaceable areas.

    In 2005, Canada also proposed a ban on the import of polymers that produce such compounds to avoid harmful pollution.

    In 2006, the European Union passed the Directive on Restricting the Sales and Use of Perfluorooctane Sulfate Compounds and officially announced strict restrictions on PFOA products.

    The final decision of a third-party scientific investigation gave DuPont a case.

    Under great pressure, DuPont first paid $ 13.5 million to settle with the US Environmental Protection Agency, then paid $ 33 million in a 70,000 research investigation, and then paid $ 670 million in compensation in 3535 lawsuits.

    At the request of the Environmental Protection Agency, we promised to completely ban PFOA by 2015 and reduce the company’s PFOA emissions.

    PFOA pollution control is now a global issue.

    The Human Cancer RiskThe Special Report divides PFOA / PFO into 2B class (Suspected human carcinogen)

    But the situation is still not optimistic.

    As of now, China has not introduced any restrictions or bans on PFOA.

    With the end of the “Poison Pot Door” in 2004, the problems of Teflon and PFOA have gradually disappeared from the public eye.

    In the face of forgetful people, some businesses continue to sell.

    Non-stick pans using Teflon technology are still in use. Today, there are still many small factories selling Teflon technology as a selling point on e-commerce platforms.

    Although there are reports that new alternative technologies have been adopted in China, PFOA production will not be used after 2012.

    But also in 2012, news was also revealed, Hazardous substances such as perfluorinated compounds were found in some sportswear brands and were not marked as harmful. Among them are the jackets of brands such as Adi, Nike and Li Ning.

    In the same period, the limitation on the use of Teflon products in the national standards on the use of utensils is that the temperature is not higher than 250 ° C, and it is not required to force the labeling to be harmful.

    In fact, in Chinese cooking habits, scenes above 250 ° C abound.

    The purpose of the Guan Zhenfeng lawsuit is to make more people pay attention to the problem of Teflon.

    Sixteen years have passed without change.

    In the domestic cookware production market, In the use of non-stick cookers and rice cooker liners, it is still unclear whether Teflon or PFOA is used.

    There are more textiles, daily necessities, and industrial products such as automobiles and aircraft.

    In other words, because of the lag in legislation, PFOA has begun to invade the daily lives of Chinese people before the domestic public has paid much attention.

    We do n’t know if these Teflon factories are still using PFOA as an additive.

    It is also impossible to know how much PFOA is secretly emitted each year.

    According to the survey by China Environmental News, from 2004 to 2012 alone, China’s cumulative production and consumption of nearly 500 tons of PFOA / PFO exceeded the total emissions of developed countries such as Europe and the United States.

    China, as the world’s first industrial country, should be the country that needs legislation to curb PFOA pollution as soon as possible.

    However, the most we have seen in these years is only appeals, but no action.

    As early as 2008, the State Environmental Protection Administration listed PFOA products on the high pollution list;

    In 2011, the NDRC also started to encourage enterprises to produce PFOA alternatives.

    The voices of professionals calling on the government to include PFOA in supervision and bans have also appeared in the media from time to time.

    Until September 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment finally began to openly solicit production, use, and replacement of six types of organic pollutants including PFOA.

    We still do n’t know when it will be legislated.

    Sir often hears such a complaint that no matter how good the movie is, it is not impossible to change the country.

    But Sir wants to say that if a movie can’t change the country, it’s not the fault of the movie, but your fault.

    Looking at the release of “Philadelphia Story”, it has promoted anti-AIDS discrimination and anti-gay discrimination in the United States.

    After the release of Rosetta, Belgium has promoted the adoption of the Rosetta Act to protect the rights of young workers.

    Since the release of “The Furnace”, the Korean people were angry and quickly gathered tens of thousands of signatures on the Internet to request a re-investigation of sexual violence. This was forced by public opinion. On the 37th day after the movie was released, the South Korean Parliament passed 207 votes With one abstention, the “Special Law Amending the Special Act on Penalties for Sexual Violence Crimes” was passed, also known as the “Furnace Law”.

    The movie tells the hidden facts, and it has done everything it should, and the rest must be done by ourselves.

    You can never expect that after a movie is released, everything will be resolved automatically.

    Can Blackwater become a country-changing movie?

    Don’t ask Blackwater. Please open your eyes to see, please do your best to change.

    In the movie, lawyer Bilot said angrily:

    Reality is still being verified, this is not alarmist.

    The tragedy created by DuPont for half a century should not be repeated again. Full attention is paid to the issue of PFOA pollution, and it can be recovered when it can still be recovered.

    Don’t say everything is too far away from us.

    If what a movie can do is to let the public know what dangers it is in.

    If an ordinary person who is not a hero can do anything, it is to let as many people know as possible.

    This article comes from WeChat public account: Sir movie (ID: dushetv) , author: poisonSir