The Poison Detectives

A firefighter’s wife and a corporate lawyer in different parts of the U.S. get pulled into solving separate mysteries. Something was making cows die and deer haemorrhage to death in West Virginia. That same something could also be giving firefighters cancer – all over the country. When the lawyer and the firefighter’s wife met, they found out they were working on the same mystery. The mystery was caused by a man-made chemical that environmental regulators should have known about but didn’t. A chemical that is said to be so toxic it is unclear if any contact with it is safe. The chemical was created by a corporate giant, and then another corporate giant began using it to provide the world with so-called revolutionary products. Products, it turns out, come with a very steep price. This is a fascinating story of two people unravelling a ball of yarn that would reveal the poisoning of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It begins with an unlikely detective. Diane Cotter wasn’t a researcher, a scientist, a journalist or a sleuth. But she became all of that after her firefighting husband got cancer. Then, dozens of his firefighting colleagues also got cancer. Diane suspected it was more than just occupational risk that caused these cancers. She set out to answer questions of how and why and found herself pulled into a rabbit hole where the world appeared upside down. She discovered that the protective suits firefighters wear are contaminated with chemicals – called PFAS – that can kill. She found a scientist to test the gear for the chemicals and the results are shocking. But it wasn’t enough to convince the union and the agency that approves the equipment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It begins with a memorial ceremony in Colorado for fallen firefighters. It used to be that firefighters died in fires or from inhaling toxic smoke. Today the majority die from cancer.We meet a firefighter from Newfoundland who attended the ceremony. We meet a union rep whose job is to reduce or eliminate the new risks, and a former union rep who points out how the top union brass failed firefighters by believing manufacturers that the turnout gear was safe.Meanwhile Diane Cotter is gathering turnout gear and raising money for a formal study. And 1300 km away a lawyer is grappling with questions about toxic chemicals in water that is killing a rancher’s cattle.  Federal and provincial regulators aren’t interested in investigating the problem so the lawyer sues Dupont. He suspects chemicals from the plant are to blame and suing is the only way to get the internal documents to prove it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lawyer Rob Bilott completes the promise he made to his grandmother and has to decide if he will go back to corporate law or continue to fight the multinational company, Dupont. He tries to get the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take over the fight but gets nowhere.And a high-level U.S. government scientist explains how regulation really works.Still, Bilott manages to get Dupont to pay for a study of 70,000 people who drank water poisoned by the company’s waste.Meanwhile, Diane Cotter and Graham Peaslee cobble together the money for a study on PFAS chemicals in firefighters’ turnout gear. A robust study is needed to get the results published. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We learn about the contamination of military bases in the U.S. and Canada from PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam. And how the foam residue has poisoned drinking water sources in both countries. We hear about one community in Quebec that was faced with a big problem finding a new source of drinking water.And a group of firefighters who decided to create a safe alternative to the foam. But because it is a gel instead of a foam, they ran into roadblocks getting it certified for firefighters to use.The issue was a big one for a congressional committee looking into PFAS. It called the military, the Environmental Protection Agency and the companies making the PFAS chemicals to testify and explain their actions. The members of Congress were looking for clear answers and weren’t happy when they didn’t get them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, everyone has given up on the regulators, who move slowly if at all. Lawsuits are filed by Diane Cotter’s husband Paul and his colleagues. The union, the International Association of Fire Fighters, sues the National Fire Protection Association, which sets the safety standards for firefighting equipment. And lawyer Rob Bilott files a class action suit, which includes every person in the U.S., and requires the chemical companies to pay for blood tests of all 325 million Americans. Will the chemical companies let him get away with it? And we learn about Diane Cotter’s hardest days. After years of abuse on social media, email attacks and shunning, she felt she couldn’t go on. But something pulled her back from the edge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pesticides for Dinner reveals how trust in Canada's food system is damaged by a regulatory system that works too closely with the industry and often fails to act when science uncovers the health dangers of approved pesticides. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Industry capture can happen when a regulator has too few resources and relies on industry analysis of studies on a product up for review. It can happen when the culture of the government agency is to support industry and ensure speedy approvals. It can happen because Industry has paid lobbyists who spend a lot of time calling and meeting with regulators to push their products.    Most often it takes a court case or an investigative journalist to find the evidence for the interference. Day to day, people can only wonder when a regulator makes a decision that is questionable and detrimental to people and wildlife.   Episode seven is a case study in how a Canadian scientist had her work dismissed and discredited by a collaboration between the regulator and the industry wanting to prevent its product from being banned. This is episode seven, The Birds and the Bees.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For more than thirty years, scientists, regulators, and one of the world’s most powerful chemical companies have been locked in a battle over the active ingredient in Roundup -- a chemical called glyphosate.A battle fought over the soil itself -- and over what we believe keeps us safe.Episode eight tells that story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does the ordinary person do to protect themselves when regulators fail?How can you know what is safe to eat – or safe to eat just a little – or safe to eat if you wash it? There are groups trying to fill in the gaps left by poor regulation. The Environmental Working Group in Washington publishes a list of the Dirty Dozen – fruits and vegetables most contaminated with pesticides. But they also publish a list of the Clean 15. And both lists are updated if things change and a dirty one becomes clean.And then there is the book, Slow Death by Rubber Duck. When it was published in 2009 it wasn’t just the quirky title that made it a best seller around the world. The book revealed how daily life is bathing us in toxins that accumulate in our tissues, are passed on to our children and damage our health. That was a wakeup call to people all over the world.In this episode Bruce Lourie and Rick Smith explain why they decided the best way to demonstrate how chemicals get into our bodies was to experiment on themselves and document it in a book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.