Review of Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-year Battle Against DuPont by Robert Bilott rating *****
I’m a confessed tree hugger. I read a lot of books and watch a lot of documentaries about pollution, the environment, and the corporations behind so much of the damage. Exposure is the story of how one man, Robert Bilott, uncovered perhaps one of the largest chemical contamination scandals in history. This chemical wasn’t just harming one community or one state — it has touched every living thing on the planet.
Before you accuse me of exaggerating, consider this: this chemical is in your blood. It’s in the blood of everyone around you. Your friends. Their friends. Everyone. I’m talking about PFOA and PFOS, two members of the PFAS family of “forever chemicals.”
What is PFOA? It’s a compound once used in hundreds of products requiring water‑ or stain‑resistance: clothing, carpeting, cosmetics, food packaging, and especially nonstick cookware. 3M first manufactured it. DuPont used it to make Teflon. When 3M decided in 2000 to stop producing PFAS chemicals due to mounting evidence of environmental and health risks, DuPont simply began making the chemical themselves — despite knowing exactly how dangerous it was.
We will be living with the consequences of these decisions for generations. PFAS chemicals are Persistent Organic Pollutants — they do not biodegrade. Every product ever made with them now sits in landfills around the world, leaching into soil, groundwater, and air. If you live in a home with stain‑resistant carpeting or waterproof flooring, there’s a good chance you’re still breathing in trace amounts every day.
How did this happen? Why didn’t someone stop it sooner? For all of President Nixon’s faults, he did help create the EPA, and the agency has accomplished a great deal. But like all regulatory bodies, it is vulnerable to political pressure. And politics has played a major role in the PFAS disaster.
During President Trump’s first term, he appointed Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, as EPA Administrator. Wheeler championed deregulation and resisted strict PFAS limits, delaying meaningful action even as evidence of harm continued to mount.
None of this would have come to light had Robert Bilott not agreed to help a West Virginia farmer whose cattle — and the local wildlife — were dying after drinking water downstream from a DuPont waste site. That farmer, Wilbur Tennant, is the reason this entire saga began.
The book contains plenty of legal detail and epidemiology, but it’s all necessary to understand both the science and the staggering misconduct of DuPont. Tennant’s story alone could have filled a book, but the scope keeps expanding — from one farm to 70,000 residents of Parkersburg, West Virginia, to communities near other DuPont and 3M facilities. And at every step, DuPont fought to limit its liability.
And while I hate to keep bringing politics into the discussion. The Trump administration is actively trying to roll back or delay PFAS limits in drinking water.
Exposure is not just a legal thriller or an environmental exposé. It’s a reminder of how easily corporations can hide the truth, how slowly regulators sometimes act, and how much difference one determined person can make.