Rob Bilott on PFAS, Dark Waters and Fighting Forever Chemicals
WHO IS ROB BILOTT
Rob Bilott is an environmental attorney at Taft, Stettinius and Hollister in Cincinnati, Ohio. He spent nearly 26 years taking on DuPont after discovering they had been deliberately concealing evidence that PFAS chemicals were contaminating local water supplies and causing serious illness in surrounding communities. His work resulted in over one billion dollars in compensation for people affected by PFAS contamination, and directly contributed to the EPA's first federal drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals, adopted in 2024. His book Exposure recounts the full story of that legal battle, and the 2019 film Dark Waters, starring Mark Ruffalo, was based on his work. The New York Times described him as DuPont's worst nightmare. He is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.
This interview was recorded live at the AHMP EHS Hazmat Summit in Louisville, Kentucky, in September 2025, shortly after Bilott delivered the keynote address. It covers the arc of his 26 year legal battle, where PFAS regulation currently stands, and why consumer demand is now one of the most powerful forces pushing companies to remove these chemicals from their products.
Watch on YouTube
Environmental Transformation Podcast with Rob Bilott
Recorded live at the AHMP Hazmat Summit, September 2025
What This Interview Covers
Bilott opens by describing what it was like to spend years in courtrooms trying to convince regulators and judges that PFAS contamination was a genuine public health crisis, at a time when the chemicals were entirely unregulated. He describes digging through documents for years before realising the contamination was not just affecting one farmer and his family in West Virginia, but was potentially spreading across entire communities, and ultimately the entire country and the world.
He explains the regulatory process that eventually led to the EPA's 2024 drinking water standards for six PFAS chemicals including PFOA and PFOS, and why even those standards have faced legal challenges from manufacturers. He is frank about the economic reality: PFAS chemicals are so deeply embedded in the global economy that removing them will cost money, but argues that society is now both willing and increasingly legally required to bear that cost.
A particularly important section covers consumer power. Bilott notes directly from the interview that consumers have started to become aware through films and other outreach efforts, and are actively telling major retailers they do not want these chemicals in the products they buy. He describes seeing the impact of that directly, with major fast food companies, packaging manufacturers, clothing makers and carpet companies voluntarily committing to remove PFAS from their products ahead of any legal requirement to do so.
He closes with cautious optimism, noting that while regulatory rollbacks are a real concern, the public health case for addressing PFAS has now been established across multiple administrations, and that the science is sufficiently robust that he believes the momentum will continue.
"These are chemicals that we know enough about now to actually do something."
Rob Bilott, Environmental Transformation Podcast, September 2025
Why This Matters for Purify The World
Where Dr Swan gives us the science of what PFAS do to the human body, and Jeremy Grantham gives us the civilisational picture of why this matters at a global level, Rob Bilott gives us the documented evidence that major chemical corporations knew about these risks, suppressed that knowledge, and that it took one lawyer nearly three decades to force accountability.
His point about consumer demand is directly relevant to everything Purify The World exists to do. The choices people make every day, including what they buy and what they refuse to buy, are already forcing real movement from some of the largest companies in the world. Individual choices compound into collective pressure. That is the mechanism this site is built around.
Related reading: Home and Living covers PFAS in non-stick cookware, water filtration and food packaging. Start Here introduces the broader picture of forever chemicals and their presence in UK water supplies. Beauty and Skincare covers PFAS in cosmetics and personal care products.
Video source: Environmental Transformation Podcast with Sean Grady, featuring Rob Bilott. Recorded September 2025 at the AHMP EHS Hazmat Summit, Louisville, Kentucky. All rights to the original interview content belong to the original creators. Linked here for educational reference with original commentary provided by Purify The World.