“Corporations are people - specifically sociopaths” is the take our society needs

I test for PFAS in a commercial lab, and every time I tell someone what I do for a living they have never heard of PFAS. Thank you for bringing it the attention it needs!

The Radium girls would like you to remember that companies will always choose profits over their employees and the rest of us. Always

They put weed smokers in jail but not these dupont suits...

“Who can say? Apparently not me, legally…” I DIED OMG

In the 80s scientists were saying statements like, "we don't really know what causes cancer" Today scientists say, "Yeah, we know what causes cancer, but companies like Dupont and other juggernaut conglomerates own the legislators so we can't do anything about it." 🤔🤔

I really wish all the Qanon and anti-vax conspiracy theorists would for a change latch onto actual issues like this

I love how in this country, you legally can’t state that a company is clearly subverting the law because our government is that enslaved to corporate interests

Here’s an idea: every December 31st John Oliver needs to revisit all of his call to actions and update us on whether or not anyone did anything Edit: or better yet, right before state elections lol

Me looking at all of our scraped non-stick pans : **chuckles** I'm in danger

Dupont was basically that one nightmare child in chemistry class. They were given specific safety instructions to avoid hazardous situations, they ignored all of it, put the chemicals in the water, and made everyone drink it.

Everyone can say a big thank you Robert Billot! This man put his career on the line multiple times, and to this day is still fighting these bastards in court to get them to pay out the settlement

3M- "Do not dispose off chemicals in surface water." DuPont- "I am gonna dispose chemicals in surface water even harder"

I thought my wife was being overly concerned when she insisted we get stainless steel pans instead of anything nonstick. When I complained that I didn’t have a good pan for omelettes she got me a ceramic coated one. Thank you, John, for reminding me that my wife is smart and awesome.

This is unusually reminiscent of what happened with lead and asbestos and yet somehow even more frightening

Please do not ever retire. This is the most frightening of all the frightening problems we face.

This show is just my weekly reminder to never be relaxed ever

Currently in a class action lawsuit bc the drinking water in my community (where I've lived for 29 years) was contaminated with PFAS from the Air Force using experimental fire fighting foam that seeped into the ground water. I was only able to switch to bottled water about 6 years ago. Getting my blood tested next week, I'm nervous to find out exactly how bad it is.

Oh John. Every time I doom scroll and get bummed about the state of the world you're always there for me, softly whispering "hold my beer."

Just watch Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, it’s the true story movie about a lawyer fought DuPont about this forever chemical and how corrupted American capitalism in reality, highly recommended movie.

big shoutout to DuPont for poisoning us forever

I love how silent the crowd is in this segment. Everyone is scared cause we’re all affected.

i am a PhD student working on PFAS. Glad to see mainstream media talking about it. and Moreover let me tell you there are many other harmful waste that our eyes cant see dumped in the surface waters without regulation even in developed nations and god save the third world countries.

As a former USAF Firefighter, we were told in the early 80's to not allow AFFF to reach storm drains or run off onto grass or dirt. I used AFFF for over 4 years while serving. Sometimes we become covered in the stuff while training on pit fires or while refilling AFFF into our trucks. I have been completely soaked in AFFF and we were never told it was bad for us, just the environment. Thanks for reporting on this story. Firefighters from all over are trying to get more information on our exposure and who will be responsible for our failing health due to AFFF. Thanks again John.

Finding out that almost everyone has PFAS in their blood has an eerily similar feeling to the characters in the walking dead finding out they’re all infected.

The day after I watched "Dark Waters" with Mark Ruffalo I gave away all my Teflon stuff and urged my parents to do the same, changed my tooth floss (cause that shit's also on there!!) and blessed my non-carpet floors. Honestly, no film has ever made me change something in my life that immediately, I lost sleep on that shit for weeks

Thanks for this John Oliver but I would like to add that much of the clothing worn by firefighters contain PFAS and AFFF firefighting foam was not just used by the army. Many fire departments throughout the country used it as well. Cancer in firefighters was linked to PFAS by a University of Notre Dame study.

How much evidence do we need to prove, time and again, that corporations WILL NOT adequately regulate themselves for the protection of the general public?

"As long as pan aren't over heated or scraped"... Yeah that's ever teflon pan I've ever seen

“Gore-Tex is toxic, and you are already poisoned” is not the hot take I was expecting in my lifetime, or the tens of consecutive lifetimes it takes for PFAS to go away.

Amity High School in Woodbridge, CT has elevated PFAS in the runoff from new artificial turf field installed this summer. The vendor, Field Turf Inc., claimed no PFAS in the manufacturing process. Clearly they lied. There is also elevated levels of selenium due to the tons of tires that have been turned into 1 mm beads as underlayment for the turf. These beads are washing off the field and getting tracking into the environment by the bucket load. The town Planning and Zoning Board initially avoided the issue by permitting the field to go in if the vendor promised no PFAS or PFOS chemicals. When presented with this evidence of PFAS post-installation, they are doing nothing. The Amity School Board, the Woodbridge Board of Selectmen, the Regional Water Authority, and the Inland Wetlands Commission all are doing nothing just as they did nothing to prevent this toxic mess from getting installed in the first place. This, despite the fact that most people in town get the water from wells. How is it that people can be so irresponsible? They all suck so much I can’t stand it.

"Apparently not me, legally" had me laughing for minutes.

For something that doesn't stick it sure as hell follows you forever

I love you John Oliver. I do. But I hate that I always (almost), when I watch you pointing at some serious issues, I feel guilty for not knowing/caring enough about it... I do really thank you for caring. For all of us.

Remember when you used to get your livingroom carpet, your couch and lazyboy Scotchgarded so they didn't get stained by food or drink? You could even buy it by the spray can and apply it yourself. The compound perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), a PFOS precursor, was an ingredient and, also has been described as the "key ingredient" of Scotchgard.

Danny DeVito saying "I put something in your child" and laughing maniacally is so villainous I love it

Danny Devito parodying “DuPont Magic” at the end was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

My boyfriend’s father lives within the Wolverine contamination zone, and he gets his water from a well source. He was recently (within the past two years) diagnosed with colon cancer, but thankfully it was caught early on and so far all cancerous legions seem to be gone for good. I suspect that my boyfriend will need to be extra careful in monitoring himself for certain cancers, since he spend the first 20 years of his life growing up on well water from the contamination zone.

Petition to add "We've heard this before, yet here we fucking are" to the growing list of proposed titles for this show.

the beutifully nonchalant way that man said "devil's piss" in congress is admirable

The saddest thing about this video is that poor child. The obscene levels of PFAS in his blood will never decrease. He's stuck with that poison inside him for the rest of his life. What an absolute tragedy.

"I put something in your child", I love Danny Devito.

A lot of the lines in this episode are absolute gold but “that incel Santa” is clearly underrated

I love Danny Devito so much. This was a genius casting decision.

"I drink tequila straight, but I won't drink tap water..." DAAAAAAAAAMN!

In case anyone is like me and needs to sometimes use "nonstick" pans (I do recommend porcelain-coated pans as an alternative personally) if only because you literally don't have the physical endurance for that amount of scrubbing every time you cook: When you use a non-stick pan, make sure to only use it at relatively low heat settings/burner settings, do not heat it up without first adding your oil/spray/margarine/whatever, and never put it in the oven, or in the dishwasher. Do not use a metal spatula, metal fork, or metal whisk on it, because this can scratch the coating, which makes it more likely for PFAS to leech into your food. Instead, get a silicon spatula (you can find them a lot of places, even Wal-Mart, sometimes the supermarket, for relatively cheap) and maybe some other silicon cooking utensils, and use them with any nonstick/PFA-coated pans instead. Do not scrub the pan with steel wool or anything more abrasive than the rougher side of a dish sponge (I've heard "never use any abrasive surface [at all]," but I think the abrasive side of a sponge is usually okay; I haven't noticed it wearing the coating down or cracking it. YMMV). Remember even though the pan is non-stick, you should still spray or coat it with some type of cooking oil, and doing this also cuts down on the amount of scrubbing you have to do. *As soon as you begin to see streaking or cracks in the cooking surface of your nonstick/PFA-coated pan, stop using it and throw it out/recycle it.* Again, cracks in the coating make it more likely for PFAS to get into the food you're cooking. This is an institutional problem with institutional solutions, but not everyone knows these safety tips about cooking with nonstick-coated pans, so in the meantime, here's how to minimize the risk from this particular PFAS source. If you can use cast-iron, porcelain-coated, or aluminum pans instead of "nonstick" pans, that's obviously safer and the preferable option, but if you can't, this is what you can do.

I love living in the European Union. Our representatives have already banned PFAS and are considering further actions.

When John brought up Hell's Seltzer I realized that "Very real" and "and this is true" are like our Last Week Tonight safe words.

“That thing you like is bad with Saddy Longlegs” Favorite line of the season thus far.

You, Sir, and your team, are changing the world! It's 2024 right now, and I know where my PFAS are. I also know what the EPA is starting to do about them as an entire class, and that they are requiring all municipal water supplies to remove PFAS from the water they pass on. You've all educated the public about this whole thing and effected change on a massive, nation-wide scale, and you should be commended for this! You all deserve a Nobel Prize and a Congressional Medal for this, and if you personally were still British, I would think you should be Knighted for it. You've all saved millions of lives with this one video and all your hard work on this one project. Thank you for alerting everyone to this!

I liked this video simply because I'm a middle child, and my parents lost me in a supermarket once. They finally found me when they came out of the mall, crossed the street to where their bike was, and found me there sleeping standing with my head on the seat. How did i find my way there? Yes.

As always equally; entertained, informed and horrified of the world we live in. Thanks

I'm so glad Danny Devito was able to reprise his role as The Penguin.

Another great thing to mention is that here in Germany we had multiple instances where the groundwater was contaminated by PFAS near US Army bases because their Firefighters still use foam that includes PFAS…

"I put PFAS in a bicycle chain. Why?! Because I suffer from chronic insomnia! (I probably got it from PFAS)." Litteraly almost choked with laughter at that. 😅

Danny clearly channeled his Penguin role from Batman Returns as the DuPont scientist and it was fucking gold.

Interesting that I work in insurance and today I got a carrier email saying they are adding this as an exclusion to pollution policies....meaning no coverage for any loss attributed to this chemical. They are getting ready to avoid lawsuits. I wanted to mention also: PLEASE do NOT use Teflon coated cookware if you have birds. The overheated Teflon fumes are deadly to birds.

“IF the pans aren’t overheated or scraped.” But…that’s COOKING! That’s how you COOK on Teflon! I feel like I’m losing my mind…

Danny Devito is a living legend. Absolutely killed that!

Ive studied chemistry for 6 years now and this is how I learn that another named for hydrofluoric acid is “Devil’s piss” ? 😂

FINALLY, coming from an environmental geoscience background, hearing someone talk about PFAS is amazing. Just don't forget that companies replaced them with chemicals with similar properties for the same uses, and cursory evidence shows they likely have the same effects on the body, possibly in even lower concentrations. (PFAS is considered toxic at anything >1ppt. That's about on par with a raindrop compared to around 24 Olympic sized swimming pools.)

i test for PFAS in a commercial lab and every time I tell someone what I do for a living they have never heard of PFAS. Thank you for bringing it the attention it needs!

Drinking bottled water isn't a solution - there is no regulation the makes sure bottle water is any cleaner than tap water. In fact it IS tap water + a ton pf plastic.

The guy who said "I'll drink Tequila straight but I wont drink tap water." actually got me to laugh out loud.

This is my research, I’m so glad it’s getting attention!

As a sufferer and near-casualty of ulcerative colitis, anything that gives it to you is serious business and not a little bit evil.

Damn Canada for always bringing these shows to me late. Still, glad to have what I can get of this show.

Everyone forgets we already had non-stick pans before Teflon: pans made of cast iron. Don't knock em till you've tried them. And don't tell me they are too expensive; a single good cast iron pan can literally last you a lifetime. When my grandparents passed away, I inherited their cast ironware. Use them everyday. Want to know the real reason why we don't use cast iron anymore? Because manufacturers figured out they could sell you an inferior product that you would have to replace every few years. Screw them. I will never have to buy a pan again.

For about 2 years I cleaned carpets for the biggest carpet cleaning company in Milwaukee. I often sprayed carpets and furniture with a product called Scotch Guard. It's made of you guessed it, Teflon. This might explain recent health issues.

I learned about PFAs 10 years ago and got rid of all my pots and pans and slowly phased out my plastics.

I love and respect each and every episode. The amount of writing, effort, research, production, etc that goes into each episode is a very impressive (and yet rewarding) task. I salute you John Oliver and also special thanks to Danny Devito for this one! He was epic!

"Dark Waters" from 2019 is a film with Mark Ruffalo based on one lawyer's fight against Dupont over PFAS. What a coincidence... I just watched that last month. Highly recommend it.

"...apparently not me, legally." I won't be surprised if a year or two from now, there is another musical number on a lawsuit.

This world is such a cold and cruel place. To think governments don’t rule out any harmful materials when manufacturing anything humans use/consume is just crazy!! Stay safe people, be vigilant and GOD bless you all.

Every time I see the thumbnail for this video, I think it says "Peas" and I can just imagine John very seriously discussing peas from his uniquely British-American perspective. "Chick peas aren't even peas, but mushy peas can get it"

2:13 Any educator who uses the term "Devil's piss" is someone I would be proud to have as a teacher for myself and my kids.

The movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is a beautiful movie about this exact subject from the perspective of the main lawyer fighting Dupont and Teflon.

This episode is one of the best. Entertaining, yet informing us about something important that not many people know about. Wonder how much this reduces life expectancy by, worldwide and in the US.

Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see this - my local government is planning to dump soil contaminated with this stuff right next to my town and water tributaries. Thanks for this Oliver!

the bright side about this all is that Danny Devito is still a national treasure

I originally picked government surveillance for my advanced comp problem/solution essay, but I changed it to PFAS after I saw this. I knew nothing about these before watching this video. Gave my seminar in large group a couple weeks ago and killed it. Thanks John, you’re doing a public service. Also thanks DuPont, for fucking all of us up.

Literally watching this while wearing my lululemon jacket and eating a Starbucks breakfast sandwich.

“You cant kill this beast, you can only control it” sounds like something I would see on tshirts at the gym

I glad John is back with terrifying me about every innocuous thing in my life.

"...liberate her from the back-breaking labor of scraping muffin trays." 🤣

PFAS in the tap water, micro plastics in the bottled water. Unless you can learn to live without water, there's no avoiding pollution. It's all unsafe to drink.

That whole Danny DeVito ad is one of the most delightfully ominous and surreal pieces of editing I've seen in a while, and the fact that it's from a mainstream show is absolutely hilarious.

danny devito is pure magic in this skit. mr devito is a living legend, absolutely love his performances.

There was a DuPont plant in my hometown in the mid twentieth century and their chemical dumping site was right next to a creek that flows right into the Hudson River. They also later sold the property to the school district in what can only be an attempt at trying to make a sequel to Love Canal.

I can only watch one episode @ a time. But I look forward to EVERY F**K’N ONE! Thank you John Oliver(& staff).

I love that he got the Penguin who's actual plot point was poisoning water.

"I drink tequila straight, but I won't drink the tap water."

Check out the Huron River in SE Michigan. My family used to live 1/2 or so from the river. In 2019, everyone on our street got sick with cancers and autoimmune disorders. Our pets, regardless of species were dying left and right with huge stomach tumors. Late in the summer, environmental engineering students from University of Michigan traced the source back to a company named Tribar Manufacturing in Wixom, MI. In the reservoir near our house, the MI DEQ measured 54,000 PPT PFAS in open water samples. Literally nothing happened to Tribar Manufacturing. They never stopped dumping PFAS. Thinking they were invincible, they dumped thousands of gallons of hexavalent chrome into the river this summer (2022). They might actually get in trouble this time. Glad my family moved TF out of the area and state. If more locals knew what PFAS and hexavalent chrome were and what they do to living things, the community probably would have burned the company down. Also, granulated carbon filters help, but do not remove all PFAS. All drinking water in a PFAS polluted area should go through a reverse osmosis system. I had a monster 10 stage system in my house to help us out while we made preparations to move.

Oh man that ending skit is perfect! The delivery is the bippity boppity magic!

I remember being told as a child quite a while ago to be careful with Teflon pans for they contain toxic material if the surface get scratched.

I've known about this for years, many people have known about this. I remember in 2009 grocery stores were selling pink Teflon pans to support breast cancer research. It is sickening. Thanks John O!

I actually use a cast iron pan a great deal specifically because I despise non-stick coatings, they have all been bad with the exception of porcelain I think, which seems like a good coating, but hard to find in NA. The key to using these is just using more oil/butter, just bite the bullet and do it, and you will have tastier food that has less terrifying chemicals in it that are ruining the world. Also, those coatings peel, so you know you're eating that shit, and you have to replace them constantly. A good cast iron pan can be passed down. That last line from DeVito should maybe be 'It's not often you get paid billions upon billions to put toxic things into the world', because companies aren't just 'allowed' to pollute, they are massively, disproportionately rewarded for doing it. They get a bigger paycheck likely if the company dumps more stuff and gets away with it, that's how this goes. Why do we reward sociopaths for harming us as a society, are we fucking stupid or something? I mean obviously yes, but I mean even dumber than we suspect?

I grew up in a pfas pfoa contaminated area in NSW Australia the defence force poisoned the land with pfas fire retardant and my street has has a significantly higher amount of cancer and rare cancers. It sux thank you John for bringing more attention too this

"Who can say? Apparently not me, legally." this is the shit why I still get back here from time to time

3M is under fire for this in Belgium at the moment. It has had a lot of side fallout so far and will probably have more to come.