[00:00:01.08]
[lively music]

[00:00:10.04]
[insects chirping]

[00:00:19.09]
[lively music]

[00:00:21.07]
- [Judith] I liked the
house better like this.

[00:00:24.00]
When it was red, and made of wood.

[00:00:27.02]
- What I would like you to
do is to go around the house

[00:00:29.04]
with your video camera and take pictures

[00:00:33.00]
of the farkrokhn house, the red wood,

[00:00:38.04]
and then you'll realize
that it has to be redone.

[00:00:42.08]
- [Judith] Yeah, mom,
what does farkrokhn mean?

[00:00:45.08]
- Rotten.

[00:00:47.02]
- See that.

[00:00:48.03]
What is it?

[00:00:49.02]
Rotten wood, and it's damp.

[00:00:51.03]
It didn't even rain today.

[00:00:53.00]
- [Florence] Come close.

[00:00:54.09]
Do you see how soft it is?

[00:00:57.04]
- Squeeze the wood.

[00:00:58.09]
Press the wood, nevermind the video.

[00:01:03.09]
- But vinyl, it's not
even a natural fiber.

[00:01:07.01]
- [Ted] It looks so much like wood.

[00:01:09.03]
- What, does it have like little

[00:01:10.02]
- Yes.
- wood things?

[00:01:11.02]
- Oh, you got fake
little wood things on it.

[00:01:14.04]
You got like, what do you call that, dad?

[00:01:16.04]
- It's embossed.
- Embossed.

[00:01:18.01]
- You embossed it with fake wood print.

[00:01:20.06]
- Think of it as an outer coat.

[00:01:23.07]
It's threadbare, it's worn.

[00:01:25.07]
It needs replacement.

[00:01:28.09]
- I can understand your attachment to,

[00:01:32.00]
you know, your childhood
and where you grew up,

[00:01:35.02]
but lots of things happen in
life, and changes are made,

[00:01:39.07]
and we have to be able to roll with it.

[00:01:43.08]
I think you're reacting to this

[00:01:45.03]
like it's a loss in your life.

[00:01:47.06]
You're gonna lose a lot
of other precious things

[00:01:49.06]
in your life as time goes on.

[00:01:53.04]
And you already have, you've
had one terrible loss.

[00:01:56.07]
So I just feel you're
overreacting a little bit.

[00:02:04.03]
- [Judith] The loss my
mother was referring to

[00:02:06.06]
was the radical hysterectomy
I had when I was 25.

[00:02:11.02]
Back when she was pregnant with me,

[00:02:13.02]
my mother was given a drug
called DES, a synthetic estrogen

[00:02:17.09]
that was supposed to prevent miscarriage.

[00:02:21.05]
Turned out the pharmaceutical
industry knew all along

[00:02:24.04]
that it didn't.

[00:02:26.01]
What it did do was give me a
rare form of cervical cancer.

[00:02:33.08]
Up to that point, the dangers
of toxic chemical exposure

[00:02:37.03]
hadn't really worried me.

[00:02:40.07]
But then, I started
questioning everything.

[00:02:43.04]
[planks banging]

[00:02:44.08]
- They're not keeping the shutters?

[00:02:46.09]
- [Judith] I don't know
about the shutters.

[00:02:50.01]
Don't, you know.

[00:02:52.02]
Are they made of wood?

[00:02:53.08]
- No, these are vinyl.
- They're vinyl?

[00:02:55.07]
Oh, they'll probably keep them.

[00:02:57.03]
- You think they'll keep them?
- Oh, sure, yeah.

[00:02:59.07]
- [Florence] Tell Jerry to save
those shutters, they're new.

[00:03:02.05]
- [Judith] Okay.

[00:03:03.09]
Jerry.
- Yep.

[00:03:05.00]
- Did you hear my mother?
- Yeah, I did.

[00:03:06.04]
- [Judith] Save the shutters, they're new.

[00:03:12.09]
Everyone assured me vinyl siding was safe,

[00:03:15.06]
and would only let off toxic gas

[00:03:17.06]
in the rare event of a house fire.

[00:03:21.00]
But, after my experience with DES

[00:03:23.09]
I figured any material so
loaded with synthetic chemicals

[00:03:28.00]
had to pose some kind of risk.

[00:03:30.03]
[panels rattling]

[00:03:33.08]
Later, I asked my dad, "If you had known

[00:03:36.06]
that over the course of its lifecycle,

[00:03:38.07]
from the factory to the incinerator,

[00:03:41.00]
vinyl produces a wide
array of deadly pollutants

[00:03:44.03]
that threaten our future
with a global toxic crisis,

[00:03:47.07]
would you still have put it on the house?"

[00:03:52.04]
"I hope not, honey," he said.

[00:03:55.07]
"But they didn't write that on the box."

[00:03:58.01]
[gentle music]

[00:04:08.01]
[gentle music continues]

[00:04:16.03]
[dramatic music]

[00:04:23.09]
I wanted to go to the source
of my parents' vinyl siding,

[00:04:27.03]
and since Louisiana produces about a third

[00:04:29.08]
of North America's PVC,

[00:04:31.08]
the key ingredient in all vinyl products,

[00:04:34.04]
there's a good chance
it started right here.

[00:04:38.01]
Lucky for me, I arrived in Lake Charles

[00:04:40.08]
just in time for Mardi Gras.

[00:04:44.00]
[beads rattling]

[00:04:46.01]
Oh, my parents put vinyl
siding on our house,

[00:04:51.05]
and I came to the vinyl capital of America

[00:04:54.02]
to find out all about it.

[00:04:56.08]
[lively music]

[00:05:06.08]
[lively music continues]

[00:05:16.08]
[lively music continues]

[00:05:19.07]
I brought my vinyl.
[lively music]

[00:05:24.03]
All right, that's beautiful.

[00:05:26.08]
- Oh my God.
- [Crowd] Aw!

[00:05:30.06]
[lively music]

[00:05:40.05]
[lively music continues]

[00:05:50.05]
[lively music continues]

[00:05:57.04]
- I mean, a lot of people have been saying

[00:05:58.04]
there's a whole lot of cancer in town.

[00:06:00.04]
I don't know if that's
a real connection or not

[00:06:03.03]
to all these chemicals,

[00:06:04.02]
but do you know a lot of
folks who've been sick?

[00:06:05.03]
- You hear a lot of people
that talk about cancer.

[00:06:07.02]
- They say that, but nowadays
everything gives you cancer.

[00:06:09.07]
You look on the pack of
Equal or Sweet 'N Low,

[00:06:12.00]
it's got that aspartame or whatever.

[00:06:14.03]
- They were saying mother's
milk gave you cancer.

[00:06:17.02]
- Bacon.

[00:06:18.02]
- The chemicals in the plants
here are really bad, you know,

[00:06:20.05]
'cause you think in the air,
it's probably like smoking.

[00:06:23.07]
- I have asthma real bad, so I don't know.

[00:06:25.03]
I just stay in the house.

[00:06:26.05]
Not all the time.

[00:06:27.04]
You know, we get out.

[00:06:28.06]
- Yeah.
- Look at her face,

[00:06:29.05]
- She's like, we're in a
hazardous, hazardous town.

[00:06:32.03]
- But any place that they have plants

[00:06:34.05]
or any kind of chemicals, you gonna,

[00:06:36.01]
I mean, that's just that
thing that goes along with it.

[00:06:38.08]
- You gotta realize
too, the plants do make

[00:06:40.06]
a lot of good things, you know?

[00:06:41.07]
- Yeah, they do.
- They help kids

[00:06:43.00]
and help people.
- And any time there is

[00:06:44.04]
something that is hazardous,

[00:06:45.08]
they take care of it right away,

[00:06:47.04]
I mean, you know,

[00:06:48.02]
they're good about that.
- Yeah.

[00:06:49.02]
- Now, if we ever get blown up

[00:06:50.08]
that's a different story.
- That's it.

[00:06:53.08]
[gentle music]

[00:07:03.00]
[gentle music continues]

[00:07:04.09]
- Right here, in Mossville,
across the street from my house,

[00:07:08.08]
they have by-products that are released.

[00:07:12.08]
I have not been able to prove
this, but I just believe,

[00:07:17.04]
truly believe, that I
could have gotten cancer

[00:07:22.02]
from the by-products that they release

[00:07:25.08]
when they burn their chemicals.

[00:07:28.07]
That's what I truly believe.

[00:07:30.05]
[gentle music]

[00:07:40.05]
[gentle music continues]

[00:07:41.05]
- [Judith] Let's just say
safety is a really big issue

[00:07:44.03]
in Lake Charles.

[00:07:46.06]
In fact, while I was in town,

[00:07:48.06]
the local industries held the first ever

[00:07:50.08]
community-wide risk management meeting.

[00:07:54.02]
Their goal was to reassure area residents

[00:07:57.00]
that in the event of
a worst-case scenario,

[00:07:59.06]
everything is under control.

[00:08:02.06]
- But I have here a graph,

[00:08:05.02]
which shows the concentration
at any one point

[00:08:08.02]
from a release.

[00:08:09.05]
And how that release would
go through a community.

[00:08:11.07]
- I'd like to ask you a question please.

[00:08:14.04]
During the summer we had one of the flares

[00:08:18.00]
across the street from our house

[00:08:19.05]
that let out some raw material.

[00:08:21.09]
When I say raw material,
it was falling on you

[00:08:25.00]
as you were outside, you
had to run in the house and,

[00:08:28.06]
with your hands on your
face to be able to breathe.

[00:08:33.03]
- You leave here and go up north of here

[00:08:36.09]
and you look and see how green
the trees is on both sides.

[00:08:40.04]
Here, on the south side they brown.

[00:08:44.09]
Do you think that's a
chemical that's killing them,

[00:08:47.03]
or do you think that's natural?

[00:08:50.02]
- Sometime we can give
you a tour out there

[00:08:52.04]
and let you see the control
facilities on those tanks.

[00:08:54.01]
- I worked out there
about thirty-five years

[00:08:55.07]
and five months, I don't need the tour.

[00:08:58.09]
I know what goes on.

[00:09:01.05]
I don't need your tour.

[00:09:03.07]
I'm telling you what I know.

[00:09:06.09]
[gentle music]

[00:09:11.06]
- [Judith] Maybe Mr. Hardy
didn't need a tour, but I did.

[00:09:15.09]
My father's answer to rotten wood

[00:09:18.03]
was looking more and more like
somebody else's toxic hazard.

[00:09:22.01]
And I wanted a better
idea of just what went on

[00:09:25.00]
inside a vinyl plant.

[00:09:27.08]
But when I tried to arrange a visit,

[00:09:29.08]
the public relations
officer turned me down

[00:09:32.05]
and instead referred me to the
industry's trade association,

[00:09:36.09]
the Vinyl Institute.

[00:09:40.02]
So I went to their website,
at www.vinylinfo.org.

[00:09:47.03]
Turns out it's not just the
siding on my parents' house,

[00:09:50.08]
or that stack of old record albums,

[00:09:53.01]
but from the time you wake up
till the time you go to sleep,

[00:09:56.02]
vinyl is everywhere.

[00:09:58.04]
Or as they put it, "Vinyl is
making a difference everyday."

[00:10:02.05]
[lively music]

[00:10:04.03]
[phone ringing]

[00:10:06.05]
[keyboard clicking]

[00:10:12.00]
[skis sloshing]
[character screaming]

[00:10:15.09]
[machine beeping]

[00:10:19.05]
[bell ringing]

[00:10:23.05]
[character crying]
[lively music continues]

[00:10:30.07]
The Vinyl Institute's mission statement

[00:10:32.08]
says that it was created to
protect and promote vinyl.

[00:10:38.00]
[helicopter whirring]
[gentle music]

[00:10:40.00]
But when I did a web search for PVC,

[00:10:42.04]
as vinyl is commonly known,

[00:10:44.04]
I found out it was really
about damage control.

[00:10:48.08]
Apparently, there was
a series of big fires

[00:10:51.06]
back in the '70s and early '80s,

[00:10:54.04]
including one at the MGM
Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

[00:10:59.08]
A lot of people died in that fire,

[00:11:02.00]
and it was partly the toxic
fumes from PVC products

[00:11:05.00]
that killed them.

[00:11:09.00]
Needless to say,

[00:11:10.03]
PVC got quite a bit of
bad press in those years,

[00:11:13.06]
and if there was ever a product

[00:11:14.09]
that needed a trade
association, vinyl was it.

[00:11:18.08]
[gentle music]

[00:11:20.09]
The Vinyl Institute still
spends a lot of time

[00:11:23.04]
on the defensive.

[00:11:25.09]
I actually went to one
conference exclusively devoted

[00:11:29.04]
to finding alternatives to
PVC in building construction.

[00:11:33.07]
Since the construction industry represents

[00:11:35.07]
more than 75% of the PVC market,

[00:11:38.08]
it's not surprising
that the Vinyl Institute

[00:11:41.04]
turned out in force.

[00:11:42.09]
[audience clapping]

[00:11:46.05]
- Vinyl is one material that has nearly

[00:11:49.01]
an infinite number of uses.

[00:11:51.00]
It puts low maintenance
siding on your houses.

[00:11:54.01]
It brings valuable blood
and medical products to you

[00:11:57.06]
when you and your loved ones are in need.

[00:12:00.04]
It makes soft, durable,
flexible toys available

[00:12:05.03]
for children.

[00:12:06.07]
And it's also indispensable
in food packaging as well.

[00:12:10.02]
- You look at it just like, oh my god,

[00:12:11.08]
this piece of vinyl siding, like,

[00:12:13.01]
I feel very comfortable
touching it, I've hung it,

[00:12:15.06]
I've put it on people's
houses, I really like it.

[00:12:18.01]
I think it's a really great product,

[00:12:20.00]
it uses our resources well.

[00:12:22.05]
It's 56% chlorine.

[00:12:24.07]
We have a lot of chlorine in the world.

[00:12:26.02]
We've got a lot of salt in the ocean.

[00:12:28.06]
We're not hurting the environment.

[00:12:30.03]
- If there were a better
replacement for PVC out there,

[00:12:34.00]
they'd be using it today.

[00:12:36.01]
And PVC's a good product.

[00:12:38.09]
And the whole chlorine
molecule's a good product.

[00:12:43.06]
It's saved a lot of lives.

[00:12:44.05]
- Your table salt.
- You know, it really is.

[00:12:45.09]
- Half of it is chlorine.

[00:12:48.00]
Sodium chloride.

[00:12:49.05]
NaCl.

[00:12:50.08]
If you didn't have it in
your body, you wouldn't live.

[00:12:53.04]
- It's indispensable to life.
- It's indispensable.

[00:12:55.07]
It's what gives your, you know,

[00:12:58.06]
when you tell your hand to move?

[00:13:02.07]
It's those sodium molecules inside

[00:13:06.06]
that are telling your hand to move.

[00:13:08.05]
It sends the signal.

[00:13:10.05]
So if you didn't have
it, you wouldn't be here.

[00:13:14.03]
And they try to make you
believe that it's bad.

[00:13:16.03]
- You know what, your
father doesn't have to worry

[00:13:17.08]
about his vinyl siding. [laughs]

[00:13:22.06]
I promise you, I promise.

[00:13:25.01]
It's not as bad as it was made out to be.

[00:13:28.02]
- [Judith] My father's not
worried about his vinyl siding.

[00:13:30.00]
I'm worried about his vinyl siding.

[00:13:30.09]
- Well, don't you worry about
his vinyl siding either.

[00:13:32.09]
You'll lose a lot of sleep for nothing.

[00:13:35.07]
[lively music]

[00:13:40.00]
- Now, I was really worried.

[00:13:41.09]
The Vinyl Institute representatives
wanted me to believe

[00:13:45.02]
that vinyl and table salt were
more or less the same thing.

[00:13:49.07]
Even I knew they weren't.

[00:13:51.07]
The problem was, my grasp of
basic chemistry stopped there.

[00:13:56.05]
I needed a science lesson,

[00:13:58.06]
so I invited some experts to the house.

[00:14:03.09]
[door bell ringing]
[lively music]

[00:14:07.09]
I basically brought Joe here, what?

[00:14:11.04]
- Put your hands down.
- Put my hands down?

[00:14:14.03]
Joe, Mom.

[00:14:15.02]
Mom, Joe.
- Hi Joe.

[00:14:17.00]
- It's really nice to meet you.

[00:14:18.05]
You look at a house
like this and the vinyl

[00:14:20.05]
seems perfectly harmless.

[00:14:21.07]
It's just sitting there,
in front of the house,

[00:14:24.01]
nobody's falling down with any diseases.

[00:14:27.03]
But that's if you are only
looking at the product itself.

[00:14:31.05]
If you look at its entire lifecycle,

[00:14:33.06]
from the moment it's
produced, through its use,

[00:14:36.02]
to the way it's disposed
of, vinyl turns out to be

[00:14:39.05]
the most environmentally hazardous

[00:14:41.02]
consumer product on Earth.

[00:14:44.02]
Vinyl is the source of more
persistent toxic pollutants,

[00:14:48.04]
dioxin in particular,

[00:14:49.07]
than any other single
product in the world.

[00:14:52.08]
- Dioxin is, you know, a huge topic.

[00:14:57.05]
Some people call it the
Watergate of molecules.

[00:15:00.02]
[lively music]

[00:15:04.05]
- [Judith] PVC contains more chlorine

[00:15:06.01]
than any other type of plastic,

[00:15:08.01]
and the vinyl industry
says that's a good thing.

[00:15:10.09]
They call PVC the versatile plastic.

[00:15:14.07]
- We'll start with the basics

[00:15:16.03]
and then we'll move into the details.

[00:15:19.08]
- Greenpeace calls it the Poison Plastic.

[00:15:24.01]
Granted, these guys were biased

[00:15:25.08]
in favor of saving the
planet and its inhabitants,

[00:15:29.00]
but I didn't have a problem with that.

[00:15:32.04]
Exposure to a single PVC fire

[00:15:34.05]
can cause permanent respiratory disease.

[00:15:37.09]
The International
Association of Firefighters.

[00:15:41.08]
Let's just talk about this house.

[00:15:43.09]
In its inert form on the house it's fine,

[00:15:46.03]
unless of course there was a house fire,

[00:15:48.05]
and then it would be
harmful to the neighbors.

[00:15:52.01]
- Or yourselves,
- Or certainly to ourselves.

[00:15:54.09]
- In fact, people will die
from inhaling the gases

[00:15:58.04]
long before the flames reach them.

[00:16:02.07]
- [Judith] There's no
shortage of PVC in the world,

[00:16:05.00]
and production is going up every year.

[00:16:08.01]
The problem is, it's hard to get rid of.

[00:16:10.06]
PVC is expensive and
inconvenient to recycle,

[00:16:14.00]
so most of it just ends up
in landfills or incinerators.

[00:16:17.06]
[gentle music]

[00:16:20.08]
Which brings us back to dioxin,

[00:16:22.09]
a toxic pollutant that's created

[00:16:24.09]
at both ends at the PVC lifecycle,

[00:16:27.05]
when it's manufactured and when
it's thrown away and burnt.

[00:16:32.02]
- [Rick] Dioxin causes
many types of cancer

[00:16:34.08]
and a whole range of other effects,

[00:16:36.06]
especially those that
effect the unborn infant

[00:16:40.01]
and the newly born child.

[00:16:42.02]
- And Dad, in this context, it's sort of,

[00:16:44.07]
it could act on the fetus
the way that DES acted on me.

[00:16:48.06]
- Mm-hmm.

[00:16:52.09]
- So it's not just the
people in Louisiana,

[00:16:55.05]
it's everybody in the world essentially

[00:16:57.04]
that's getting a
dangerous level of dioxin.

[00:16:59.08]
[gentle music]

[00:17:03.04]
- [Judith] My father was still skeptical.

[00:17:05.07]
Say Greenpeace to him and all he heard

[00:17:07.08]
was whale-saving radicals.

[00:17:10.07]
I had no doubts about their facts,

[00:17:12.07]
but my dad needed a second opinion.

[00:17:15.08]
So I went to talk to a scientist

[00:17:17.08]
highly regarded by both
environmentalists and industry.

[00:17:21.03]
- Hi, I'm Judith, this is my vinyl.

[00:17:22.04]
And this is your dog.

[00:17:23.07]
- Dioxin is, it's not a chemical

[00:17:26.06]
that has a purpose in itself.

[00:17:28.01]
It's an unwanted contaminant,

[00:17:30.00]
it lasts very long in the environment,

[00:17:32.05]
it lasts a long time in our bodies.

[00:17:34.03]
If you had 10 units of
exposure to dioxin today,

[00:17:38.05]
10 years from now you'd still
have 5 units of those left.

[00:17:41.09]
So, it's a compound that's toxic,

[00:17:44.07]
and it's not degraded by
us or by the environment.

[00:17:48.05]
So a little bit of dioxin
goes a long, long way.

[00:17:52.06]
- At this point, one
thing was clear to me.

[00:17:55.08]
If dioxin is getting into the atmosphere,

[00:17:58.03]
it's getting into the food chain,

[00:18:00.02]
and it's building up in our bodies.

[00:18:02.01]
[gentle music]
[cow bellowing]

[00:18:04.02]
[fish screaming]
[grass crunching]

[00:18:10.02]
[milk sloshing]
[character gulping]

[00:18:13.07]
[gentle music continues]

[00:18:22.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:18:29.02]
I couldn't speak for my father,

[00:18:31.01]
but given everything I'd learned,

[00:18:32.08]
it seemed unlikely I'd ever be able

[00:18:34.07]
to look at our neighborhood
quite the same way again.

[00:18:38.00]
[lively music]

[00:18:39.07]
- This house has aluminum,

[00:18:43.05]
which is molded to look like shakes.

[00:18:47.08]
- Right?
- But it's not.

[00:18:49.03]
- What about this?
- I don't know

[00:18:50.09]
what the house is.
- It's vinyl.

[00:18:53.07]
- It probably is, you know?

[00:18:56.00]
And I'll tell you, I can do it from here.

[00:18:58.01]
- Don't touch this house, Dad.

[00:19:00.00]
They're inside.
- I'm gonna walk over

[00:19:01.09]
and touch it.

[00:19:04.04]
Vinyl.
[gentle music]

[00:19:08.06]
Wood.

[00:19:09.05]
Aluminum.

[00:19:10.07]
- I think that's asbestos, Dad.

[00:19:12.09]
- Yes, that is.
- Don't touch it.

[00:19:14.06]
- Yeah, what about them?

[00:19:17.06]
- That's wood, that was put on last year.

[00:19:20.01]
- That's wood?
- Yeah.

[00:19:21.03]
- No.
- That's wood.

[00:19:22.09]
- My father was admiring your wood.

[00:19:25.00]
- My wood of?
- The house.

[00:19:29.06]
- It's not wood, it's vinyl.

[00:19:32.00]
- It's what?
- I think.

[00:19:33.06]
- Touch it, you'll figure it out.

[00:19:34.07]
- No, that was wood.

[00:19:35.07]
- No, no, we didn't put it up.

[00:19:37.09]
It was here when we moved in.

[00:19:41.05]
- Vinyl, Judy.

[00:19:42.07]
It looks great.

[00:19:44.06]
Flimsy, yes.

[00:19:45.05]
But looks good.
- Dad.

[00:19:47.05]
We didn't do it, it's okay.
- It's all right.

[00:19:51.02]
- Dad, this whole neighborhood's

[00:19:52.04]
gonna be a little upset with us.

[00:20:00.02]
[lively music]

[00:20:10.02]
[lively music continues]

[00:20:16.04]
Billy Baggett is a Lake Charles attorney

[00:20:18.06]
who represents vinyl chloride workers

[00:20:20.07]
with health-related claims.

[00:20:22.09]
- There's so much stuff in my car.

[00:20:25.06]
- Because he's a lawyer,
he has a legal right

[00:20:28.00]
to document his clients' workplace.

[00:20:30.04]
But he's only allowed one
plant visit per client.

[00:20:33.07]
So he tries to make the most of it.

[00:20:35.06]
- Hey Judith, could you give me a hand.

[00:20:37.05]
- Okay, so he just wanted
to get into a plant

[00:20:39.05]
and shoot where the exposed workers

[00:20:42.04]
and the sick workers had been.

[00:20:44.09]
And it wasn't enough

[00:20:45.09]
just to go in with a regular video camera.

[00:20:48.00]
- Well, yeah, because one of the reasons

[00:20:49.08]
that you do these inspections

[00:20:51.01]
is you want to be able to
go back with the worker.

[00:20:54.00]
We can move around inside the PVC plant

[00:20:57.00]
based on spatial coordinates.

[00:20:59.00]
Pretend this was just one camera.

[00:21:01.02]
If I was to do this I could
take in 360 degrees, okay?

[00:21:07.08]
Now, the way it is right
now, I don't have to do that.

[00:21:11.06]
I can just stand here
and I've got 360 degrees

[00:21:15.00]
and I can just walk, you know, like so.

[00:21:19.05]
The effect of moving through here

[00:21:20.09]
is very much like flying
through the plant.

[00:21:26.00]
This would be a pretty boring walk,

[00:21:27.08]
so it's probably better
just to walk back and forth.

[00:21:36.09]
- Do you think the people
in town have any clue

[00:21:38.07]
what went on across the lake?

[00:21:40.05]
- No, I didn't.
[water splashing]

[00:21:43.05]
[lively music]

[00:21:51.00]
- [Judith] When Billy
assembles his footage,

[00:21:53.00]
he creates a complete
panorama of the plant

[00:21:56.08]
that way his clients can show
him exactly where they worked

[00:22:00.02]
and he can see how they
might've been exposed

[00:22:02.02]
to vinyl chloride, the
building block of PVC.

[00:22:05.05]
[gentle music]

[00:22:15.05]
[gentle music continues]

[00:22:19.08]
- My husband worked with vinyl everyday.

[00:22:22.09]
When he first went to work out there,

[00:22:24.03]
he was like, they called
him a pumper loader.

[00:22:29.04]
And from that you work your way up.

[00:22:32.06]
And he was chief operator when he died.

[00:22:37.07]
I would've liked to have the
people responsible in my house

[00:22:40.09]
and watch him die one piece at a time,

[00:22:44.00]
because I remember all of it.

[00:22:46.08]
When he couldn't use
his right arm anymore,

[00:22:52.03]
when he couldn't use his left arm anymore,

[00:22:54.01]
when he couldn't use his legs,

[00:22:57.07]
and when he couldn't speak to me anymore.

[00:23:02.01]
[Elaine crying]

[00:23:12.00]
[Elaine crying continues]

[00:23:15.07]
And when I couldn't
hear his voice anymore.

[00:23:19.04]
[gentle music]

[00:23:28.08]
I could never say that they knew anything,

[00:23:32.03]
I could only say that there
was one document that we had

[00:23:36.04]
that had hand-written on it
across the side of the paper

[00:23:39.09]
"Exceeds short-term exposure,

[00:23:41.04]
do not include on wire to Houston."

[00:23:44.03]
And I wondered why.

[00:23:46.04]
I took that to Billy.

[00:23:49.06]
- This is what started
the ball rolling, I mean.

[00:23:53.00]
- For me it was.
- Well, it substantiated,

[00:23:56.01]
it sure raised a doubt in
my mind, I'll say that.

[00:23:58.08]
When you get something
that has this inexplicable

[00:24:03.04]
little comment "Do not
include on wire to Houston."

[00:24:07.01]
That did excite our attention.

[00:24:09.07]
[lively music]

[00:24:11.07]
- [Judith] Two little lines,

[00:24:13.03]
"Exceeds short-term exposure,"

[00:24:15.03]
and "Do not include on wire to Houston."

[00:24:18.06]
Billy didn't know what that meant

[00:24:20.02]
but it made him suspicious.

[00:24:22.04]
So he subpoenaed that company,

[00:24:24.05]
and in addition to the 32
boxes of documents he got back,

[00:24:28.00]
was a copy of that report
with the two little lines.

[00:24:31.07]
Only now, they were whited out.

[00:24:35.07]
So there were more subpoenas
and more documents,

[00:24:39.03]
millions of pages of documents,

[00:24:41.08]
and that little bit of white-out

[00:24:43.03]
started to look like
a really big cover-up.

[00:24:49.08]
- A case like this doesn't come along

[00:24:51.06]
to most lawyers very often.

[00:24:54.05]
Maybe once in a lifetime,
once every hundred lifetimes,

[00:24:58.05]
where you really have
the opportunity, maybe,

[00:25:00.09]
to do something that
can make a difference.

[00:25:05.03]
I might be making more money
out working benzene cases.

[00:25:09.05]
I might be doing better
in auto accident cases.

[00:25:15.04]
As it is, I feel like I
have some sort of secret,

[00:25:19.09]
hermetic knowledge.

[00:25:25.05]
Here is my original,
they call it manifesto,

[00:25:29.04]
now you know that that's
somebody naming it beside me,

[00:25:32.08]
because I would never have
called it a manifesto.

[00:25:34.05]
- [Judith] What would you call it?

[00:25:35.05]
- I don't know what I would've called it.

[00:25:36.07]
I would've called it
plaintiff's first disclosure

[00:25:39.05]
of facts supporting a plaintiff's
conspiracy allegations.

[00:25:44.03]
- Against?
- In fact,

[00:25:45.01]
that is what I called it.

[00:25:46.03]
I called it, "Plaintiff's
disclosure of claims

[00:25:48.05]
relevant to plaintiff's
conspiracy claims."

[00:25:50.07]
- [Judith] Conspiracy claims about?

[00:25:52.08]
- Vinyl chloride.

[00:25:55.08]
These are documents that are-

[00:25:56.08]
- [Judith] Billy has come to believe

[00:25:58.04]
that the international vinyl industry

[00:26:00.09]
knew their employees might get
cancer just by coming to work

[00:26:04.09]
and that they acted
together to hide the truth.

[00:26:08.01]
Now, every time he represents
an individual client

[00:26:11.06]
with a PVC-related claim,

[00:26:14.01]
he attaches the conspiracy allegations,

[00:26:17.00]
which means that 32
separate PVC manufacturers

[00:26:20.07]
are implicated in each and every suit.

[00:26:24.03]
- Let's just start here.

[00:26:25.09]
Here is where it is.

[00:26:26.08]
- [Markowitz] If it had not
been for Billy's persistence

[00:26:30.00]
in getting these documents from industry,

[00:26:33.02]
the story of vinyl would
never have been told.

[00:26:37.05]
- [Judith] This is where David Rosner

[00:26:38.09]
and Jerry Markowitz came in.

[00:26:40.09]
PhD's in the history of workplace
toxins, writing partners,

[00:26:45.03]
former brothers-in-law.

[00:26:47.08]
They were hired by a law firm

[00:26:49.05]
that was interested in
joining Billy's case,

[00:26:51.08]
but wanted first make sure
his allegations weren't crazy.

[00:26:56.07]
So when you read these documents,
what were you thinking?

[00:27:04.00]
- This seems to be criminal activity,

[00:27:06.00]
this seems to be putting
a lot of people at risk,

[00:27:08.01]
and this seems to be
extraordinarily immoral.

[00:27:13.05]
So, we kind of kept looking at each other,

[00:27:15.09]
"Did you see this?

[00:27:18.04]
They couldn't have done that."

[00:27:20.02]
And then we found
confirmation that they did.

[00:27:22.07]
[gentle music]

[00:27:24.07]
- [Judith] Billy's archive is
the most extensive collection

[00:27:27.02]
of internal chemical
industry documents anywhere,

[00:27:30.06]
and it attracts a lot of visitors.

[00:27:33.03]
There have been investigative
journalists, other lawyers,

[00:27:36.07]
even an officer from the
high court in Venice, Italy.

[00:27:40.01]
He showed up with an
Italian epidemiologist,

[00:27:43.02]
a US Marshall, and a subpoena.

[00:27:45.09]
Spent a solid week Xeroxing,

[00:27:48.04]
then turned around and went
straight back to Venice.

[00:27:51.03]
[gentle music]

[00:27:54.08]
[water sloshing]
[lively music]

[00:28:03.08]
[lively music continues]

[00:28:13.08]
[lively music continues]

[00:28:22.09]
Vinyl is not exactly the
first thing that leaps to mind

[00:28:25.08]
when most people think of Venice,

[00:28:28.06]
but Billy's documents led me straight

[00:28:30.05]
to one of the largest PVC
manufacturers in Europe,

[00:28:33.09]
the EniChem Corporation.

[00:28:35.09]
And to a group of former
workers and widows

[00:28:38.01]
just like Dan and Elaine
Ross in Louisiana.

[00:28:40.07]
[lively music]

[00:28:46.03]
[people speaking Italian]

[00:28:58.04]
[Ersilia speaking Italian]

[00:29:08.03]
[Ersilia speaking Italian continues]

[00:29:17.09]
- [Translator] With the other workers.

[00:29:19.01]
[Ersilia speaking Italian]

[00:29:21.05]
- [Translator] This was the ceremony.

[00:29:22.09]
[Ersilia speaking Italian]

[00:29:29.08]
- Did he know he was sick then?

[00:29:32.00]
[Translator speaking Italian]
- No.

[00:29:34.04]
- They don't know, at that moment

[00:29:36.01]
they don't know that he was sick.

[00:29:37.03]
- No, no.

[00:29:39.06]
[speaking Italian]

[00:29:49.06]
[speaking Italian continues]

[00:29:59.06]
[speaking Italian continues]

[00:30:04.06]
[Ampelio speaking Italian]

[00:30:14.06]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[00:30:24.06]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[00:30:34.06]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[00:30:46.01]
[Ampelio speaking Italian]

[00:30:56.00]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[00:31:06.01]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[00:31:16.01]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[00:31:25.00]
[lively music]

[00:31:29.06]
- [Judith] Ampelio worked
in a vinyl chloride plant

[00:31:31.04]
in the 1970's.

[00:31:34.05]
Around the same time, in a
laboratory 30 miles away,

[00:31:38.02]
Dr. Cesare Maltoni was conducting

[00:31:40.05]
an industry-sponsored study

[00:31:42.03]
to determine the effects
of vinyl chloride exposure

[00:31:45.01]
on lab animals.

[00:31:47.07]
I got to spend some time with Dr. Maltoni,

[00:31:50.02]
and he went out of his way

[00:31:51.05]
to make sure I got the story straight.

[00:31:54.03]
So were you doing this research

[00:31:55.09]
before the chemical companies
hired you to do the research,

[00:32:00.01]
and they came to you and said,
"Okay, now we'll fund you?"

[00:32:02.00]
- If you want I tell that,

[00:32:02.08]
you must say to me what story you want.

[00:32:04.09]
- [Judith] Oh, are they different stories?

[00:32:06.00]
- I have to start from the beginning

[00:32:07.03]
because the story doesn't go anymore.

[00:32:09.03]
- It doesn't?
- No.

[00:32:10.04]
- [Judith] They're two different stories,

[00:32:11.05]
but you were doing this research first?

[00:32:12.06]
- You would like why I started exactly?

[00:32:15.04]
- Ah.
- Or not?

[00:32:16.08]
What do you want?

[00:32:17.07]
What story do you want I tell you?

[00:32:19.04]
- Okay.
- But we have to,

[00:32:20.06]
because they're filming.

[00:32:21.04]
I am unhappy now to leave
piece of film I cannot control.

[00:32:25.08]
I like to say to the
story all consequence.

[00:32:28.07]
- Okay, you mean one piece,
each piece at a time.

[00:32:31.01]
- Yes.
- Okay.

[00:32:32.06]
As long as you just
can help me understand.

[00:32:35.06]
- So you may ask to me directly,

[00:32:38.01]
"Why did you started your
vinyl chloride research?"

[00:32:41.02]
And I answer why I start.
- Okay.

[00:32:44.07]
- Why and when I started it.

[00:32:46.08]
And then you may stop me to say,

[00:32:48.06]
"Why the lesson of vinyl
chloride was important?"

[00:32:51.04]
And then I will tell you
why it was important.

[00:32:53.05]
"What message does this lesson convey?"

[00:32:56.04]
And I tell you the message
this lesson convey.

[00:32:58.01]
- Those are four good questions.

[00:32:59.00]
- So if you say me, this
thing, I'll tell you the story.

[00:33:01.07]
[lively music]

[00:33:04.08]
- They are all there.

[00:33:06.06]
All there are vinyl chloride.

[00:33:09.03]
But you know, here we have the autopsies

[00:33:11.08]
on more than two hundred
fifty thousand animals.

[00:33:16.01]
So it is quite an arsenal of blocks.

[00:33:22.00]
- [Judith] So all the
tumors are in these boxes.

[00:33:28.07]
- In autumn of 1972,

[00:33:31.02]
we were aware already that vinyl chloride,

[00:33:36.01]
at least at the high dose,

[00:33:37.02]
was producing different types of tumor.

[00:33:40.04]
And at that time, three type of tumor

[00:33:42.07]
in the first exposed animal
which was laboratory rats.

[00:33:47.07]
Tumor of ear, tumor of kidney,

[00:33:51.03]
and a very, very rare type
of tumor, angiosarcoma.

[00:33:55.08]
Angiosarcoma of liver.

[00:33:57.03]
[lively music]

[00:34:01.00]
- [Judith] The rats got cancerous tumors

[00:34:02.09]
from vinyl chloride exposures

[00:34:04.09]
as low as 250 parts per million.

[00:34:08.08]
Meanwhile, in Italy and the US,

[00:34:11.03]
it was legal for vinyl chloride workers

[00:34:13.07]
to be exposed to as much
as twice that amount.

[00:34:19.05]
The European vinyl
industry was not too happy

[00:34:22.01]
with Dr. Maltoni's results,

[00:34:24.00]
and they decided to keep
his research, secret.

[00:34:27.03]
[lively music]

[00:34:35.00]
In 1972, the European vinyl industry

[00:34:38.04]
agreed to share Maltoni's results

[00:34:40.03]
with their US counterparts,

[00:34:42.02]
on the condition that
the Americans first sign

[00:34:44.06]
a formal secrecy agreement

[00:34:46.04]
swearing not to reveal the dangers

[00:34:48.00]
of vinyl chloride exposure to anyone.

[00:34:51.06]
- What they're actually signing

[00:34:52.08]
was a document to keep
information private,

[00:34:56.06]
and to keep information
about disease private.

[00:34:58.09]
- [Judith] It was the Americans' idea

[00:35:00.00]
to have the secrecy agreement?

[00:35:00.08]
- [Both] No, it was the Europeans.

[00:35:02.06]
- Idea to have a secrecy agreement,

[00:35:05.04]
but the Americans agreed to it.

[00:35:06.09]
- They were essentially
conspiring among each other

[00:35:09.06]
not to tell about something

[00:35:11.09]
that they all know is a problem.

[00:35:15.01]
And they do it for,
because they're a club.

[00:35:18.05]
Because they're an industry that sees

[00:35:22.00]
their own self-interest
as being more important

[00:35:24.01]
than the public interest.

[00:35:25.03]
[lively music]

[00:35:33.07]
- Hundreds and hundreds of
pounds of vinyl chloride

[00:35:36.00]
would be released just
in the normal course

[00:35:38.02]
of loading operations, with no
precautions taken whatsoever,

[00:35:42.08]
no signs.

[00:35:44.04]
It is your nightmare scenario
of a concealed toxic hazard.

[00:35:51.05]
The industry needed to buy time for vinyl.

[00:35:56.07]
Vinyl was a new product then.

[00:35:59.03]
Bad news from Italy, if
not properly handled,

[00:36:03.00]
could've potentially made
people think twice about

[00:36:07.01]
turning everything into plastic.

[00:36:09.07]
[lively music]

[00:36:10.09]
Meanwhile, women may have
been spraying their hair

[00:36:14.01]
with vinyl chloride.
[lively music]

[00:36:19.01]
As early as 1969, some of
the manufacturers recognized

[00:36:23.09]
that women using hairspray
on a regular basis

[00:36:27.08]
were exposed at levels higher

[00:36:30.04]
than your average industrial worker.

[00:36:35.04]
The industry was aware

[00:36:37.09]
of the unlimited potential liability.

[00:36:44.00]
- [Judith] If millions of women,

[00:36:45.03]
not to mention their hairdressers,

[00:36:47.02]
had known that the propellant
in hairspray was carcinogenic,

[00:36:50.08]
they would have put the
vinyl chloride industry

[00:36:52.05]
out of business.

[00:36:55.01]
So, the industry kept that a secret too.

[00:36:57.06]
[lively music]

[00:37:01.08]
But then something happened
that they couldn't really hide.

[00:37:05.05]
Between 1968 and 1974,

[00:37:08.05]
four workers in one vinyl chloride plant

[00:37:10.08]
in Louisville, Kentucky

[00:37:12.03]
all died of angiosarcoma of the liver,

[00:37:15.08]
the same extremely rare cancer
that Dr. Maltoni had found

[00:37:19.04]
in his lab rats.

[00:37:23.03]
The industry was finally forced to admit

[00:37:25.07]
that there was a direct link

[00:37:27.00]
between vinyl chloride
exposure and cancer.

[00:37:32.05]
In response, the chemical
workers unions demanded

[00:37:35.08]
that the government drastically
reduce exposure levels,

[00:37:39.04]
and a limit was finally set
at one part per million.

[00:37:44.06]
As for the millions of women

[00:37:46.00]
who were being exposed every
time they did their hair,

[00:37:49.04]
industry never made any
public announcement.

[00:37:52.01]
They just quietly took the
vinyl chloride out of hairspray.

[00:37:57.04]
There's no way of knowing

[00:37:58.05]
how many people might've gotten sick.

[00:38:03.00]
- If you asked any trade association

[00:38:06.00]
involved with vinyl chloride today

[00:38:08.02]
what the risks of angiosarcoma are,

[00:38:10.08]
you're going to be told
that it's the result of

[00:38:14.08]
excessive exposures years ago, far away,

[00:38:18.06]
that have nothing to do
with today's population.

[00:38:21.03]
That workers who entered,
this is like gospel,

[00:38:26.01]
workers who entered the
workforce after 1974,

[00:38:30.01]
when the new laws went into effect?

[00:38:32.00]
Oh, none of those guys
have gotten angiosarcoma.

[00:38:34.09]
[lively music]

[00:38:38.03]
- [Judith] To this point,

[00:38:39.05]
the only vinyl workers
I knew anything about

[00:38:41.06]
were resin workers, the ones
who convert raw vinyl chloride,

[00:38:45.02]
a gas, into polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

[00:38:48.06]
[lively music]

[00:38:51.01]
The industry insists that
this is the only time

[00:38:53.09]
in the PVC manufacturing process

[00:38:56.03]
when there is any risk of
vinyl chloride exposure,

[00:39:00.07]
so most of the health studies

[00:39:02.06]
have focused on the resin workers.

[00:39:04.06]
[lively music]

[00:39:07.05]
Once the vinyl chloride gas is converted

[00:39:09.09]
into these PVC pellets,
fabricators take over.

[00:39:15.04]
Their job is to turn the
pellets into consumer products.

[00:39:18.06]
[lively music]

[00:39:20.08]
In the process, the pellets
usually get heated up,

[00:39:23.09]
and small amounts of vinyl chloride

[00:39:25.07]
can sometimes be released.

[00:39:27.03]
[lively music]

[00:39:31.07]
But the industry still maintains

[00:39:33.04]
that fabricators are at no risk.

[00:39:36.07]
The thing is, there are
many more fabricators

[00:39:39.02]
than resin workers,
literally millions worldwide,

[00:39:42.09]
and some studies have suggested

[00:39:45.01]
that they may have an increased risk

[00:39:46.08]
for certain cancers and other diseases.

[00:39:50.01]
But the vinyl industry maintains

[00:39:51.09]
that they know of no cases

[00:39:53.04]
of vinyl chloride-related
angiosarcoma in fabricators,

[00:39:57.04]
so there's no need to study them further.

[00:40:01.08]
I would've liked to believe that.

[00:40:03.05]
A fabricator somewhere
made our vinyl siding.

[00:40:06.09]
But then I heard about Michael Wayne Cox,

[00:40:09.01]
who started working as
a fabricator in 1978,

[00:40:12.09]
4 years after the government
drastically reduced

[00:40:15.05]
exposure limits to vinyl chloride.

[00:40:18.09]
He was diagnosed with
angiosarcoma of the liver in 1986,

[00:40:23.02]
right before he died.

[00:40:25.00]
He was 30.
[lively music]

[00:40:28.04]
Later, his wife filed suit.

[00:40:30.08]
And though the industry paid
her a generous settlement,

[00:40:33.09]
they assured her that since
Michael was a fabricator

[00:40:36.09]
and therefore at no risk
for vinyl chloride exposure,

[00:40:40.02]
his angiosarcoma must have
been caused by something else.

[00:40:44.04]
[lively music]

[00:40:52.02]
Dr. Paul Brandt-Rauf has
a very different opinion

[00:40:55.00]
about the health risks for PVC workers

[00:40:57.03]
like Michael Wayne Cox.

[00:40:59.04]
He's conducting gene studies

[00:41:01.03]
on people working at the
current maximum exposure levels

[00:41:04.06]
and below.

[00:41:05.07]
And he's found mutations that suggest

[00:41:08.00]
what the vinyl industry
considers safe just might not be.

[00:41:13.05]
- Can you see that right there?

[00:41:15.01]
- Yeah.
- What this is,

[00:41:17.01]
is blood samples from
vinyl chloride workers.

[00:41:19.08]
Here's a worker who has
this particular band,

[00:41:22.01]
which corresponds to the same molecule

[00:41:24.01]
that we see inside this tumor.

[00:41:26.04]
So, our suspicion is that
if you have these mutations,

[00:41:29.04]
you have a much higher risk
of going on to get tumors.

[00:41:33.03]
So therefore, it is worrisome

[00:41:34.08]
that individuals exposed below
the current exposure limit

[00:41:37.02]
have evidence of these
mutations in their body.

[00:41:39.07]
- [Judith] But these workers
don't have tumors yet, right?

[00:41:42.04]
- [Paul] That's right.

[00:41:43.05]
[gentle music]

[00:41:46.06]
This study started over 17 years ago,

[00:41:48.05]
but the results are clear.

[00:41:50.03]
While they appear healthy,

[00:41:51.05]
workers who were exposed
after 1974 have mutations

[00:41:54.06]
that are identical to the
mutations we would find

[00:41:56.03]
if they did develop
angiosarcoma of the liver.

[00:41:59.06]
Based on our research,

[00:42:00.06]
it seems to me there's a need for a study

[00:42:02.01]
of all PVC workers working
at the current exposures

[00:42:05.01]
and a reexamination

[00:42:06.02]
of the one part per million safety limit.

[00:42:10.08]
- [Judith] So can you just tell me,

[00:42:12.08]
when is vinyl chloride safe?

[00:42:16.04]
- There is no safe level.

[00:42:17.03]
- [Judith] Can you talk
about that a little?

[00:42:18.08]
- There is no zero risk level.

[00:42:21.03]
The only zero risk level
is zero exposure, okay?

[00:42:24.01]
And you're never going to
get down to zero exposure

[00:42:26.00]
if you're going to be
making vinyl chloride.

[00:42:27.06]
There is always going to be some

[00:42:28.05]
residual exposure somewhere,

[00:42:30.00]
even if it's parts per trillions
or parts per quadrillion,

[00:42:32.02]
which we can measure nowadays.

[00:42:33.03]
I mean, we can measure
vanishingly small numbers.

[00:42:35.04]
But for every molecule of
vinyl chloride present,

[00:42:37.05]
there is some residual risk

[00:42:38.04]
that that molecule will
get into somebody's body

[00:42:40.04]
and cause a cancer.

[00:42:41.09]
So, if you've got a molecule
present, you've got a risk.

[00:42:45.07]
[gentle music]

[00:42:54.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:43:04.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:43:14.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:43:17.03]
- As a kid, I have to admit that I thought

[00:43:21.01]
that the plants were beautiful.

[00:43:24.04]
I guess it would be, you know,
in the eye of the beholder,

[00:43:27.07]
but, I mean, I think that they

[00:43:29.09]
definitely look better at night.

[00:43:31.01]
I mean, look at that,
that's just beautiful.

[00:43:35.01]
We would be driving back a
lot of times late at night,

[00:43:37.06]
and I'd always know that
when I saw that torch

[00:43:39.07]
that we were getting close to home.

[00:43:43.06]
It reminded me of the way
the Emerald City looked

[00:43:47.04]
in the Wizard of Oz, which
used to come on every year.

[00:43:51.09]
And there would be this scene

[00:43:53.00]
right before they crossed
the field of poppies,

[00:43:55.07]
you'd see this glistening

[00:43:57.08]
sort of Jetsons-looking
future sort of city.

[00:44:04.09]
I mean, what can I say?

[00:44:05.08]
That I'm deliberately
putting my kids at risk

[00:44:08.05]
by living in this community?

[00:44:12.02]
I don't have any reason to think

[00:44:13.08]
that we're not gonna pay the price,

[00:44:18.00]
but I gotta admit that I don't give,

[00:44:22.04]
I don't sit awake nights
thinking about moving to Aspen.

[00:44:34.00]
- [Announcer] This is a
test of the Lake Charles

[00:44:36.06]
Public Emergency warning system.

[00:44:39.05]
This is only a test.

[00:44:44.03]
[alarm blaring]
[lively music]

[00:44:50.07]
- [Judith] If there's a
big industrial explosion

[00:44:52.07]
or a toxic spill, and
people nearby get sick,

[00:44:56.02]
it's usually not hard to identify

[00:44:58.00]
what they've been exposed
to, or who's at fault.

[00:45:02.07]
But with the day-to-day chemical releases,

[00:45:05.02]
it takes a little more
ingenuity to connect the dots.

[00:45:08.03]
[alarm blaring]
[lively music]

[00:45:20.01]
- All we want to know
is what we're breathing,

[00:45:22.02]
what the hell's in the air.

[00:45:23.05]
So we developed these buckets.

[00:45:26.06]
- Sniffers are a very important
part of the Bucket Brigade,

[00:45:29.09]
because what they are is
the early warning system.

[00:45:32.09]
You need a lot of those spread
throughout the neighborhood.

[00:45:36.03]
- Aren't you right close
to the railroad tracks?

[00:45:38.05]
- Yes.
- Now, do I set

[00:45:39.09]
the bucket on the ground

[00:45:41.01]
or do I hold it up in the air or what?

[00:45:44.03]
[buckets banging]

[00:45:47.01]
- There you go, what do
you think about that?

[00:45:50.01]
[lively music]

[00:46:00.00]
[lively music continues]
[doors thuds]

[00:46:10.03]
[lively music continues]

[00:46:15.03]
- Oh man, nice.

[00:46:16.04]
That's fat bags of air.

[00:46:18.05]
- That's your lung right there, okay?

[00:46:21.06]
- Hey, hey.

[00:46:23.06]
Y'all need to leave,
y'all on private property,

[00:46:25.02]
y'all should go.

[00:46:26.02]
- This isn't private property, sir.

[00:46:28.04]
Across there, over the
fenceline, is private property.

[00:46:31.01]
[lively music]

[00:46:36.07]
- I think you need to
get somebody out here.

[00:46:38.06]
- We're just taking an air sample.

[00:46:40.00]
There's so wrong with that.

[00:46:41.05]
- I got about three.
- 10-4.

[00:46:44.04]
[lively music]

[00:46:47.02]
- Oh yeah, we got it.
[lively music]

[00:46:57.02]
[lively music continues]

[00:47:01.03]
- This is the perfect size
for your bag, Mrs. Prince.

[00:47:04.04]
Exactly 3 minutes.

[00:47:05.03]
- Wonderful, let me put it in there.

[00:47:06.07]
- [Judith] For weeks on end,

[00:47:07.07]
the Bucket Brigades collected
air samples all over town.

[00:47:11.06]
Of course, I was most
interested in the one

[00:47:13.08]
taken across from the
vinyl chloride plant.

[00:47:16.04]
- Put it in the box, all right,

[00:47:18.09]
it fits in there just perfect.

[00:47:20.07]
- Yeah.

[00:47:21.06]
- When you come through
security screening,

[00:47:23.09]
you should always be able to
show me what's in the package.

[00:47:27.07]
- That's it.
- Okay.

[00:47:32.08]
- Thank you.
- You're welcome, thank you.

[00:47:34.07]
[lively music]

[00:47:43.06]
So, I signed a custody agreement
with the local activists,

[00:47:47.05]
swearing I wouldn't tamper with the air,

[00:47:50.00]
and personally escorted one bag

[00:47:52.03]
to a lab in Burbank,
California for analysis.

[00:48:01.06]
I brought the results
to chemist Wilma Subra,

[00:48:04.03]
1999 winner of the McArthur Genius Award.

[00:48:07.09]
She works out of a trailer
in New Iberia, Louisiana,

[00:48:11.01]
and spends a lot of her time
interpreting this kind of data

[00:48:14.04]
for community groups all over the state.

[00:48:17.01]
I know that at the lab,

[00:48:18.00]
they said that this was a
huge amount of chloride.

[00:48:18.08]
- Right, vinyl chloride, yes, yes.

[00:48:22.02]
In the air, in the community, that is.

[00:48:24.03]
It's 10 times the ambient air quality.

[00:48:26.08]
It is a huge amount.

[00:48:28.00]
It's getting into the air

[00:48:29.04]
that was collected from
these peoples' yards.

[00:48:31.05]
- So the production of the raw vinyl,

[00:48:34.01]
at the CondeaVista vinyl
plant is not contained.

[00:48:37.06]
- Correct, it's moving
off-site into the community

[00:48:41.03]
where people live.

[00:48:43.03]
And that air has vinyl chloride in it.

[00:48:47.04]
And a large number of
other chemicals as well.

[00:48:53.07]
[engine whirring]

[00:49:02.08]
- [Laura] Shoot, sediment
and water contact.

[00:49:05.07]
- [Beth] You should call that
number right now, 478-6020

[00:49:08.06]
- [Judith] I'll give you
the phone, you can call.

[00:49:10.04]
- Water contact?

[00:49:11.03]
I thought it was just fish consumption.

[00:49:13.01]
- Who am I speaking with?

[00:49:15.06]
No, I'm at Bayou d'Inde right now,

[00:49:16.08]
and I just saw the sign
about water contamination

[00:49:20.09]
and sediment contamination.

[00:49:23.06]
So contact with the water
itself is dangerous?

[00:49:29.03]
Yes.

[00:49:32.00]
Okay, so I'm curious as
to what it will do to you

[00:49:34.09]
if you do have contact with the water.

[00:49:38.09]
- [Beth] And why there's
only one bent sign.

[00:49:42.04]
- Oh.

[00:49:45.01]
I called the wrong number.

[00:49:47.02]
Okay, well, I'm on a boat at Bayou d'Inde.

[00:49:50.07]
I'm on a boat.

[00:49:52.01]
Who are you going to connect me with?

[00:49:55.02]
Kathleen, I'm out at Bayou d'Inde

[00:49:57.00]
and it says water and
sediment contamination.

[00:50:00.00]
Does that mean that contact
with the water is dangerous?

[00:50:03.04]
You think it means don't eat the fish,

[00:50:05.01]
'cause there are fishermen
fishing in the area.

[00:50:09.07]
You say don't catch the fish.

[00:50:11.05]
What about the fish that
swim in and eat the sediment

[00:50:13.08]
and then swim out into the lakes?

[00:50:15.03]
So, all of this estuary
is polluted pretty much,

[00:50:17.08]
you shouldn't eat the-

[00:50:20.04]
Who are you going to connect me with?

[00:50:22.03]
[gentle music]

[00:50:32.04]
- [Judith] Water contamination
isn't just a problem

[00:50:34.08]
for swimmers and fishermen.

[00:50:37.03]
A long-term leak from
one vinyl chloride plant

[00:50:40.05]
actually poisoned the
groundwater in Mossville,

[00:50:43.05]
making it the latest of several
African-American communities

[00:50:47.01]
to be forced out by
chemical contamination.

[00:50:51.07]
Some families, like the Fuscelays,

[00:50:54.00]
decided to take their houses with them.

[00:50:56.03]
[engine whirring]

[00:51:00.01]
The plant offered to
buy the residents out.

[00:51:02.08]
In exchange, they had to sign an agreement

[00:51:05.00]
promising that if they ever
developed health problems

[00:51:07.07]
linked to groundwater contamination,

[00:51:09.08]
they would not file suit
against the company.

[00:51:12.09]
[gentle music]

[00:51:22.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:51:32.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:51:42.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:51:52.08]
[gentle music continues]

[00:51:57.06]
- Just put it in the middle.

[00:51:59.08]
Just put it in the middle.

[00:52:01.06]
That'll be good enough.

[00:52:08.00]
- [Judith] For my
parents, the vinyl siding

[00:52:10.00]
was all about affordability
and convenience.

[00:52:14.00]
They didn't know anything
about contaminated groundwater

[00:52:17.00]
or fabricators or angiosarcoma.

[00:52:20.07]
Like my father said, none of
that was written on the box.

[00:52:25.01]
And to be fair, the box was
all my parents had to go on.

[00:52:32.03]
Back home in Merrick,

[00:52:33.04]
most of the dangers of
vinyl are hard to see

[00:52:36.01]
and easy to ignore.

[00:52:38.08]
But there's an old Yiddish saying,

[00:52:40.06]
"If your neighbor's house is
on fire, you're also not safe."

[00:52:45.09]
In other words, if Lake
Charles and Mossville

[00:52:48.08]
are in trouble, so are we.

[00:52:51.08]
[gentle music]

[00:52:56.04]
What if we found an
alternative to the vinyl?

[00:53:01.05]
This is hypothetical.

[00:53:03.00]
If we found an alternative

[00:53:04.04]
that had less risks associated with it

[00:53:06.09]
than PVC vinyl siding, which
is on the outside of our house,

[00:53:09.05]
we could take the vinyl off
and we could make a point,

[00:53:13.07]
one family could make one point,

[00:53:15.05]
even if it was somewhat
symbolic, us, make a point

[00:53:18.06]
that a company, that, not just companies,

[00:53:22.03]
but consumers and companies together

[00:53:24.07]
have to be responsible for the
whole lifecycle of a product.

[00:53:28.07]
Because if this burns,
it's bad for you know,

[00:53:30.05]
it's bad for Bayview Avenue.

[00:53:32.06]
- Well, Judy is trying to indicate

[00:53:34.08]
is not the final product.

[00:53:38.02]
The final vinyl product
may be safe indeed.

[00:53:41.03]
- No, Dad.
- But the process

[00:53:44.05]
to produce that product may not be safe.

[00:53:50.05]
- Judy is saying the disposal
of the vinyl products

[00:53:54.07]
is what's causing all these problems.

[00:53:57.02]
Both, both.

[00:53:59.06]
- The production and the disposal.

[00:54:01.01]
- Right.

[00:54:02.04]
But you didn't really know that

[00:54:03.07]
when you put it on the
outside of the house.

[00:54:05.02]
- No, I didn't.

[00:54:06.04]
- And if you had?

[00:54:07.06]
- I might've still overlooked it.

[00:54:09.05]
- Why?
- Because the vinyl

[00:54:12.08]
resists denting.

[00:54:16.02]
It has various advantages.

[00:54:19.08]
- So you're still happy with it?

[00:54:21.03]
- Yes.
- Even after

[00:54:23.00]
you've been hearing me
talk about this off and on

[00:54:25.01]
for the last three years.

[00:54:26.04]
- Because I still think
that the final product.

[00:54:29.09]
- Dad.
- If the siding

[00:54:31.05]
- Yeah.
- Vinyl siding.

[00:54:32.09]
- Yeah.
- That's on our home.

[00:54:33.08]
- Right?
- Were removed

[00:54:35.05]
- Right.
- A substitute material

[00:54:37.06]
was installed at no cost.

[00:54:39.06]
- To you?
- At no cost to me.

[00:54:42.00]
- Okay.

[00:54:44.05]
- What would happen to that vinyl siding

[00:54:47.07]
that has been removed?

[00:54:49.04]
How would you dispose of that?

[00:54:50.06]
- Well, that's a really good question

[00:54:52.04]
and I've been thinking about it.

[00:54:54.03]
What we've been thinking about actually-

[00:54:56.04]
- Truth was, I hadn't
figured that out yet.

[00:54:59.05]
I had already called
every East Coast facility

[00:55:01.08]
on the Vinyl Institute's list
of official PVC recyclers.

[00:55:06.00]
But most said our used
siding was more trouble

[00:55:08.05]
than it was worth.

[00:55:10.01]
If we could find an alternative

[00:55:12.04]
that has less risk associated with it

[00:55:15.03]
than polyvinyl chloride,

[00:55:18.05]
and we will go out of our way to make sure

[00:55:21.05]
that the vinyl that we take off the house

[00:55:23.02]
does not get burnt, we
could sell the house,

[00:55:25.09]
and you wouldn't even have
to talk about the vinyl

[00:55:28.02]
with any of your prospective buyers.

[00:55:30.00]
- We don't talk about it.

[00:55:31.03]
They see it, so you don't talk about it.

[00:55:32.06]
- But you haven't put it on
the market yet, have you?

[00:55:35.03]
- No, not yet.

[00:55:37.02]
- We could put it on,
we would take this off.

[00:55:40.05]
It would be cutting edge, Dad.

[00:55:42.03]
- Sure.

[00:55:43.08]
Maybe it is in California.

[00:55:47.07]
- Maybe in California.

[00:55:50.03]
[lively music]

[00:55:57.09]
I know she didn't mean to,

[00:55:59.06]
but my mother had sent me
to one of the only places

[00:56:02.04]
in the country where my obsession

[00:56:04.03]
with non-toxic building materials
actually blended right in.

[00:56:08.04]
[lively music]

[00:56:16.08]
- What's that?
- Hemp.

[00:56:18.05]
- Hemp?

[00:56:20.03]
- You're not surprised to
find hemp out here, are you?

[00:56:22.07]
- No, what happens if it burns?

[00:56:25.02]
It's great for the whole community.

[00:56:26.09]
- There you go, people will be happy.

[00:56:29.06]
- HardiBoard.
- Stucco.

[00:56:31.05]
- His whole house is clay?
- Yeah.

[00:56:33.03]
- Have you heard of rammed earth?

[00:56:35.01]
- No.
- They use either foam core

[00:56:37.07]
or raw straw blocks, they
call it, ten-inch blocks.

[00:56:41.01]
And they shoot earth,

[00:56:42.03]
three inches worth of earth
on the exterior for siding.

[00:56:45.05]
You've never heard of that?

[00:56:47.07]
- Could we do that in Long Island?

[00:56:50.00]
- I don't know.
[lively music]

[00:57:00.03]
[lively music continues]

[00:57:10.03]
[lively music continues]

[00:57:20.03]
[lively music continues]

[00:57:26.05]
- I was told this was
gonna be a straw house.

[00:57:28.05]
- Well, yeah.

[00:57:29.07]
But we gotta protect it somehow.

[00:57:32.03]
This is straw inside of
here, it's like a stucco,

[00:57:36.02]
this is an earthen plaster,

[00:57:37.05]
a little bit of cement,
some lime that's hardened,

[00:57:40.08]
lots of sand, and then natural pigments

[00:57:43.06]
that make the exterior color go on here.

[00:57:46.04]
And behind this is straw.

[00:57:49.02]
- Well, this is a long
way from my problem.

[00:57:52.09]
My father.

[00:57:54.07]
- Ooh, this is what your
parents just resided their?

[00:57:57.04]
- Well, not just, about five years ago.

[00:57:59.09]
- Do you visit him?
- He's my father.

[00:58:03.00]
- You don't say meet me out
for coffee someplace else.

[00:58:05.03]
- You wouldn't go in.
- No.

[00:58:06.08]
- You wouldn't even sleep in
a house that had vinyl in it.

[00:58:09.04]
- Push comes to shove,
sure, I might sleep in it.

[00:58:11.02]
I choose not to.

[00:58:13.02]
I would come out to New York

[00:58:14.09]
and help your parents find an alternative,

[00:58:17.03]
and come up with a reasonable solution

[00:58:19.08]
to making their home safe for them

[00:58:23.00]
and for the neighbors and
for everything around us.

[00:58:26.06]
- It's a deal.
- Okay.

[00:58:28.01]
[lively music]

[00:58:30.05]
- I had confidence that Patrick
would find an alternative,

[00:58:34.00]
mostly because I hadn't seen a
single house sided with vinyl

[00:58:37.02]
since I set foot in Marin County.

[00:58:40.03]
But whatever he came up with,

[00:58:42.00]
it seemed unlikely I'd be
able to buy it at Home Depot.

[00:58:46.00]
What vinyl has going for
it is that it's cheap.

[00:58:49.01]
And it's cheap because the
real cost to people's health

[00:58:52.01]
and the planet isn't
factored into the price.

[00:58:55.03]
If it were, it wouldn't be so cheap.

[00:58:59.04]
But if you can't afford a
house in the first place,

[00:59:01.09]
environmentally correct siding

[00:59:03.07]
is just not going to be your top priority.

[00:59:07.09]
- One, two, three.

[00:59:13.05]
- [Judith] As the lead corporate sponsors

[00:59:15.01]
for Habitat for Humanity,

[00:59:16.08]
the Vinyl Institute and the
Chlorine Chemistry Council

[00:59:20.00]
donate millions of dollars in
materials and labor each year

[00:59:23.07]
to build homes for people

[00:59:25.01]
who otherwise couldn't afford them.

[00:59:28.09]
[saw rattling]

[00:59:31.02]
- When you take a look
at all the vinyl products

[00:59:32.08]
that are gonna be in this house,

[00:59:34.06]
it starts with pipe and plumbing,

[00:59:37.02]
electrical boxes and electrical
wiring and window-frames,

[00:59:41.04]
siding and flooring.

[00:59:44.09]
I mean, when you think about it,

[00:59:46.00]
there's a lot of vinyl that's gonna be

[00:59:47.04]
in all of these houses.

[00:59:48.06]
So you'll have a heck of
a lot less maintenance

[00:59:52.02]
and I think that this house will look good

[00:59:54.04]
for many, many years.

[00:59:56.04]
- What's your house made of?

[00:59:58.00]
- Wood. [laughs]

[01:00:00.08]
[lively music]

[01:00:03.09]
- [Judith] The new products unveiled

[01:00:05.03]
at this year's Easter build
were the all-vinyl house

[01:00:11.01]
and the all-vinyl shed,

[01:00:13.01]
which they promised could be put together

[01:00:15.02]
in 20 minutes flat.

[01:00:18.05]
So, even I could put
something like this together?

[01:00:22.09]
- [Builder] Built tough
but not tough to build.

[01:00:25.08]
[hammers banging]
[lively music]

[01:00:42.01]
- I never imagined this
many people would be here

[01:00:44.02]
to help me build my home.

[01:00:46.02]
I thought, oh, I don't know what to say.

[01:00:50.04]
I just thank all y'all
for coming and helping me.

[01:00:53.03]
[lively music]

[01:00:56.09]
- All right, on three.

[01:00:57.07]
One, two, three
- [All] Vinyl!

[01:01:01.03]
[gentle music]

[01:01:04.07]
- I had a lot of questions
for the Vinyl Institute,

[01:01:07.09]
but I didn't ask them.

[01:01:09.08]
After all, at the end of these
five days of construction,

[01:01:13.03]
twenty-five families
were going to move into

[01:01:15.03]
their own homes.

[01:01:16.02]
- Praise God for the joy of this day.

[01:01:18.05]
A house that is a home.

[01:01:20.02]
Let us pray.
- It wasn't exactly

[01:01:22.03]
the right time to bring up dioxin,

[01:01:24.04]
or angiosarcoma of the liver.

[01:01:29.01]
So I went back to New York and
called the Vinyl Institute,

[01:01:32.07]
hoping to set up a more
formal, on-camera interview.

[01:01:36.08]
We definitely wanna come.

[01:01:38.05]
It's not quite clear whether
we can bring, you know,

[01:01:41.09]
did you decide whether your lawyer

[01:01:43.09]
is coming with you for sure?

[01:01:45.06]
Before they would even
consider being on camera

[01:01:48.04]
they wanted to get a comfort level.

[01:01:50.05]
So I suggested meeting
for lunch in New York

[01:01:53.04]
at a little place on 54th and
9th called the VYNL diner.

[01:01:58.02]
Just in case this was our only meeting,

[01:02:00.03]
I hired a paparazzi photographer

[01:02:02.04]
and planted him in a
truck across the street.

[01:02:07.02]
Over lunch, I mostly
answered their questions,

[01:02:10.00]
and tried to work in a few of my own.

[01:02:12.06]
At one point, I brought up dioxin.

[01:02:15.04]
One of them held up two sugar packets

[01:02:17.01]
and assured me that those
eight little grams of sweetener

[01:02:20.03]
represented all the dioxin released

[01:02:22.04]
in PVC production each year.

[01:02:25.06]
I should have had a comeback
for that, but I didn't.

[01:02:29.03]
So when they finally agreed
to an on-camera interview,

[01:02:32.02]
I started to worry that
maybe I was in over my head.

[01:02:35.07]
[camera clicking]

[01:02:38.04]
So I focused on working out
logistics for the interview.

[01:02:41.07]
[lively music]

[01:02:46.04]
We wanted a tour of a vinyl plant.

[01:02:48.06]
They suggested a Habitat
for Humanity house instead.

[01:02:52.00]
We countered with a location
in the middle of Lake Charles,

[01:02:54.09]
in front of a fountain donated
by a local PVC manufacturer,

[01:02:58.05]
but they had problems with that too.

[01:03:01.01]
Finally, we just left it up to them,

[01:03:03.04]
and they chose to hold the
interview in Baton Rouge,

[01:03:06.02]
in the heart of an area in
Louisiana known as Cancer Alley,

[01:03:10.02]
in a hotel at the intersection
of Corporate and Trust.

[01:03:14.01]
[lively music]

[01:03:18.06]
The night before the interview

[01:03:20.00]
I had what you might call
a crisis of confidence.

[01:03:23.03]
I had been cramming for weeks,

[01:03:25.02]
but I was going up against a
guy with a PhD in chemistry

[01:03:28.07]
who'd been working for the vinyl industry

[01:03:30.05]
for the last 22 years.

[01:03:33.02]
I needed a coach, so I
called Monique Harden,

[01:03:36.03]
an environmental lawyer
who had a lot of experience

[01:03:39.00]
dealing with the Vinyl Institute.

[01:03:40.07]
So anyway, I'm gonna just practice, okay?

[01:03:42.03]
- Right, right.
- All right.

[01:03:43.06]
- Between 1972 and 1974, from
everything that I understand,

[01:03:49.07]
you know, if Dr. Maltoni
was doing these studies

[01:03:52.01]
I'm in trouble.

[01:03:53.06]
- The dioxin levels in the
blood of Mossville residents

[01:03:57.06]
is significantly high.

[01:03:58.09]
- Do you think it's
crazy for someone like me

[01:04:00.06]
to be going head to
head with them tomorrow?

[01:04:02.03]
- I think a good strategy

[01:04:03.08]
overall is how you order your questions.

[01:04:06.03]
- There are people who
are very, very, very sick

[01:04:09.07]
who live in Mossville across the street

[01:04:12.01]
from the facilities that you represent

[01:04:14.00]
here in Louisiana.

[01:04:15.06]
Now, must we wait until their illness

[01:04:19.01]
is directly correlated to your emissions,

[01:04:21.08]
or do we try to address
your emissions now,

[01:04:24.08]
before everybody's dead?

[01:04:26.03]
How am I doing?

[01:04:27.07]
- You're not doing very well.

[01:04:29.07]
- Okay, so.
- Black skirt and red tops.

[01:04:32.04]
of course I have a bias in favor of that.

[01:04:35.07]
All right?

[01:04:36.05]
You're welcome.

[01:04:39.04]
- [Judith] The Vinyl Institute
had agreed to the interview

[01:04:41.05]
with the following ground rules, no props.

[01:04:45.04]
Which meant no sugar packets, no salt,

[01:04:48.03]
and there went my question about sex toys.

[01:04:50.08]
[lively music]

[01:04:53.01]
No surprise documents or videotapes.

[01:04:55.08]
No questions outside the
expertise of their expert,

[01:04:59.06]
and no more than thirty
minutes for the whole thing.

[01:05:02.08]
I was told to leave my
blue vinyl siding at home.

[01:05:05.08]
[lively music]

[01:05:11.04]
We decided to shoot the interview

[01:05:12.09]
like a typical magazine format show,

[01:05:15.05]
one camera on the interviewer,
one on the interviewee.

[01:05:19.03]
Then they told us they
wanted to film us too,

[01:05:21.08]
so we brought an extra camera

[01:05:23.03]
so we could film them,
filming us, filming them.

[01:05:26.02]
Are we rolling?
- We are.

[01:05:27.07]
- Yeah, okay.
- We're all set.

[01:05:28.08]
- All right, so it's a chemical
fact that when PVC burns,

[01:05:32.05]
it can create dioxin,

[01:05:33.08]
one of the most carcinogenic
substances ever generated.

[01:05:36.05]
The interview went more
or less like I expected.

[01:05:39.03]
I asked my pre-approved questions

[01:05:41.02]
and he did his job, really well in fact.

[01:05:45.01]
- Almost any fuel that you can imagine,

[01:05:46.09]
you will make some dioxin.

[01:05:48.09]
Dioxin is a material that has both natural

[01:05:52.08]
and man-made sources.

[01:05:55.01]
They're finding dioxin in
clays that were laid down

[01:05:58.04]
45 million years ago.

[01:06:00.05]
It's all around us.

[01:06:01.06]
It's not a good chemical.

[01:06:03.01]
And the good news is

[01:06:04.07]
that dioxin emissions to the
environment are declining,

[01:06:07.04]
and have been declining
for the last 30 years.

[01:06:09.09]
- In 1972, a European study
by Dr. Maltoni concluded

[01:06:13.08]
that exposure to vinyl
chloride was causing

[01:06:16.01]
angiosarcoma of the liver
in laboratory animals.

[01:06:19.02]
Two years later BF Goodrich
vinyl chloride workers

[01:06:21.09]
were reported dead from the same disease.

[01:06:24.06]
Was the vinyl industry aware
of Dr. Maltoni's findings

[01:06:27.05]
prior to BF Goodrich's alarming news?

[01:06:30.05]
- I don't know the answer to that

[01:06:33.02]
since I wasn't in the
industry in those days.

[01:06:34.09]
I don't know who knew what in those days.

[01:06:36.09]
But what I can tell you is,

[01:06:38.04]
it was a very short time
before they reported

[01:06:40.06]
the Maltoni study to the government,

[01:06:42.01]
and before actions started

[01:06:43.09]
that eventually changed
emissions and exposure to VCM.

[01:06:47.09]
Those people were exposed
to very high levels

[01:06:50.03]
under technology that is
obviously obsolete today.

[01:06:53.04]
It is well known that the association

[01:06:55.06]
of angiosarcoma of the liver
is with very high exposures

[01:06:58.05]
to vinyl chloride, not with low exposures.

[01:07:01.01]
- What about the fabricators,

[01:07:02.01]
the people who fabricate vinyl siding,

[01:07:04.02]
the siding on my parents' house,

[01:07:05.05]
the PVC pipes in their bathroom?

[01:07:07.07]
- When these fabricators,

[01:07:08.09]
when their operations are
analyzed for vinyl chloride,

[01:07:11.07]
you find none.

[01:07:12.09]
- None, not even one PPM?
- Not even one PPM, none.

[01:07:17.02]
- So are the fabricators being studied?

[01:07:18.07]
- The fabricators aren't
being studied themselves,

[01:07:21.01]
but we have done studies in
their facilities to analyze

[01:07:24.00]
for whether there's vinyl chloride there,

[01:07:25.08]
and you don't find any.

[01:07:26.07]
- So that's a study that
you guys could give us

[01:07:28.05]
if we wanted to look at it?

[01:07:29.07]
- It's been done a number of years ago.

[01:07:31.05]
It's clear that the
fabricators are not at risk.

[01:07:34.00]
- Now, I have seen documentation

[01:07:36.04]
that there are some fabricators
that actually have had

[01:07:39.00]
angiosarcoma of the liver and are dead.

[01:07:41.02]
- I think you'd have to show me the study,

[01:07:42.07]
because I'm unaware of that.

[01:07:43.07]
- It's not a study,
well, it's not a study,

[01:07:45.00]
it's a death report.

[01:07:46.06]
You know, those reports that
people get after they're dead.

[01:07:50.00]
- I'm sorry, I'd have to see
what you're referring to.

[01:07:54.00]
- Okay.

[01:07:57.05]
- [Sheila] If you are ready,

[01:07:58.04]
if you ask your last question, we'll be,

[01:08:00.05]
we're already past 30 minutes.

[01:08:03.04]
- Should I ask another one or?

[01:08:04.08]
- [Dan] Ask you a last question.

[01:08:07.02]
- We think there are
complications to recycling PVC.

[01:08:09.07]
Is there a chance that
that's why major companies

[01:08:12.02]
like IKEA, General Motors,
Nike, Mattel, Honda

[01:08:15.07]
are phasing PVC out of their product lines

[01:08:17.05]
such as furniture, cars, sneakers,

[01:08:19.01]
IV bags, and Barbie Dolls?

[01:08:21.02]
- PVC is a good product.

[01:08:23.02]
PVC is used in a number
of different areas.

[01:08:25.04]
People choose materials for-

[01:08:26.08]
- We don't have time.
- Okay.

[01:08:27.09]
- We actually, I'm sorry to interrupt,

[01:08:29.06]
but we have very limited time
and it's about to be over.

[01:08:32.07]
So, why did those companies
make those choices?

[01:08:36.01]
Please tell us.

[01:08:37.00]
- Companies make choices
about materials all the time.

[01:08:39.07]
They choose PVC, they
choose other materials.

[01:08:42.00]
It seems that the only time
that we hear news about it

[01:08:43.09]
is when they've chosen to
use something other than PVC.

[01:08:46.03]
People choose PVC as well.

[01:08:53.02]
- I think we're done.
- We're definitely done.

[01:08:56.01]
So.

[01:08:57.08]
- Thank you.
- Thank you.

[01:08:58.06]
- [Dan] Thank you very much.

[01:09:04.05]
- It was 30 minutes, 31 minutes, probably.

[01:09:09.03]
Bill Carroll wasn't scared of me.

[01:09:11.06]
He had no reason to be.

[01:09:13.03]
So far, the American vinyl
industry has been involved

[01:09:15.09]
in a few civil suits and
a handful of companies

[01:09:18.07]
have had to pay some fines.

[01:09:21.07]
But Bill probably wouldn't be so confident

[01:09:24.00]
if he lived in Venice.

[01:09:29.01]
There, the government is
prosecuting a landmark case

[01:09:32.01]
against PVC manufacturers,

[01:09:34.05]
for knowingly polluting the Venice Lagoon

[01:09:37.02]
and endangering the
health of their employees.

[01:09:41.04]
But it isn't the companies

[01:09:42.06]
that have been named in this suit.

[01:09:44.06]
It's 31 individual vinyl executives,

[01:09:48.01]
and they're each being tried as criminals.

[01:09:51.06]
The charge is manslaughter.

[01:09:55.06]
Who are you here for?

[01:09:57.05]
[woman speaking Italian]

[01:10:07.04]
[woman speaking Italian continues]

[01:10:17.05]
[gentle music]

[01:10:26.04]
- Dr. Maltoni was called
as a witness in the trial

[01:10:29.09]
and he testified that his
studies had clearly predicted

[01:10:32.07]
the human health effects
of vinyl chloride exposure

[01:10:35.06]
as early as 1972.

[01:10:39.06]
Since then over 100 former
Enichem workers have died.

[01:10:44.03]
600 others suffer health problems

[01:10:46.08]
linked to vinyl chloride exposure.

[01:10:50.04]
And even though the families

[01:10:51.06]
have already been compensated financially,

[01:10:54.04]
they still go to the trial day after day.

[01:10:57.02]
[gentle music]

[01:10:59.09]
[attendees talking indistinctly]

[01:11:09.06]
[Ampelio speaking Italian]

[01:11:19.05]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[01:11:29.06]
[Maltoni speaking Italian]

[01:11:34.06]
[Ampelio speaking Italian]

[01:11:44.05]
[Ampelio speaking Italian continues]

[01:11:47.03]
[gentle music]

[01:11:56.06]
[woman speaking Italian]

[01:12:05.08]
[woman speaking Italian continues]

[01:12:15.08]
[woman speaking Italian continues]

[01:12:20.04]
[gentle music]

[01:12:30.04]
[gentle music continues]

[01:12:40.04]
[gentle music continues]

[01:12:44.09]
- If the industry knew
about its shortcomings

[01:12:48.09]
many, many years ago
why wasn't it brought?

[01:12:52.03]
- Because they didn't care.

[01:12:54.01]
- Because they were
interested in only one thing.

[01:12:56.00]
- Money.
- Look at the bottom line

[01:12:58.02]
of each year's sales,

[01:13:02.00]
and as long as you can
keep selling this stuff,

[01:13:04.09]
why take it off the market?

[01:13:07.04]
My only sorrows that I spent
the money for the vinyl,

[01:13:10.01]
had I known this beforehand,
I wouldn't have bought it.

[01:13:20.00]
- [Judith] My parents were
starting to come around.

[01:13:22.06]
But it was one thing to admit

[01:13:24.03]
that putting the vinyl on
the house had been a mistake,

[01:13:27.09]
taking it off the house was
something else altogether.

[01:13:32.05]
But you believe in what
we're doing, right?

[01:13:35.07]
- Yes, you're trying to
save the environment.

[01:13:37.05]
Yes, I believe in that.

[01:13:43.02]
Had we known what you're telling us now,

[01:13:45.06]
we never would have put it up.

[01:13:47.03]
And I'm sure people all around us

[01:13:49.05]
wouldn't be using it either.

[01:13:50.04]
- So that's the point.

[01:13:53.01]
It's not like we're people
who've never been hurt before

[01:13:55.08]
by toxics and chemicals.

[01:13:58.09]
We're the perfect family to
take the vinyl off the house.

[01:14:04.05]
- Bring me the materials, show it to me.

[01:14:09.04]
- Either my mother was getting it,

[01:14:11.03]
or she just wanted me to go away.

[01:14:14.00]
In any case, I was ready.

[01:14:16.08]
I'd already done a little
thinking about materials,

[01:14:19.05]
and I had set my parameters.

[01:14:22.00]
I wanted something that could be recycled,

[01:14:24.07]
that would never hurt anybody
at any stage of its lifecycle,

[01:14:27.09]
and that the average
consumer could afford.

[01:14:32.07]
[lively music]

[01:14:40.02]
[zip rattling]
[lively music]

[01:14:51.06]
- This is flat, this is cold,

[01:14:53.09]
this is not personal.

[01:14:56.01]
And for me, that's an
important aspect of a home

[01:14:59.07]
is that hand appeal,

[01:15:02.05]
and Old World craftsmanship
means something to me,

[01:15:06.00]
and hand finishes, although
they can be more expensive,

[01:15:11.09]
they embody the building
with a different spirit.

[01:15:16.02]
And that's something
that's important to me,

[01:15:17.09]
is that a living space
has spirit, it has soul,

[01:15:22.06]
it's someplace that's
special that you want to be.

[01:15:28.01]
- Look how, that's beautiful.

[01:15:31.00]
- That's not the issue
that I have in mind.

[01:15:36.02]
We have to sell this place, Judy.

[01:15:37.05]
- I know, but Mom.

[01:15:38.09]
- With stucco on it, on this
house, it's not gonna sell.

[01:15:41.08]
- Are you kidding?

[01:15:43.03]
- No, I'm not kidding.

[01:15:44.02]
- What if we asked,
just for the hell of it,

[01:15:45.09]
just what if we asked somebody,
could we ask somebody?

[01:15:48.00]
- 'Cause it's gonna look
like a little adobe hut.

[01:15:50.08]
- I was thinking that the, the
coral red would be beautiful.

[01:15:54.06]
- It doesn't go in this neighborhood.

[01:15:56.06]
- Mom, there's stucco everywhere.

[01:15:57.06]
- I don't care.

[01:15:58.04]
But those other stucco
houses are different.

[01:16:00.08]
A different style.

[01:16:02.02]
And this is gonna look
like a little adobe hut

[01:16:04.09]
on the outside.
- You think?

[01:16:05.08]
- Yes.
[lively music]

[01:16:08.03]
- [Judith] Patty's initial
consultation with my folks

[01:16:10.08]
was not exactly a success.

[01:16:12.09]
But he stuck around for a few days

[01:16:14.07]
and eventually they warmed up to him.

[01:16:18.09]
- If you can get up on the roof,

[01:16:21.04]
the thing that my wife
won't let me do any longer

[01:16:23.02]
- Yeah.

[01:16:25.01]
- Notice the angle that it's at right now.

[01:16:26.07]
- Sure.

[01:16:27.08]
- It's gotta be turned five
or six degrees that way.

[01:16:32.07]
- Sure.
- Just a little bit.

[01:16:33.06]
- I just want to do a little rotation.

[01:16:34.09]
- Yeah, just a little rotation.

[01:16:36.01]
- Clockwise.

[01:16:37.00]
Gimme a pair of pliers, and
a couple of screwdrivers,

[01:16:39.06]
and a ladder, and cut me loose.

[01:16:41.03]
- You got it, that's a deal.

[01:16:43.00]
- Look at that, here I am
shaking on camera again.

[01:16:45.02]
Where am I gonna end up now?

[01:16:47.07]
- Can you hear me?
- T10-4, big mama.

[01:16:51.03]
- Okay, it's very fuzzy, and the sound

[01:16:54.06]
isn't coming in good.

[01:16:56.02]
- I am making some adjustments.

[01:16:58.02]
- Much better, pretty good.

[01:17:00.09]
- Yeah, this is a good angle.

[01:17:02.06]
- Dad, do you wanna go take a look

[01:17:03.07]
and see what you think?

[01:17:05.07]
- All right.
- Because we're in

[01:17:06.06]
the position that they've said it's good.

[01:17:08.07]
- Pat, you've earned
yourself one or two beers,

[01:17:10.07]
as much as you want.

[01:17:12.04]
- Too bad I don't drink, but thank you.

[01:17:14.02]
- How about some pizza?
- Pizza would be great

[01:17:16.07]
if we can find pizza without cheese.

[01:17:18.06]
[lively music]

[01:17:22.05]
- [Judith] In the end, my mother vetoed

[01:17:24.02]
everything Patty suggested,

[01:17:26.01]
even the most affordable solutions.

[01:17:28.05]
Either it didn't suit the house,

[01:17:30.00]
it didn't go with the neighborhood,

[01:17:31.05]
or it couldn't be put on in
time for the High Holidays,

[01:17:34.02]
which were coming up fast.

[01:17:37.04]
The bottom line was,
whatever material we choose

[01:17:40.03]
was going to have to look more or less

[01:17:42.00]
like the vinyl siding,

[01:17:43.06]
which itself had been
embossed to look like wood.

[01:17:47.09]
So I headed for upstate New York,

[01:17:50.00]
in search of a barn
that could be the future

[01:17:52.02]
outside of my parents' house.

[01:17:54.04]
[lively music]

[01:18:04.03]
[lively music continues]

[01:18:06.09]
You'd put this on the
outside of your house, right?

[01:18:09.04]
- I would buy this lumber
and use this lumber.

[01:18:12.00]
- Yeah.
- It's way stronger

[01:18:13.00]
than any wood you can get nowadays.

[01:18:14.05]
Way, way stronger.

[01:18:16.00]
[wood cracking]

[01:18:23.02]
- Huh?

[01:18:25.09]
- This is gonna be hard
for my mother to picture.

[01:18:31.06]
[chainsaw whirring]

[01:18:38.02]
I'd done my homework on the
reclaimed wood business,

[01:18:40.07]
and I knew all the right questions to ask

[01:18:44.00]
including what kind of paint
had been used on the barn.

[01:18:47.01]
[wood cracking]

[01:18:52.01]
Unfortunately, the answer was lead.

[01:18:58.01]
[lively music]

[01:19:03.00]
In the midst of this wood crisis,

[01:19:04.09]
I did a round of research
on environmentally-friendly

[01:19:07.07]
new plastics that one day
could very well replace vinyl,

[01:19:11.07]
but I couldn't find one that
could be used as house siding.

[01:19:15.00]
Then I learned about
sustainably harvested timber,

[01:19:17.07]
and considered cedar
shakes from Eugene, Oregon,

[01:19:20.05]
but they couldn't be
delivered by Rosh Hashanah.

[01:19:23.07]
There was also the siding
milled from petrified trees

[01:19:26.06]
that had been dredged up from
the bottom of the Great Lakes,

[01:19:29.07]
but trucking it to Merrick
was prohibitively expensive.

[01:19:33.02]
[lively music]

[01:19:35.08]
Finally, a reclaimed wood
specialist in Vermont

[01:19:39.01]
sold us some lumber that
had once been the roof

[01:19:41.07]
of an old mill in Nashua, New Hampshire.

[01:19:45.07]
It cost a fortune.

[01:19:47.03]
[lively music]

[01:19:57.03]
[lively music continues]

[01:20:07.03]
[lively music continues]

[01:20:08.09]
It wasn't until I wrote the check

[01:20:10.05]
that I realized what I'd done.

[01:20:13.02]
I'd been so focused on
finding a building material

[01:20:15.09]
that was recyclable,
and didn't harm anyone

[01:20:18.04]
at any stage of its lifecycle,

[01:20:20.06]
that I had let go of the one thing

[01:20:22.04]
that probably mattered
most, affordability.

[01:20:26.07]
Because if my parents
had had to pay for this,

[01:20:29.03]
they couldn't have.

[01:20:31.02]
I paid for it out of my film budget,

[01:20:34.00]
which was partly financed
by the settlement I received

[01:20:36.07]
because DES exposure gave me cancer.

[01:20:40.00]
I like to call it my uterus money.

[01:20:44.02]
Of course, most middle-class Americans

[01:20:46.05]
don't have uterus money.

[01:20:49.00]
But since I did, I wanted to make a point.

[01:20:52.01]
That consumers have the
power to transform a market

[01:20:55.04]
and make a hazardous product obsolete.

[01:20:59.01]
Consider asbestos,

[01:21:00.09]
one of the primary building blocks

[01:21:02.05]
of post-World War Two America,

[01:21:04.05]
used for everything from homes and schools

[01:21:07.05]
to the pipes that carry drinking water.

[01:21:10.05]
Like with vinyl, the asbestos
industry knew all along

[01:21:13.08]
that the manufacture of their
product was causing cancer,

[01:21:17.05]
and they hid the truth.

[01:21:19.08]
It wasn't until news got
out that workers were dying

[01:21:22.07]
that consumers realized
they too were at risk,

[01:21:25.08]
and stopped buying asbestos products.

[01:21:28.08]
Liability rose, consumer demand fell,

[01:21:31.08]
and manufacturers started
to devise alternatives.

[01:21:36.01]
So who knows.

[01:21:38.05]
Maybe the next great product revolution

[01:21:41.04]
could start with our house.

[01:21:45.03]
- We started on this wall, right?

[01:21:47.09]
- You started right here.
- That's right.

[01:21:49.02]
I can't believe you're doing this.

[01:21:51.04]
It looks like it was
done yesterday, right?

[01:21:54.02]
- Yeah, this has nothing
to do with your work, Jer.

[01:21:58.04]
- This is a Side Swiper.

[01:22:00.09]
It's a siding removal tool.

[01:22:03.07]
This is made for taking off vinyl siding?

[01:22:05.07]
- That's all it does.

[01:22:06.07]
[lively music]
[siding cracking]

[01:22:16.06]
[lively music continues]
[siding cracking continues]

[01:22:26.06]
[lively music continues]
[siding cracking continues]

[01:22:36.06]
[lively music continues]
[siding cracking continues]

[01:22:46.03]
[lively music continues]
[siding cracking continues]

[01:22:48.05]
- So that was something that he put in.

[01:22:51.03]
- Yeah.

[01:22:53.06]
- It'll be very much like that.

[01:22:55.02]
- Very much like that.
- Smell it.

[01:22:57.09]
Smell, it's good.

[01:22:58.07]
- Does it have an odor?
- It has an odor.

[01:23:01.00]
- It's pine.
- It's pretty, huh?

[01:23:03.09]
- Yes.
- Mom said,

[01:23:06.01]
she sort of had a thing
with me today, and.

[01:23:09.09]
- She doesn't like the siding.

[01:23:11.00]
- I don't know, I don't think
she's looked closely at it.

[01:23:13.01]
I don't think she.
- What is it

[01:23:15.01]
that she objects to?

[01:23:16.05]
Does she object to the bead?

[01:23:18.06]
- She hasn't looked closely at it.

[01:23:19.09]
She really hasn't.

[01:23:20.08]
Not since it arrived.
- No, she hasn't come

[01:23:21.07]
outside at all.
- She hasn't, no.

[01:23:23.04]
- She hasn't come outside.
- It's a protest.

[01:23:24.03]
It's still a remainder-
- Mom's doing a sit-in.

[01:23:30.08]
By this point, my mother had had enough.

[01:23:33.08]
She hadn't ever said no
to taking the vinyl off,

[01:23:36.09]
but she never exactly said yes either.

[01:23:40.02]
It was my father who pushed for it.

[01:23:42.06]
He knew he wouldn't be
able to leave me the house,

[01:23:44.08]
since they were planning to sell it,

[01:23:46.07]
so he wanted to give me
the outside of it now.

[01:23:51.03]
My mother's only request
was that we keep the house

[01:23:54.00]
the same shade of blue

[01:23:55.06]
and make sure that the next
owners wouldn't have to paint it

[01:23:58.06]
for a really long time.

[01:24:01.08]
So the 100 year-old pine

[01:24:03.09]
was treated with the least
toxic blue stain we could find.

[01:24:08.01]
It was custom-made and
special-ordered from Canada.

[01:24:12.00]
[lively music]

[01:24:22.00]
[lively music continues]

[01:24:32.00]