In 2018, when The Devil We Know premiered at Sundance, it pulled back the curtain on something the chemical industry had long hoped would remain out of public view. The documentary exposed how DuPont knowingly contaminated water supplies in West Virginia with PFOA, a so-called "forever chemical," for decades, while internal memos documented awareness of the health risks. A year later, Dark Waters brought that story to a wider audience, dramatizing the legal battle that finally forced accountability. Those films mattered because they made an invisible problem visible. They also triggered something else that deserves recognition: real regulatory action.
Since then, the United States and the European Union have moved decisively on PFAS. The EPA has established enforceable drinking-water limits for PFOA and PFOS, designated them as hazardous substances under Superfund law, and pushed forward cleanup and accountability mechanisms. Manufacturers have phased PFAS out of food packaging. The Department of Defense is eliminating PFAS-based firefighting foam by 2025. Across the Atlantic, the EU is advancing a comprehensive restriction under REACH covering more than 10,000 PFAS substances. Progress is real, and it should be acknowledged.
