Cincinnati, 1998: Successful business lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) finds himself in a quandary when two farmers draw his attention to strange occurrences in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Numerous cattle on their farm are mysteriously dying. The farmers suspect that the neighboring chemical company DuPont, for whom Bilott himself works as a lawyer, is behind it. Despite the conflict of interest, the lawyer is determined to solve the case without reservation. He stumbles upon an environmental scandal of immense proportions that will take almost 20 years to clear up.

Dark Waters tells the true story of lawyer Rob Bilott, who single-handedly took on one of the world's largest chemical companies and brought the so-called Teflon scandal to light. This involved the chemical PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), which is highly carcinogenic and was mainly used for the production of telfon for normal household items like non-stick pans.

Like around 12,000 other chemicals, PFOA belongs to the group of PFAS (perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), the "perpetual chemicals". So called because they accumulate in soil, plants, drinking water and blood. They are not biodegradable and can cause serious illness. They are widely used in everyday life, e.g. in outdoor clothing, pizza boxes, cosmetics, shoes and baking paper.

Following the film, we are offering a discussion round with Patricia Klatt, biology graduate, science journalist and lecturer for the "Science-Media-Communication" course at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, for all those interested. Patricia Klatt has been working intensively on the topic of "eternity chemicals" for around ten years. She lives in Mittelbaden, a region where the soil is widely contaminated with PFAS. She has been running the pfas-dilemma.info website since 2021.

Admission is free.

Further information is available from CampusKultur at www.campuskultur-kl.de.