Erin Brockovich.

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                                                                                Constance McKinnon

                                                                                   Carlson, per.8/9        

                                                                                         10-7-03

                                                           Erin Brockovich

        When the people of Hinkley, CA experience a variety of health issues, with the help of Erin Brockovich, the company PG&E is held responsible for these conditions.  The Hinkley residents and the small firm that Brockovich works for believes that the cause of these medical illnesses is due to the hexavalent chromium (chromium VI, or chrome 6) in the water.  Such accusations are surely false, for Hinkely can not be held responsible for such problems as miscarriages, birth defects and all types of cancer, for chromium VI is not proved to be liable for such extreme situations. “No one agent could possibly have caused more than a handful of the symptoms described, and Chromium 6 in the water almost certainly couldn’t have caused any of them,” states author, attorney and science/health issues specialist, Michael Fumento.

        First, many studies have shown that only significant amounts of chromium VI can cause serious injury.  The water in Hinkley had a mere .58 parts per million in their water, while rodents have been tested for illness and only with more than 200 ppm have their been dramatic malfunctions in these testings.  In a laboratory testing done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rats were given water with 25 ppm of chromium VI, and a second set of rats were given distilled water and “no significant adverse effects were seen in appearance, weight gain, or food consumption, and there were no pathologic changes in the blood or other tissues in any treatment group,” (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, integrated risk information system).  Dogs dosed at 11.2 ppm showed no sign of illness, while Hinkley’s water dosage of chromium 6 was a mere .58, and studies from EPA report that even a dosage of 400ppm, chromium VI has no toxic effect on the reproductive system in mice and rats.

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        In the movie when Brockovich seeks professional scientific advice from a professor at a local college, the expert informs her that repeated exposure of chromium VI can be held responsible for liver failure, chronic headaches or nosebleeds, respiratory disease, heart failure, liver failure, reproductive failure, bone or organ deterioration and any type of cancer.  Obviously this can not be accurate, considering that “ repeated studies of communities adjacent to landfills packed with chromium 6, including that detectable in residents’ urine, have found no ill health effects, cancer or otherwise,” (Michael Fumento, “Erin Brockovich Exposed”).  Residents near a New Jersey landfill ...

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