Abstract
The issues of chemical pollution and environmental health are crucial in the world of nowadays. This paper examines the film “Erin Brokovich” and the process of research and data collection conducted by the legal agency through such methods as personal interviews, inspection, medical and scientific report. The movie review also focuses on the social need assessment from the side of the law firm and from the side of PG&E and the factors that complicated the research.
“Erin Brockovich” Movie Review
The movie “Erin Brockovich” raises an important today subject of chemical pollution and its outcomes. It portrays a situation when a powerful company that caused serious health issues for multiple families refused to admit that it was their fault. The only protectors of innocent victims of chemical contamination are the lawyers of a small firm, whose only chance to win the case, is to collect absolute proofs of the company’s fault.
The film called “Erin Brockovich” was released in 2000 and immediately became one of the most popular and inspirational films in the US. The creators of this movie claimed that it was based on real events and investigations. The topic raised in the film is environmental pollution and its influence on the society and public health. The story described in “Erin Brockovich” is not the first case of chemical plants and factories hiding the information about the impact they make on the environment and people.
A story of massive pollution of ground waters with a poisonous chemical called hexavalent chromium destroyed health of many families causing lung problems, infertility, chronic nose bleeds, various types of cancer and many other diseases for adults and children. The research was based on revelation of the presence of the chemical in public water supply systems, and then in proving that health issues of the plaintiffs that lived on the polluted territory were caused by hexavalent chromium. Finally, the research was determined to prove that the pollution of ground waters with chromium six was created by the company called Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).
Data for the research was collected by means of interviews. The researchers interviewed plaintiffs and gathered information about the states of their health, their visits to a hospital. Besides, interview with a professional scientist informed the researcher about the types of chemical that could be the main danger. Moreover, the researcher collected data from the reports of Water Board to find documented proofs of the fact that chromium used by Pacific Gas and Electric was hexavalent and not chromium three as it was claimed during the seminars with the inhabitants of the polluted area.
A medical report on hexavalent chromium and the effects it makes on human bodies helped the researchers to connect the complaints of the plaintiffs and the activities of PG&E on the territory of their town. The researcher personally collected the samples of water from the polluted area for further scientific analysis of toxicologists and geologists. This means that the ways of data collection the research relied on beside the interviews included reports, scientific research and inspection.
The need assessment conducted by the researchers was directed at addressing the society’s need for safety. The researcher assessed the risk the residents of the polluted district underwent by means of providing social awareness about the issues and about the effects created by the chemicals contaminating the ground water. Besides, demanding the financial compensation from Pacific Gas and Electric the researchers assess the need for pain control, as seriously sick families needed a lot of money to be able to pay for their medical treatment and numerous surgeries.
The company that caused the penetration of hexavalent chromium into the ground waters was aware of this happening and took various measures to cover what they did. They use needs assessment to hide the evidence of the result of their work and avoid court action from the side of residents who became the victims of contamination. PG&E provided the sick families with costs for medical examination.
The results of the examination were fabricated so that the patients remained unaware of the risks they underwent. Besides, the company also printed out and sent pamphlets with information about chromium they used to stop corrosion of their equipment. This can be seen as the assessment of risk, but in fact it was an act of disinformation, because the pamphlets sent by PG&E stated that the company used chromium three, which was actually good for human health (DeVito, 2000).
The researchers were the law firm with limited finances, which did not have much power. Their theoretical chances of winning the case against a big, rich and powerful company were very small. At the same time, ethically, the lawyers representing multiple families suffering from the severe consequences of chemical contamination could not drop the case because the issue was very serious and had many innocent victims whose lives were ruined because of a corporate deceit. Besides, the interviewer, who conducted personal conversations with the families of plaintiffs, grew very close with some of them.
After getting emotionally attached to some of the sick people, she promised them to keep fighting PG&E. Emotional attachment and ethical implications complicated the work of lawyers. They no longer were dealing with laws, regulations and dry facts. They were acting as the only protector of innocent people, who were doomed to suffer for the rest of their lives because of irresponsible actions of PG&E. None of other law firms agreed to cooperate with the researchers. This is why rejecting this case was not an option because it would mean leaving the families of seriously sick people to deal with their problems without any help.
Reference List
DeVito, D. (Producer) & Soderbergh, S. (2000). Erin Brockovich. United States: Universal Pictures.