Mark Ruffalo should stick to playing a doctor in the movies and stay out of spreading false information about the water crisis in Flint, Mich., a prominent scientist said Monday.
Marc Edwards, a drinking water safety expert at Virginia Tech University, wrote in a blog post Monday that Ruffalo has been spreading misinformation about bathing and showering in Flint. Edwards said Ruffalo and his group, Water Defense, have told Flint residents that their water has a chemical in it with no testing standards that make it unsafe to bathe.
Edwards wrote that the chemical Ruffalo referred to, discussed on CNN and also in press releases, is chloroform, which does have Environmental Protection Agency standards and is common in tap water.
In his statements, and quoting a “chief scientist” who Edwards says has no scientific degree or background, Ruffalo said it’s possible the chloroform was coming from corroded lead leaching off the city’s water pipes or galvanized iron. Edwards called that an “absurd hypothesis.”
“Water Defense came to Flint after a federal emergency was declared, and has exploited the fears of traumatized Flint residents, whose unfortunate prior experience taught them to carefully listen to views of outsiders who question authority,” Edwards wrote. “Flint residents can be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but not everyone who challenges the claims of the EPA, [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and state of Michigan are automatically correct.”
Ruffalo and Water Defense told Edwards they’ve backed off their claim that Flint’s water is not safe to bathe in and said they’ve only said that they don’t know if it’s not safe.
“Excuse me? Isn’t this akin to standing up and screaming ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded movie theater — then, after watching panicked people stampede to the exits and getting hurt, claiming that ‘FIRE!’ really meant ‘I DO NOT KNOW IF THERE IS A FIRE!,'” Edwards wrote.
In April 2014, a state emergency manager appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed off on a symbolic vote from the Flint City Council to change the city’s water source to a new local authority. While a pipeline was being built, a state official decided the city would get its water from the Flint River instead of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
The Flint River water, however, was so acidic that it caused the lead pipes bringing water from the city’s cast iron mains into homes to corrode. Lead leached off the pipes and into drinking water throughout the city.
The state and the federal government have declared a state of emergency, and Flint residents are not able to drink the water coming out of their taps.
A report done by the state indicated state environmental officials are at fault for the crisis. Three people, two state regulators and one city official have been charged with state crimes, and the Michigan attorney general’s office continues to investigate the incident.
