What would happen if someone made a Hollywood blockbuster film, starring A-list celebrity Julia Roberts, about an activist who later turns out to be a fraud? If you are the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), you honor her.

We are of course talking about Erin Brockovich who convinced her firm to bring action against the company, resulting in 1996 in a $330 million settlement, the largest-ever toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history. From the Harvard Crimson:

But many scientists insist that no link has been established between the contaminants in the water and the cancer cases in Hinkley, Calif. According to studies published by the Environmental Protection Agency and available on its website, “No data were located in the available literature that suggested that chromium-6 is carcinogenic by the oral route of exposure.”

HSPH alum and president of the American Council of Science and Health Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan boycotted yesterday’s ceremony in protest of the award.

“I think it’s a travesty to give a scientific award to an environmental activist who has done absolutely nothing to promote public health in America,” Whelan said yesterday. “It’s a slap in the face to those of us in public health who are actually working on real public health problems.”

Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics Richard Wilson, who studies chemical carcinogens, also criticized the decision to give Brockovich the award.

“Political correctness at the Harvard School of Public Health has trumped scientific integrity, by supporting someone who appears to be looking after the common man and not for corporations,” he said. “No one has ever identified any cancers from chromium-6. You can claim it, but you can’t prove it.”

Even worse for Harvard, Brockovich has been more recently snarled in a scam at Beverly Hills High School where she fabricated claims about the ill-effects from the city’s oil wells.

One should never underestimate the power of political correctiveness. Now why won’t they turn that into a movie?

hat tip: Overlawyered

technorati: Erin Brockovich

trackbacked: Political Teen

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2005 at 10:57 pm by Insider and is filed under Politically Correct ... and stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.