Liberal actor and climate alarmist Mark Ruffalo is scaring Flint residents into not bathing or washing their hands, without cause.
Virginia Tech professor Dr. Marc Edwards ripped Ruffalo as an “A-List Actor But F-List Scientist” on May 16, 2016, for “pseudoscience and false alarms” created by Ruffalo’s activist group, Water Defense.
Edwards, a “nationally renowned expert on municipal water quality” helped uncover the Flint water contamination last year and was part of a 17-member team that traveled to Flint to further investigate the lead contamination, Virginia Tech reported in September 2015.
Though Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015, and President Obama reassured Flint residents on May 5, 2016, that the filtered tap water was safe to drink, Water Defense continued to claim that the water was unsafe for showering or bathing. The group also claimed that residents could breathe lead from the water, and that additives in the water caused health problems including low blood pressure.
According to Edwards, these claims are false.
Edwards sent water samples to Dr. David Reckhow, “one of the foremost authorities” on disinfection by-products in the world. Reckhow told Edwards that contrary to Water Defense claims “there is nothing at all unusual or abnormal” in the Flint water samples.
On May 7, Edwards pointed out that Water Defense does not have “any credentials that would qualify them to make statements about dangers of Flint’s current water supply.”
Water Defense “has exploited the fears of traumatized Flint residents,” Edwards wrote in an update on Flint. “Mr. Ruffalo and Water Defense should be ashamed of themselves. Flint residents currently need funding and moral support -- not pseudoscience and false alarms,” Edwards continued.
Edwards told the Huffington Post on May 6, that Ruffalo’s unfounded claims most likely contributed to a “spike in gastrointestinal illness in and around Flint,” as a result of fearful residents refusing to wash their hands.
He also criticized CNN for allowing Ruffalo to perpetuate false claims in a May 5, broadcast.
