Erin Brockovich Stirs Up a Scare, but Where’s the Proof?

Environmental icon Erin Brockovich-Ellis’ latest campaign has taken her to Beverly Hills, where she has made a stunning allegation: Oil wells on the campus of Beverly Hills High School have been spewing a carcinogen -- benzene -- and causing cancer among students, staff and alumni.

I spent two months looking into Brockovich-Ellis’ claims for an article for the New Republic and found her evidence to be curiously missing.

Brockovich-Ellis tested the air around Beverly Hills High last winter, after meeting a young graduate who has had two types of cancer. “I was just sitting in the bleachers,” she told parents gathered at a March meeting, “and we got benzene readings that were at very alarming levels -- at least five times higher than on the 405 [Freeway].”

She told KCBS News that she “went back four times, five times, six times. And each time we were getting the same results.” The result of such contamination, she said, was Hodgkin’s disease at 16 times expected levels.

Health officials quickly investigated and found no evidence of a problem. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, a regional anti-pollution agency, repeatedly tested the air and found “no readings of benzene, hexane and air toxic levels that are considered abnormal.” Epidemiologists working for the state also looked at cancer rates in the neighborhood and found cases of Hodgkin’s disease and other cancers to be “within the expected range.”

How can one explain the discrepancy between what air quality and health officials found and Brockovich-Ellis’ allegations? Lawyer Edward Masry, Brockovich-Ellis’ boss, suggests incompetence or perhaps a cover-up. The air quality district, Masry told me, has been “grossly negligent.”

Perhaps. But Masry and Brockovich-Ellis’ own data don’t support their claims. The two refused to share their testing data until a subpoena from the city compelled them to do so. Once handed over, the documents showed that despite Brockovich-Ellis’ claim about repeatedly finding “alarming” levels of benzene, nearly all readings were normal. The highest benzene reading, at 18 parts per billion, was still below state regulations and was contradicted by another sample Brockovich-Ellis took at the same time that showed no measurable benzene.

As for claims about elevated rates of cancer, Masry and Brockovich-Ellis again refused to explain how they came to that conclusion until a judge ordered them to do so. A lawyer for Masry’s firm then acknowledged that the firm had “no commissioned epidemiological study” to support its contentions.

Beverly Hills isn’t the only place where Masry and Brockovich-Ellis’ data don’t match their public allegations. Consider Avila Beach, Calif., where there had been an underground oil leak that resulted in parts of the town being excavated. In 1997, Masry’s firm claimed that the leak had surfaced and begun to poison residents. Backed up by field tests Brockovich-Ellis says she took, the firm released a report warning that people “engaging in typical beach activities,” such as “sunning themselves, would appear to be at great risk.”

As in Beverly Hills, authorities couldn’t corroborate the findings. “We sampled air, sand and groundwater,” said Alvin Greenberg, a toxicologist who oversaw the county testing. “We never found evidence that subsurface contamination had come up.”

Even attorney Jim Duenow, representing clients suing because of declining property values, takes issue with the assertions of Brockovich-Ellis and Masry. “None of our clients had health damages related to the contamination,” said Duenow. “There just weren’t maintainable health claims.”

Again, Brockovich-Ellis avoided sharing her test results. “She accused me at a community meeting of not properly reviewing her data,” Greenberg recalled. “I apologized and said I would examine it if she sent it to me. I never heard from her again.”

Masry, in a typical bit of rhetorical jujitsu, suggests a conspiracy. “The county was concerned about getting sued, so they didn’t find toxins,” he said.

The pattern repeated itself in Fontana, where Masry’s experts suggested in 1998 that mercury had spread into town from a nearby Superfund site.

“People started putting their houses up for sale,” Fontana Mayor Mark Nuaimi recalled. Yet when health officials, accompanied by residents, took samples, they found no trace of mercury. When city officials asked the firm to share its testing data, the firm demurred.

Masry “made allegations that were never substantiated and accused agencies of a cover-up,” said Nuaimi, who noted that the firm never filed suit. “They feed off the hysteria and fear of the people. It really is a story of crying wolf.”

Masry said he didn’t recall the case.

Regardless of how parents at Beverly Hills High feel about the wells on campus, they deserve to have accurate information. Masry and Brockovich-Ellis don’t have a history of providing it.

Eric Umansky writes the Today’s Papers column for Slate.com.