This is a true documentation of an environmental disaster that affected hundreds of people in the community of Hinkley.  In this movie we can see how an unhealthy environment can affect and can alter lives.  Life depends on the environment, and what we do as human beings affects our environmental resources in the present and for future generations.  In order to have a healthy population, we must have a healthy planet.

Please respond to the following questions.

Environmental Principles

Environmental Principle #1 - Everything is connected to everything else.

1. What was the source of harm in this documentary?

2. What is the environmental media?

3. Who or what is the receptor population?

4. What is the route of exposure?

5. Think about the epidemiological triangle.  

• Name the susceptible host.
• What is the harmful agent?
• What is the environmental media?
• What will break this triangle?

Environmental Principle #2 - Everything has to go somewhere.

1. How were the waste products disposed of?

2. Was this method effective?

3. Why or why not?

Environmental Principle #3 - The solution to pollution is dilution.

1. How did PG&E dispose of their waste?

2. According to this principle, what went wrong?

Environmental Principle #4 – Today’s solution may be tomorrows problem.

1. What was the outcome of PG&E’s solution to waste management?  What effect did it have on the environment and ultimately the community of Hinkley?

2. What effect will this environmental disaster have on future generations?

3. How did Erin Brockovich move the public from an adversarial relationship to a collaborative effort?

Go to http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/chemicaldruginformation.html or any other website.

Look up hexavalent chromium.

What are the health effects of hexavalent chromium?