Like any whistleblower, Chris DeRosa is feeling the heat.
He fears that his long career at the CDC will be over and his reputation damaged. But he tells me that he is compelled to take the risk because of his commitment to protecting public health.
If DeRosa's name sounds familiar that's because he is the same government scientist who blew the whistle on dangerous levels if formaldehyde in FEMA trailers.
He's a soft spoken ex-department head at the CDC who seems more comfortable discussing epidemiology than politics. But this time DeRosa believes he is fighting a political agenda that is at odds with his mission of protecting pubic health.
He believes his agency in the CDC is suppressing a report on pollution and disease around the Great Lakes because it could lead to lawsuits against polluters.
But the CDC says DeRosa may have made mistakes in the seven years it took for him to put the report together. The agency says it needs more time to make sure his methods were scientifically sound and the report that was supposed to go public last summer remains under review.
In the meantime, Congress and the scientific community are watching and raising their own questions while DeRosa remains on the hot seat.
Will he be vindicated or will his career as a protector of public health be over?
- David Mattingly, 360° Correspondent
Program note: David's report is part of our "Planet in Peril" series tonight on the second hour of 360° at 11p ET.
| Timothy Edward Fleenary |
March 11th, 2008 8:13 pm ET I have lived in Michigan for the past 48 years, and fished the Great Lakes and the Detroit River in particular for at least 40. I can tell you with absolute certainty that Industrial Pollution on the Detroit River between Lake Sinclair and Erie has been increasingly bad over the time since Severstall took over operations of Rough Steel, and they have impacted in an almost crippling manner. Clearly it is an international problem and companies on the Canadian side are equally to blame for the massive damage done to the ecosystem, we have experienced about a half dozen massive fish die offs in recent years, but the most serious concern is potential contamination of drinking water for the Metro Detroit area. I am certain, without a doubt, and without ever seeing any CDC report of any long term study, that industrial pollution has increased dramatically in the past decade, and have put the time on the water over the past three and a half decades to know what I say is true. Mr. DeRosa is going public with a problem us River Rats have known about since it started. I can only hope the result is positive and the powers that be take the steps necessary to correct the problem. |
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