Erin Brokovich Essay

“Erin Brockovich” is a 2000 biographical movie directed by Steven Soderbergh. The movie portrayed a depiction of a true story of the character Erin Brockovich (Ebert, 2000). The lead character of Erin Brokovich was played by Julia Roberts; who fights against the United States West Coast energy corporation and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The movie was an instant success and the reviews and analyses turned out to be quite positive (Gleibermann, 2000).

The movie revolves around the character of Erin Brokovich; who finds out about the presence of Chromium in drinking water. It all starts when a character in the movie falls sick; and Erin begins to investigate into the specifics of the case (Ansen, 2000). Soon, Erin finds out that the groundwater in Hinkley, California is contaminated with life threatening hexavalent chromium. While, the company PG&E tells Hinkley's residents that the company uses a safer form of chromium in the company's cooling ponds. Later in the movie, Erin convinces Ed to proceed with her research. In the process, Erin was able to win the trust of many Hinkley residents. Erin discovers other cases of medical problems and tumors among Hinkley residents. The population of Hinkley was being treated by PG&E's doctors after the discovery of the first victim. Despite the consistent denial from PG&E's executives; Erin was convinced that the sickness was due to the presence of Chromium in the drinking water (Giles & Ansen, 2001)

Chromium is a vital chemical element and is represented by the symbol Cr. The atomic number of Chromium is 24 (Winson, 2005). The name of the element was derived from the Greek word "chroma" which refers to color. The name was used because most compounds in the chemical makeup of the element tend to be highly colorful. Chromium is the first element in the Group 6 category (Barnhart, 1997). Chromium tends to be a lustrous steely-gray hard metal which has a comparatively high melting point as compared to other elements in Group 6 category. Detection of chromium is often difficult because it is odorless, malleable and has no taste.

The usage of Chromium was initiated by Chinese more than 2,000 years ago. Initially, the element was used for the coating of weaponry belonging to the Terracotta Army. In the Western world, the use of Chromium was initiated after it was discovered in crimson crystalline mineral crocoite in the early 1760s (Gagelli, 2002). The initial uses of the element were primarily for the purposes of pigmentation. Mr. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin is attributed to the first scientific isolation of chromium in the year 1797. Almost all chromium deposits tend to be commercially extracted from the available chromite ore i.e. iron chromium oxide (FeCr2O4). Chromite is considered as the major source for chromium pigments.

The dual nature of Chromium is quite popular among scientific researchers and tends to induce interest in the exploration of the element and its different forms. Chromium has a very high melting point in access of 1857+/-20°C (Ponder & ...