The high-heeled, feisty legal aide, whose investigation of a potential pollution cover-up became the basis of the hit Julia Roberts film Erin Brockovich, has lashed out at Stossel after he recently raised doubts about her research into the chromium 6.
Brockovich's examination of the toxin helped a small desert town win a massive $330 million settlement against utility Pacific Gas & Electric, which was found to have leaked the contaminant into the community's drinking water.
As brash as her busting-out-of-her-brassiere movie counterpart, Brockovich slammed Stossel's critique, featured in the whiny-voiced reporter's July 14 "Give Me a Break" segment on the ABC news magazine.
In his report, Stossel said there was no evidence chromium 6 actually had a harmful impact on residents of the small town of Hinkley, California. In the movie, as was alleged in the real case, Brockovich links chromium 6 exposure to various cancers suffered by Hinkley denizens. Stossel's report also suggested Brockovich may have stirred up unfounded fears in the community to help townspeople win the settlement.
"Chromium 6 is toxic, chromium 6 is poison," Brockovich, who earned a $2 million bonus for her work on the Hinkley case, said at a news conference Friday. "I want Mr. Stossel and his family to start drinking chromium 6-laced water day in and day out, just like the people in Hinkley did every day."
Meanwhile, ABC News is standing by the report.
"Neither ABC News, nor 20/20, nor John Stossel has ever suggested that drinking chromium 6 is safe," read a statement from the network. "To the contrary, John Stossel very clearly stated that 'drinking, breathing, or touching large amounts of chromium 6 can cause lots of diseases--including lung and sinus cancer.'"
The network also asserted that Stossel's exposé concerned the importance of real-life fact over Hollywood fiction.
"The issue is whether the dangers of chromium 6 reach as far as the conclusions made in the movie Erin Brockovich--allegations that have not been proven and instead remain in dispute," the statement went on. "Like many of Mr. Stossel's segments, last week's segment concerned the importance of facts in dealing with questions about pollution and public health."
And while Stossel also defended his report, he declined Brockovich's offer to have his family suck down a glass of chromium 6-laced H2O.
"I wouldn't like them to drink the water," Stossel told Associated Press. "But let's not terrify people unless we know it's true."