The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the University of Valencia and the CSIC), based at the Palau de Cerveró, will screen the film Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh, USA, colour, 131 min., 2000) on Wednesday 16 January, at 17:00, at the conference room. It will serve as an introduction to the discussion that will be held after the screening, on the role of the non-experts and experts in environmental health regulation. The activity is part of the course “Toxic atmospheres: environmental and occupational health in the industrial era”.

The film shows the true story of Erin Brockovich, a divorced mother who can’t find a job. Her life changes the day she suffers a car accident. After losing the trial, she begins working in her lawyer’s office. While working, she runs across a file that catches her attention, and decides to investigate it. She discovers the direct relationship between the disease of a client and her family and the water pollution caused by the drillings of an important gas and electric company. Julia Roberts, who plays Erin Brockovich, received in 2001 the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as other awards for her work in this film.

The screening will be presented by Ximo Guillem Llobat, who holds a degree in Biochemistry and Biology (UVEG), a Master’s degree in Scientific Communication (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and doctoral degree from the University of Valencia (2008). His doctoral thesis focused on the study of both the industrialisation process experienced by the food sector around 1900 and the consequences that this transformation had on food security.

His current research interests include various approaches to the historical study of food safety management in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These approaches include those related to the spread of knowledge, the biographies of objects and the micro-geographies of knowledge. He focuses specifically on conferences and international commissions for the suppression of food fraud, on the regulation of saccharin and on local chemical laboratories.