Mark Ruffalo responds to criticism of his Flint statements
Fox411: Mark Ruffalo responds to criticisms about his non-profit Water Defense and statements he made regarding the safety of bathing in Flint, Michigan's water
Mark Ruffalo made headlines with his thoughts on the safety of the water in Flint, Mich., even causing a professor to slam the actor for spreading misinformation. When asked for his response, Ruffalo told FOXNews.com on Sunday that Water Defense -- a non-profit organization he founded -- would be handling that.
But he had some other words for the EPA, the state of Michigan, and Flint residents.
“The important thing to remember is those people are really sick there, and we should focus on them not people getting feeling like the information coming out of there is just test results is somehow taking away from the debate," Ruffalo said when asked by FOXNews.com during an interview junket for his new movie "Now You See Me 2."
Ruffalo said the people of Flint are anxious due to test results that the EPA will not release.
“The community has been asking us to release test results. We are the only organization to release test results to the community; not the EPA or Michigan has released the actual test results,” he said.
The EPA hit back at Ruffalo's claim.
"With regards to our sampling in Flint, we have posted data results for the first round of sequential sampling, hot and cold water sampling, and chlorine residual monitoring. We have been updating our interactive results maps for chlorine monitoring, sequential sampling and filter tests throughout our response effort.
"With regards to the health report, EPA collected the samples but the state health department is the lead on developing the report. We will post EPA data used for this report once all residents have received their results from the state."
Ruffalo insisted all he is doing is providing information to the community.
“But we are doing the same testing and using the same results and using the same tests the EPA is using but we are releasing our test results and the EPA isn’t,” he said. “And so all we are doing is giving people information and there is nothing wrong with that.”
“The Avengers” star argued the people in Flint are still sick, and everyone has a right to know what is in their water.
“They will tell you 'We are sick and this is still happening and there is no one doing anything to help us—not the CDC, or the EPA. They’re not telling us what’s happening, and we are frightened because we don’t know what’s in our water.' And everyone has a right to know what’s in their water."
The water crisis in Flint began in August 2014 when the city began to pump their water from the Flint River instead of purchasing it from Detroit. Flint has since gone back to purchasing water from Detroit and there have been improvements to the conditions but complaints and rashes continue. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said the water is safe for bathing and they are investigating the rash claims.
Dr. Marc Edwards slammed Ruffalo last week in an essay titled "A-List Actor But F-List Scientist."
“I appreciate the moral support offered by actors like Mr. Ruffalo... but if they are going to claim to engage in science, it needs to be credible...” Edwards told FOX411.
Fox News' Ashley Dvorkin contributed to this report.
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