The Plight of the Whistleblower

Joelle Bolt

After garnering data on the harmful effects of dust from sewage sludge used as fertilizer on US and Canadian farms, David Lewis, former microbiologist with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), spoke out in Nature articles.¹² The ensuing confrontation with his superiors would get him terminated from the EPA. "I never thought of myself as a whistleblower," he says. To Lewis, whistleblowers pointed fingers at people who fraudulently spent government money to buy things like private boats.

Lewis says he was willing to lose his job, but initially he didn't think that would happen. He was confident that the data would stand on its own merit once published. But Lewis would soon conclude that the protections for federal employees are less than adequate. After termination, he continued his work at the University of Georgia while he pleaded his case. But following further investigations into his research by opposing attorneys, ...