JPH+Homo+Toxicus

**Director:** Carole Poliquin **Year:** 2008 **What is the central argument or narrative of the film?** The central argument of the film is that human beings are being filled with toxic chemicals from industry by products. The effects of most of these chemicals on the human body cannot be confidently determined, but there is significant evidence to suggest that many of these chemicals have significant harmful health effects such as psychological disorders, infertility, cancer, and physical handicaps. Most of these chemicals can affect people with concentrations so small that they cannot be detected in the blood. **What sustainability problems does the film draw out?** //Lack of Scientific Data// Industry is creating new chemicals and compounds so rapidly that there is not enough time or man power to study the effects of the compounds on humans and animals. Consequentially many chemicals that are potentially hazardous to human health are not regulated. There are almost no studies that are dedicated to how chemicals mix and interact with each other within the human body. Many chemicals that may be benign individually may be extremely caustic when they combine with other benign chemicals. There are also disputes over the validity of scientific data. A good example of this is the debate over BPA. Many scientists believe that BPA is a carcinogen, but industry funded data often disputes that and puts forth data that says that BPA is safe. //Chemical Proliferation into the Environment// At this point it is impossible to escape from chemicals because they have spread to every corner of the globe. They are impossible to escape. Pesticides from crops have entered our rivers, lakes and our even our aquifers contaminating our drinking water. The chemicals then make their ways up the food chain trough the plants and animals and then they bioaccumulate in humans. An example is the heavy concentration of mercury found in the Inuit populations of Canada due to their heavy diet of seafood that is heavy in mercury concentrations. The concentrations of mercury in the Inuit have led to an epidemic of hearing disorders within the population. //Connecting Chemicals to Health Issues// The accumulation of cancer shows up 28 years after the first mutation and chemical concentrations are so infinitesimally small that they can be almost impossible to detect. These make it nearly impossible for scientists to correlate the chemicals to the human health issues. Without being able to scientifically connect the chemicals to human disease it is impossible to enact regulatory policy. Policy is not enacted in a preventative measure and the burden of proof for chemical harm in practice rarely falls on industries. **What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?** The most persuasive parts of the film were the case studies of individual populations including the Inuit and the people who lived in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The trend between the concentration of mercury in the diet of the Inuit and the amount of hearing problems in the local population were very persuasive. A similar correlation was drawn between chemical industries and infertility in the local population. These were very compelling to me because it convinced me that although the science might not be clear cut the trends and correlations cannot be ignored. If these problems were not prevalent in the population in earlier generations then it is probable that the problems are not genetic and unique to a specific population but are connected to an increase in exposure to toxic chemicals. **What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?** I was not convinced by the infertility story of the single farmer. For a single person I think that there could have been a variety of factors that affected his fertility problems and it is difficult to persuade someone that chemical exposure caused one man to become infertile. To prove that chemicals have a detrimental effect on health those effects need to be observed within a population. **What audiences does the film best address? Why?** This is a great film for anyone who used cosmetics or does not already buy organic clothes, bed sheets, and vegetables. This is a great film for people that are unaware of the health effects of chemical and how inadequate the government is as regulating them and protecting the general population from pollutants. **What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?** This film could have added more information about how other types of chemicals such as asbestos, DDT, and lead finally got banned. How long did it take to get these chemicals banned after scientists first believed that they were dangerous? What types of data were brought forward to convince regulators to ban them? How many people were affected before they came off the market and do they still cause health risks to people? **What kinds of actions and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective.** Points of intervention for this issue include buying organic foods and free range, grass fed meats to reduce ones exposure to chemicals. You should replace your cosmetics with all natural products that do not contain petroleum derivatives, and you buy organic clothing and bed sheets. If we reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals and use our buying power to create markets for healthier food and products then we can reduce the worlds use and exposure to toxic chemicals. **What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out?** This film inspired me to switch my shampoo and body wash to a more natural type of shampoo. I looked up information about natural cosmetics and found Burt’s Bees to be a very suitable alternative to my Suave and Dial products [] I also began looking for organic bed materials to replace bed materials with the flame retardant chemicals in them and found that Rawganique had a variety of products including clothing and towels that are organic and chemical free. []
 * Film:** Homo Toxicus