TONIGHT - TVO - Toxic Trespass - Canadian Premiere

 

HIGHLIGHT: TOXIC TRESPASS

 

Toronto filmmaker Barri Cohen doesn't have to travel far to find disease clusters in children that are linked to environmental problems. Cohen begins her search after she and her 10-year-old daughter, Ada, volunteer for a chemical body-burden test. The results show Ada has more toxic chemicals in her blood than her mom. These include heavy metals such as lead and mercury, pesticides such as PCBs and DDT and stain-repellent and flame-retardant toxins. There are no known safe levels for these chemicals, and experts agree they are dangerous for children. Yet the federal government isn't doing anything despite a surge in childhood diseases over the past 20 years. Asthma has increased fourfold, one in three children have learning disabilities and 23 per cent of those cases are linked to environmental exposures, and cancer in the young is increasing at 1 per cent a year. Those are scary statistics, but they're not nearly as scary as what Cohen finds when she visits the major manufacturing hub of Windsor and the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, in the "Chemical Valley" near Sarnia. There, she visits with parents who have become local environmental activists after seeing the devastating effects of pollution on the young. Their efforts are stymied by

bureaucratic hedging and bullying by big business. By looking at how environmental toxins affect the most vulnerable among us, Cohen exposes not only how children have become "lab rats in a vast uncontrolled experiment," but how unwilling the government has been to respond to the crisis. Postscripts reveal federal agencies have been forced into action by the grassroots activism shown here.

 

The View from Here | TVO, Wednesday May 14 at 10 p.m. | http://tinyurl.com/65sv2x

 

Clean Air for Children - A new campaign by the London chapter.

London Chapter of Council of Canadians is launching a campaign to urge Londoners to idle less. Toronto's medical officer has released a report stating a 30% reduction in vehicle emissions could save 200 lives, one billion dollars a year in health care costs and 68,000 asthma attacks for children a year.

In Ontario, the number of “smog days” nearly quadrupled from 15 in 1995 to 53 in 2005. If nothing is done to clean the air, medical experts estimate that by 2026 the number of smog-related premature deaths in Ontario alone will hit 10,000 annually. (more)

» Sign the Clear Air for Children petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/clean-air-for-children
» Visit the Clear Air for Children campaign website: http://cleanairforchildren.blogspot.com/
» Visit the Council of Canadians London Chapter website: http://www.londoncoc.blogspot.com/