The Human Experiment

Why are so many women getting breast cancer? Why are couples finding it increasingly difficult to get pregnant? In filmmaker Dana Nachman's opinion, the hazards we face from the chemicals all around us are more worrying than visible disasters such as terrorist attacks and train accidents. She follows researchers, activists and others in the know from San Francisco to New York in their struggle to get manufacturers to remove toxic substances from their products. The film sketches the impact artificial preservatives are having on our health, revealing the ravages that seem to be taking place, unnoticed, within our bodies. Often, manufacturers are not required to list added toxins on their packaging, and some chemicals have not even undergone adequate testing. Concerned Americans are taking action by putting warning stickers on cosmetics or drawing up petitions to institute rules on product labeling. We meet a couple that is trying to have a baby through IVF and attend meetings of breast cancer patients campaigning against carcinogens in food and other products. raises the question of whether companies are using unknowing consumers as guinea pigs. But there is also good news: increased awareness of sustainability is leading to piecemeal changes in culture among producers of cosmetics and food, and the study of "green chemistry" can now be found at more and more universities.