The Human Experiment (FILM REVIEW)
The Human Experiment
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Cautionary Documentary Warns of Toxins in Everyday Household
Products
I suspect
that this eye-opening expose’ will probably play out like a case of preaching
to the converted, since the only people willing to watch a depressing
documentary about the toxins poisoning just about everything in the environment
are likely to be well-informed folks already inclined to agree with the
picture’s central thesis. That being said, The Human Experiment is nevertheless
an excellent flick, even if it might have a hard time attracting a wide
audience.
Co-directed
by multiple Emmy-winners Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, Jr., the picture indicts
the chemical industry for the dramatic increases in cancer, autism, genital
deformities, asthma, leukemia, ADHD, infertility, birth defects, early onset
puberty and pediatric brain tumors. The problem is that instead of policing the
polluters, the Environmental Protection Agency has adopted an innocent ‘til
proven guilty approach which makes it nearly impossible to get an unhealthy
product off the market.
That point
is driven home by reminding us how past EPA ineptitude enabled the tobacco,
lead, asbestos and vinyl chloride companies to “get away with murder” via a
combination of deception and distraction. Today, it is China that is often the culprit, reflected in
how it treats the U.S.
like a dumping ground by shipping stuff here containing formaldehyde and other
poisons it has banned domestically.
The Human Experiment features
interviews with a number of very dedicated activists, such as Jessica Assaf who
risks arrest to slap homemade warning labels on hazardous goods sitting on
store shelves which read, “Ingredients in this product have been linked to
cancer, neurotoxicity and reproductive toxicity.” A cautionary expose’ making a
convincing argument that consumers would be very wise to learn all they can
about the ingredients in the products they buy.
Excellent
(4 stars)
Unrated
In English and
Spanish with subtitles
Running time: 91 minutes
Distributor: Area 23a
/ FilmBuff
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