Why Does Your Fragrance Bother Me? -- by Dorothy Parshall

Don't use perfume around me. Please. Here's the reason.

I’m sorry if this request -- or my behavior - offends you, but the chemicals in fragrance hit my brain like a glass of vodka does a ‘bad drunk’. These volatile chemicals affect my brain directly. They attach to receptors, reducing my ability to think, my coordination, changing my mood.

While ‘under the influence’ I cannot hear or speak properly. It may take me hours to recover. I may have trouble getting home.

It's not just me. 20% of the population suffer noticeably. Many more would notice an improvement in health and mental ability if they stopped using fragrances, perfumes and fresheners. Thank you for your understanding.

From Heartsick to Healthy

I was a hard-working professional ten years ago, the day I was poisoned. It was formaldehyde, a common chemical used to preserve dead bodies, or stop fungus in furnishings. This was in carpeting on a stair. It was brand new, and it stank. By the time I had walked up one flight, I felt as though I were going to collapse. I held onto a desk for support. A co-worker exclaimed, “You’re white as a sheet.” Knowing the cause, I left immediately. The damage, however, was done and will plague me the rest of my life.

My co-worker suggested I attend at the Occupational Health Center . They had no idea what to do. I went twice. The second time, a doctor whose son had been poisoned by drywall chemicals when he renovated his home, suggested I continue to go to a wholistic chiropractor, who had been able to clear enough of the toxins for my brain to function..

The effect of chemicals on the brain can be worse than on the body. The brain is clouded, thinking impaired. You don't realize how much you are affected. The body becomes sensitive to other chemicals. As my friend C---- drove me an hour and a half to the chiropractor, I kept thinking, “Open the window!" But could not get the words from brain to tongue. After my detox, getting in the van to go home I was able to say, “Do you mind if I open the window?” WOW!

I was only just functioning. I had severe ups and downs. I did not realize it at first but a lot of things had changed. Language was severely handicapped. I was hypersensitive to loud noises. They made me angry. I had days when it was a struggle to get up. I was able to do very little and became depressed by my inability to function at my usual high energy level.

After five years: I could not lose 30 excess pounds. Some days I had trouble getting off the sofa, could not turn the pages of a magazine. “I have no life. It isn’t worth living," I told C---. She responded,, “Maybe we better try de-toxing.”

She lived an hour away. Just getting there was an exhausting. She gave me a handful of supplements and a horrible tasting drink. Then she announced, “Now we need to walk for half an hour.” Horrified, I said, “But I can hardly put one foot in front of the other!” But then added bravely, “Alright, one foot after another. I will just keep doing it.” I was desperate. I wanted to be better or die.

So we walked, each with a dog on leash – might as well walk the dogs too, right? I could not do it. She ended up with both the large dogs as I plodded slowly forward. Next a sauna -- oh no! I have always hated heat. When I was a child, summer was a misery. C--- took pity and turned the temperature down to a tolerable level. I survived that first treatment, and four more like it over the next three weeks.

Came the fifth session: Walking the dogs, C---- suddenly said, “I can’t keep up with you!” I claimed it was the dog pulling me. But it wasn't. Miraculously, I had my energy back.

I had the energy of a hyperactive ten year old. Now I understood how the children with whom I was working felt when told to “sit still.”. I was again striding through life instead of dragging myself along. Within five months I lost the excess weight which had plagued me.. My brain worked better. Grace and joy seemed to pour into me until life was full again. I was elated.

I was healthy at last. But de-toxing needs to be repeated. Every time I go into a place full of chemicals (any city), I have to come home and take a detoxing bath. If the exposure has been heavy, I may need to do it again in the morning. My awareness of my energy level lets me know what I need to do.

I will never be able to stop detoxing. I worry about all the others who climbed that stairway. How many of them had symptoms? How many are still suffering from that exposure? Thank you C---- for your support all those rough years. I would never have known what was wrong with me. I would have gone from doctor to doctor without finding help.

Fragrance, anger and noise

The effect of perfume on my brain is immediate. When I am folk dancing, if someone wearing a fragrance is next to me, I lose focus and become unable to do the correct steps, even in a simple dance. I have to move out of range of the odour to recover brain function and continue dancing.

Or I become angry. I don't mean to. It is a direct reaction to the chemicals. All I can do is put distance between myself and the exposure and wait for the anger to subside.

People don't realize this. Reacting to me -- the victim -- they too become angry. This solves nothing. Can we instead cooperate?

Here's an example. I was interviewing a family close to a powder room with commercial "air freshener". After a short time, my eyes could not focus and my brain was foggy. I was struggling to continue. I asked that the "air freshener" be put outside. 15 minutes later, my brain and vision returned to normal.

But some toxins are unknown and odourless. At times, I find myself unable to comprehend the written word.. On the first occasion I read one sentence over and over unable to make sense of it. I finally realized where the problem lay, left the building as quickly as possible, and, after a few minutes, was able to drive home.

On another occasion, a high note on a wind instrument caused a feeling like a knife stabbing into my brain. I staggered away from the dance and as far from the music as possible, my fingers in my ears. I was a wreck from the excruciating pain and had to go home, after sitting in the car for while to recover. I already had tissue in my ears to dampen the sound.

These hypersensitive reactions are known to be caused by chemicals in the environment. Also confusion of sounds: I find it difficult to stay in a room with loud noise.; the noise causes me to feel pain throughout my body. I am frustrated by people who do not speak clearly. I cannot understand verbal language unless it is enunciated clearly. My auditory processing ability has been severely affected by chemicals. I hear ALL the noises and cannot separate them sufficiently to understand what people are saying.

When the Brain Can't Hear

click on image to see details

I want to stress: it is not just me. In North America there are many thousands of environmentally poisoned people. Tomorrow, after an unexpected exposure or a build-up of toxins in your system, it could be you. Or, worse yet, your children. My fear for the children of this earth sometimes causes me to feel very angry. Our children's future is dependent on a safe environment, in their homes, schools and communities.

As a "canary in the coal mine", I had difficulty even convincing my own family that I have this disability. My son was giving me a hard time: "How do you know? You could at least TRY a hearing aid." I explained again. He responded, very softly, "If I talk very softly but clearly will you understand." "Yes, when there is no background noise, I hear and understand every word." He listened! He stopped harassing me! Speaking CLEARLY is what I need.

Teri James Bellis, When the Brain Can't Hear explains brain differences which create auditory processing deficits or disorders. At last, a doctor who understands! It took me 9 years to realize that chemicals affect my ability to understand both oral and written language. I detox constantly but I am constantly exposed to more toxins. When the level in my body gets too high my brain seems to turn off: I often cannot read serious literature. I do NOT need a hearing aid; I need a toxin-free environment. I will keep on reading, in those times when my brain is clear enough to understand. I focus on books about how the brain works, trying to understand and looking for possible strategies that might help.

There is so much I would like the public to know and understand. Sometimes I just have to leave the room. Sometimes I cannot even smell the chemicals but my energy level drops, I feel angry for no apparent reason, or my head aches, I feel nauseous. All these, and more, are symptoms of sensitivity to toxins in the environment.

I hope this will help you understand those of us who are environmentally damaged. Protect your children. Hope that it never happens to you

*****

References

Wikipedia on perfumes. These may include fragrances, essential oils, aroma compounds, fixatives, solvents and their health effects – with footnotes. Reactions (not covered here) have also been reported to balsam of Peru, benzyl alcohol, menthol, toothpastes, gum and perfumes in paper products, sanitary napkins, ostomy pastes, and detergents.
See also body burden, body cleansing; EU draft regulations on fragrances; a hospital’s fragrance-free policy; Environmental Health News.org.
Read and discuss with a qualified doctor: networks for sufferers; Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) and MCS in Wikipedia; and Quackwatch.
Books: Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the toxic chemistry of Daily life affects our health (2009); Dr Teri James Bellis, When the Brain Can't Hear: Unraveling The Mystery Of Auditory Processing Disorders (2003); Amilya Antonetti, Why David Hated Tuesdays, a well written book by a mother whose son was born hyper-sensitive and what she did to alleviate the problem.

Canada: the Liberian flag of mining

Mexico City mining protest 24 July 09: photo Carlos Ramos Mamahua

Updates 30 Oct. 2010: Canada Corporate Accountability Bill C-300 defeated in House of Commons. It asked simply for corporate disclosure similar to US SEC requirements. 21 Jul. 2010: US Dodd-Frank law tells SEC to tighten disclosure rules. 23 Mar. 2011: Globe and Mail: Canada's anti-corruption enforcement deliberately lags behind US. 1 Oct 2014 Kairoscanada: Harper government refuses mining oversight bill C-584.

A system of sleaze was created over the last two decades by successive Canadian governments and financial wizards. Like Liberian shipping, you fly the flag, follow no rules, answer no questions, do what you want and take your profits elsewhere. And better yet, the Canadian taxpayer will bankroll you.

More than 2/3 of the world's oil, gas and mineral companies are now Canadian (most of them in name only). They get hundreds of millions of dollars in export credits. They have given us a world reputation for toxic dumping, murder, massacre, forced displacement of aboriginals, cozying up to dictators, and financial fraud. (1) Our diplomatic service have become their touts and apologists. (2) Says Development and Peace, a Catholic NGO, “This is not a case of a few bad apples: Canadian extractive companies have been implicated in human rights abuses and environmental disasters in more than 30 countries." The latest annual report of the Canadian Mining Association boasts 4900 projects, a huge worldwide expansion thanks to lax supervision by the 'virtual' Toronto Stock Exchange. (3)

Riding roughshod over aboriginal rights is nothing new in Canadian mining. To name only a few of the most flagrant: BC's century-long refusal of treaty, yellowcake poisoning of NWT Dene that left a “village of widows”, the shameful treatment of the Lubicon Cree, and a rash of recent jailings of native protesters in Ontario. (4) With world commodity prices soaring, Canadian governments have made things even easier at home. Ottawa overrode its own environmental legislation to allow lakes to be used as toxic dumps. (5) Ontario has exempted mines from environment assessments for at least a decade. (6) To the Bay Street boys, the message is clear: “anything goes”.

Even worse things were happening in the Third World, where corruption, bribery, and murderous contempt for natives were added to the mix. A map of the most notorious cases has been published by the Halifax Initiative; Amnesty has protested CPP investment in some of them (7). A few examples must suffice. There are many more.

Talisman Energy (ex-BP Canada), Sudan was accused in 2002 by the Presbyterian Church of helping the Sudan government "bomb churches, kill church leaders and attack villages in an effort to clear the way for oil exploration." A US lawsuit failed, but divestment by Ontario Teachers and other pension plans forced Talisman to sell out its Sudan holdings. (8)

Ivanhoe's joint Monywa copper mine with the SLORC dictatorship of Burma has been marked by 13 years of slave labour, torture, and genocide, according to Amnesty International (9); in all that time Canada consistently failed to take action. In July 2009 the company hired ex-Prime Minister Jean Chretien as “senior adviser” -- meaning lobbyist -- to get US sanctions lifted. (10)

Ms Otiego Mseti, one of the Tanzanian villagers suffering from Barrick's “alleged” contamination of the Tigethe River: courtesy ProtestBarrick.net

North Mara mine, Tanzania, June 2009: “More than 20 people have died in recent weeks as a direct result of the contaminated water. We have no problem with investors. But the investors must respect and treat us like human beings. These Canadians are killing us... they are not doing business,’’ says a villager. (12) Protests have gone on for eight years, with forced evictions, dumping on village land without permission or compensation, arrests of elders, company collusion with corrupt politicians, and murder of at least 6 villagers. Recently scientists found cyanide and heavy metal contamination associated with “a wide range of carcinogenic effects such as skin, kidney, teratogenic effects; mutagenic effects; and brain damage". For years, the company has refused to clean up. (13)

Colombia: Canadian mining lobbyists were the spearhead of the neoliberal Washington Consensus. After the World Bank ordered deregulation in 1996, Canadian experts rewrote Colombia's mining law, slashing royalties and safety provisions. In 2003 the World Bank ordered the state to sell off its national mines. Since then, corrupt deals with politicians, paramilitaries and big landowners have resulted in evictions of afro-Colombians and aboriginals, over 400 murders and disappearances. Last year two environmental groups challenged the Mining Law, on grounds that it violates the Constitution by permitting destruction of unique ecosystems. (14)

Colombia mining on U'wa aboriginal land: courtesy FOEI

Omai mine, Guyana: in 1995 there were five cyanide incidents. In the worst and last, a tailings pond spilled 120 million gallons of toxic effluent into the Omai and Essequibo rivers. Aboriginals, traders and miners reported dead fish and animals; they complained of skin rashes and blistering for two months after the accident. Many of the 50,000 inhabitants fish, boat, bathe and drink water from the river. The government issued warnings to all residents downriver of the mine to cease using the river for washing, drinking and fishing. No current information on cleanup activity is available. (15)

Ecuador: in April 2008 after a political movement of aboriginals voted against corruption and environmental destruction, the government revoked 4/5 of mining concessions. But in 2009 president Correa restored the concessions, winning high praise from the Canadian mine lobby. Canadian church protests stopped his attempt to outlaw the NGO Acción Ecológica, which is now backing the native group CONAIE's court challenge to the new mining law as a violation both of aboriginal rights and the Rights of Nature law. (16)

Porgera, Papua New Guinea: a Barrick mine has dumped millions of tonnes of toxic tailings into rivers. Hundreds of natives have been killed or injured by security guards. In protest, the Norwegian Pension Fund has divested its stock. CPP and QPP continue their holdings. In April 2009 PNG police torched over 300 houses in the area. (17)

Marinduque, Phillipines: "forests, river basins and coral reefs have been smothered by hundreds of millions of tons of pulverized mining waste rock and toxic tailings laden with arsenic, cadmium, lead, manganese, nickel and sulfate". Bankrupt, facing civil suits and angry stockholders, the original owner Placer Dome was bought out by Barrick. National mining laws had been gutted under the Ramos dictatorship in the 1990s. Those who protested were murdered or disappeared by security forces, a practice which has continued to the present day under President Macapagal-Arroyo. (18)

blasting at Cerro San Pedro: Tamara Herman photo

Cerro San Pedro, Mexico: Metallica plans to level the sacred mountain, destroying most of the historic town, poisoning the water and soil for miles around with cyanide. It will take 32 million litres of water daily, has defied court orders to stop blasting, and sent gangs to attack peaceful protesters, the majority of the population. Corrupt federal politicians refuse to enforce the law. In May 2009, Montreal sympathizers “staked a claim” and announced an open-pit mine in Mount Royal park – to show what a Canadian equivalent would be. (19) A secret July 2009 memo from the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City says it is seriously worried by country-wide protests against mine pollution and corruption; "4/5 of the companies are Canadian," it admits. Two weeks later it was occupied by a sit-in -- see top photo. (20)

a pile of D&P petitions to Harper 2008

Canadian churches and human rights groups have kept the cause alive. This spring, Development and Peace took another 150,000 petitions to Parliament calling for a mining ombudsman who can hear evidence of offshore violations, and a new corporate accountability law. The Conservative government refused, ignoring the advice of expert Roundtables which urged it to create “a Canadian CSR Framework for all Canadian extractive-sector companies operating in developing countries.” Nevertheless, a private member's draft (Bill 300) passed first reading in April. (21)

Here are the principles that should underlie such legislation, according to Development and Peace: (22)

1. The Earth is sacred. All life is interconnected and interdependent. Therefore, the Earth’s ecological diversity, beauty and health must be protected.
2. The Earth’s resources must be shared by peaceful means in an equitable manner that allows current and future generations to meet their needs.
3. All people have the right to participate fully in and have control over decisions that affect their lives and communities.
4. In the interests of solidarity and the common good, decisions made for the benefit of one community must not violate the rights of other communities.
5. The importance of the Earth’s resources to the common good takes priority over any possible commercial value. In the extraction, management, and use of resources, human rights must be respected.
6. Preference must be given to the rights of indigenous peoples and those who are marginalized by poverty or because of race and gender.

******

Notes
(1) See 13 Jun 09 public statements by Development and Peace and Halifax Initiative.
The latter, a coalition of churches, human rights lawyers and environmental groups, in 2003 severely criticized Export Development Corporation's seven deadly secrets: huge export subsidies to mining projects without real environmental assessment or public hearings.
(2) In the USA, Barrick lawyers in 2003 and 2009 admitted financial fraud, claiming that the company was acting on on behalf of central banks, which cannot be sued.
(3) For the role played by Canadian diplomats in bribery and death in Tanzania, among other places, see Alain Denault, Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique (Montréal, Ecosociété, 2007). Barrick Gold launched a $6 million SLAPP suit in Canada trying to stop the book's distribution, although the company had lost a similar suit in a UK court against a British journalist who first broke the story. See also http://Protest.Barrick.net
(4) See Wikipedia on Toronto Stock Exchange, now the TSX/TSVX. In 2001 it closed its floor to trade entirely online (and unsupervised) after swallowing up the penny-stock Vancouver and Calgary exchanges. Its 2009 report crows that it is now bigger than New York's NYSE. Many US firms have shell listings on TSX/TSVX, allowing them to avoid SEC disclosure.
(4) The century-long Gitksan case in BC, NWT yellowcake poisoning, the Lubicon story; on recent jailings see previous posts in this blog: one two three four five six
For a full account see the highlights and CD of the 1990s Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The current Tory government has refused to honour the resulting Kelowna Accord.
(5) CBC news 16 Jun 08.
(6) Ontario extends EIA moratorium 2002-2012: MiningWatch report.
(7) example of an Amnesty protest of CPP investment.
(8) Halifax Initiative's map, part of the campaign for government supervision, gives details of human rights abuses by Canadian mining companies and $100s of millions in taxpayer subsidies. CPP and QPP have also invested heavily: see note 22.
(9) Amnesty 2002 statement to Ivanhoe shareholders. Our previous posts on Burma.
(10) Chretien hired by Ivanhoe, Rabble.ca news July 2009.
(12) Mother Africa blog 29 Jun 09.
(13) Protest Barrick 17 June 06.
(14) Colombia stories from Friends of the Earth and IPS news.
(15) Omai is one of the world's worst ten toxic sites.
(16) For native protests and police killings see Mining Watch, Ecuador Rising and Grain. Canadian churches campaign Mar 2009 in support of Acción Ecológica. Protests in Peru and Bolivia June 2009, linked to “special clauses” in free-trade agreements imposed by the US and Canada, were broken by police massacres.
(17) Wikipedia on Porgera; June 2009 police action.
(18) quotation from Wikipedia on Marcopper disaster in Marinduque.
(19) Cerro San Pedro and Montreal sympathy action.
(20) secret Canadian Embassy memo and later sit-in.
(21) Development and Peace news 12 May 09; see also its reasons for CPP disinvestment and for an ombudsman. The March 2007 national Roundtable report calling for a corporate accountability law, was refused by the Harper government. The Montreal Social Justice Committee's Upstream July 2009 issue notes that the government's March 2009 proposal for a "CSR counsellour" is far nore restricted than an ombudsman; the proposed CSR centre has no enforcement powers; and corporate compliance is voluntary. NGOs and corporations provide the main impetus in Voluntary Principles (VPs), an international stakeholders group which Canada just joined. Liberal John McKay introduced the private member's Bill 300 in February 2009.
(22) Development and Peace Declaration of principles. See also the Natural Resource Charter and Publish What You Pay.

Update from Africa Report 26 Nov 2013: Harper imposes "investor rights" on Africa
Update from Mining Watch 21 Sep 2015: Canadian corporate offenders in the Americas.

The globalization of toxic waste

Photo: courtesy The Sun (UK)
Mutant births are soaring in China due to pollution, especially in chemical, manufacturing, and coal-mining regions, both rural and urban, reports the China Daily -- accounting for a good part of China Family Planning Commission statistics in a previous study: a 40% birth defect increase since 2001, years that coincided with uncontrolled economic growth.

Worldwide imports of toxic waste, frequently illegal, have caused scandals in the developing world. A Current.tv video shows imported computer waste poisoning villagers in Guangdong. The action group Toxiclinks exposed similar problems with e-waste, child labour, and toxic burdens in India; in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the 2006 Probo Koala incident 2006 revealed open dumps, illegal imports, and corruption; in 2008, similar problems were found in Accra, Ghana. Pesticide Action Network and Via Campesina are campaigning against continued exports by chemical corporations of banned pesticides to farms in the Third World.

Greenpeace has for years led a campaign against the toxic waste trade, and compiled reports. See also Wikipedia on electronic waste and body burden, Ariana Baliestri's 2006 paper on contraband capitalism, Dr Sandra Steingraber's research into body burdens in US families and  mothers, and impacts abroad due to war. 

War and the environment

photo "Firefight" from pzzz.tripod.com
This is not an in-depth analysis, but a brief survey of the many environmental impacts of war.

Human consequences
- Racism in war: when "you" are the enemy, interviews with Asian American Vietnam vets by Tony Chan. See his blog
- PTSS aka shell shock affects a generation of civilians and veterans
- civilians maimed by mines, children by cluster bombs
- Depleted Uranium weapons in Kuwait (Gulf War I) Bosnia, Serbia, Iraq; see also Gulf War Syndrome, cancer epidemic in Basra; US rejects cleanup in Iraq
- British germ warfare tests on their own population
- the downwinders in Utah
- cost of wars in Africa: child mortality +50%, illiteracy +20%, undernourishment +15%, impacts that will last for a generation or more (p.5, Africa's Missing Billions). Equivalent to "all international aid from major donors", says Oxfam, the $300b wasted on war since 1990 could have stopped epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, funded education, clean water and sanitation (p.3).

Toxic and nuclear pollution
- toxics in Vietnam: Australian reports 1993 and 2005.
- toxic military bases in the USA: Bay Area, North Carolina, Alaska , Hawaii. See also the maps in Bob Feldman, War on the Earth
- in Canada: Agent Purple at Camp Gagetown NB, Dene natives of Yellowknife
- Russian and US nuclear dumps in the Arctic

Reliable information
Climate costs of the Iraq war from oilchange.com 19 Mar 08
Project Ploughshares, Center for Defense Information USA, SIPRI in Sweden,
Learn Peace UK, Sierra Club USA

Dangerous new trends
- 3-block war: new US doctrine ends the distinction between blitzkreig of civilians / peacekeeping / humanitarian aid; doctrine adopted by Canadian army
- WF Engdahl on the "doomsday seed bank"
- tactical nukes aka "theater war", shifting to "first strike"

DU map posted in a SF Bay area blog May 2007
click on map to see in full screen

Indonesia: arrested for speaking truth

Picture: Neil Tangri's book "Waste Incineration: A Dying Technology" on no-burn.org
News from Annie Leonard's blog The Story of Stuff
Indonesian police arrested three environmentalists, Gigie Cruz from the Phillipines, Shibu Nair from India, and Neil Tangri from the USA, on 1 Dec 2007. They were en route to the historic UN Framework on Climate Change COP-13 conference in Bali this week where many eco-activists are urging informed and positive action. They were going to hold a Zero Waste for Zero Warming educational forum at the conference.

Invited to a 2000-strong public meeting in Bandung opposing construction of a huge garbage incinerator for the city, they were arrested after speaking about resultant pollution and explaining green alternatives. Their passports were seized, they were subjected to lengthy interrogation, and were asked to sign a document in Bahasa Indonesia, a language which they could not read.

Since then they have sent text messages reporting that no formal charges have been brought and they are not in physical danger. But they continue to be detained, and will likely be deported.

Alerted by email, within an hour of their arrest, activists in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe flooded Indonesian embassies with messages calling for the safe release of the three Zero Waste experts. Those already at COP-13 contacted Indonesian government officials all the way up to the President.

Says Annie Leonard, "I am just glad my friends are safe. I’m also grateful to be part of a growing global civil society movement seeking both environmental sustainability and social justice... I look forward to that day that people aren’t jailed for speaking the truth about... the environment, community health and the climate." For updates see no-burn.org

PS: Avaaz.org and other NGOs urge 1,000,000 citizens around the world to march online and in person on Saturday, 8 Dec 2007, demanding that their elected representatives at Bali begin work on a binding climate treaty to replace Kyoto. According to George Monbiot in the 4 Dec 07 Guardian, "The Kyoto Protocol, whose replacement the Bali meeting will discuss, has failed. Since it was signed, there has been an acceleration in global emissions: the rate of carbon dioxide production exceeds the IPCC's worst case and is now growing faster than at any time since the beginning of the industrial revolution."

Quaker media: film, videos, podcasts

Pamela Calvert’s The Beloved Community, an hour-long 2006 documentary, shows native people near Sarnia, Ontario involved in toxics remediation. Women go door-to-door collecting data, demanding action from the city, companies and governments. Pollution by the chemical industry has been virtually uncontrolled since the 1940s. The Aamjiwnaang (pronounced ‘Om-ji-nong’) First Nation is on the front line of investigations into endocrine disruptors, exposure to which can bring about miscarriages, a skewing of the birth ratios between girls and boys, and long-term neurological damage. But what is happening there is an extreme case of the growing “body burdens” that affect future generations throughout the world, as this September 12, 2007 Guardian article shows. Kathleen Burns of sciencecorps.org says The Beloved Community shows “a strong tribal community…struggling to come to terms with environmental health problems and solve them in creative new ways.” For more details see Beyond Pesticides of April 12, 2007, Environmental Defence’s 2006 news release on Aamjiwnaang and its body burden tests of volunteers across Canada, which finally embarrassed Health Canada into action.
Similar US campaigns have been led by the Environmental Working Group and its alarming 2005 study of newborns. Ft Chipewyan AB doctors, natives and Arctic natives have reported similar problems.
California Newsreel, which distributes The Beloved Community on DVD, also offers many other films with discussion guides, on environmental and globalization issues: A Killer Bargain, Maquilopolis, The Debt of Dictators, Black Gold (about coffee), as well as classics on US race relations, and over 30 documentaries by Africans.
The Beloved Community was made by Pamela Calvert’s Plain Speech company in association with Detroit Public Television. She produced and directed This Far and No Further: Canada’s Asbestos Legacy (for release in 2007), and contributed to two films on communities organizing against hate crimes The Fire Next Time (2005) , and Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here (2005). More films in this series are available from The Working Group.

In 1997 Pamela organized nationally and co-wrote the Community Action Guide for Judith Helfand’s film A Healthy Baby Girl about the endocrine disruptor DES; she later developed campaigns for ITVS programs including Frontline: The Farmer's Wife and La Ciudad. Her 2002 paper “Steps toward a Quaker Media Practice” is available online from Friends Media Project of Bishopville MD ,which offers other Quaker documents, film, video, photos, music and art in digital form.

She is now clerk of SpeakingTruth.org, providing videos and podcasts for Quaker media ministry, sponsored by Quaker Institute for the Future.

Videos and reports by other film-makers on chemical pollution and native communities are available: NFB Toxic Trespass, the EcoJustice (ex-Sierra Club Legal Fund) report Exposing Canada's Chemical Valley, UTNE 'Contaminated Science' article; and Homo Toxicus (Carole Poliquin, Québec 2007, 87 min en français).