I wanted to scream, “YES!…YES!” and dive into the middle of the street and set up a drive-in theater and force the public to view this TED Talk from Penelope Jagessar Chaffer and Tyrone Hayes when I first saw it.
But that seemed, well, akin to a frenzied dictator. So, I share it with you, in the hopes that you will share it, and that person will share it, and we will all be nodding our heads, and “Mmm-hmm”-ing, and DEMANDING CHANGE. Or, at the very least, we will all be more AWARE.
Penelope Jagessar Chaffer is a mother and a filmmaker who realized that the number of endocrine-distruptors occurring in our environment, from pesticides such as Atrazine and plasticizers like BPA, are, quite literally, producing toxic children. Jagessar Chaffer’s film, Toxic Baby, seeks to inform the public about the dangers of toxins in our world. “…Women are the vanguard of this. This is our issue, because we collect these compounds our entire life and then we end up dumping them into our unborn children. We are, in effect, polluting our children”(PJC in “The toxic baby”).
Tyrone Hayes breaks down the science behind what is occurring in our environment and what that could mean for future generations: “…We’re in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. Scientists agree now. 
We are losing species from the Earth faster than the dinosaurs disappeared, and leading that loss are amphibians. Eighty percent of all amphibians are threatened and in some decline…many scientists believe that pesticides are an important part of that decline”(TH in “The toxic baby”). Hayes’ studies have shown that a leading pesticide called Atrazine, which has been entering waterways via run-off, has the ability to permanently change the DNA of frogs. I’ve written before about the study of epigenetics, and it should come as no surprise that Hayes found toxic pesticides are having lasting effects on generations removed from original exposure. The theory easily translates to humans, reiterating the idea that we must fight for a cleaner environment.
What You Can Do:
1. Watch the TED Talk below. It’s entertaining (really, you’ll laugh!) and informative and you’ll come away feeling educated.
2. Share the talk on your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, or in an email. Couple it with a catchy title like, “Tranny Frogs Get It On with Their Brothers!” That should incite attention.
3. Go visit the Toxic Baby website, watch the trailers, and Like the Toxic Baby Facebook Page. You don’t want to miss the release of this film!
Wasn’t that amazing? Now I just can’t wait until I can see the film! I think what is incredible is that we have meddled with lots of varying types of toxic chemicals to varying degrees of harm, but what we are seeing with the endocrine disruptors is so significant because the does causing harm is so small. Not just in ourselves, but in wildlife like frogs and likely in other areas of our world as well.