The Human Experiment

Airing corporate dirty (or, more precisely, toxic) laundry, journalist-filmmakers Dana Nachman and Don Hardy's The Human Experiment, narrated by Sean Penn, fingers ubiquitous industrial compounds as the responsible agents for a frightening rise over the last 45 years in certain cancers, infertility, autism, asthma, early onset puberty, genital deformities, and behavioral disorders. The chemical industry is a deep-pocketed group repped in Washington by a monolithic super-lobby, the American Chemistry Council, who followed the lead of the tobacco industry in the 1950s, using the PR firm of Hill + Knowlton to wield a four-stage strategy of denying/minimizing the effects of products on unwary consumers. Lead paint, cosmetics, pesticides, BPA plastics, and flame retardants are all listed as menacing. Unlike many similar documentaries, this one goes beyond hand-wringing to look at some solutions, ranging from the "green chemistry" movement to a group of housekeepers who are committed to using safe and natural cleaning methods. Also on hand are business success stories, including Tea Party-supporting fabrication tycoon Howard Williams' decision to expel harmful PVC from his building products, and Eden Organics' move to roll back technology to the 1960s in order to make safer canned goods (both companies reaped profits as a result). An effective advocacy exposé, this is highly recommended. (C. Cassady)