Rent this film for $4.99

According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of cancer has doubled over the last thirty years (after allowing for the population aging factor). Over this period, the increase in leukemia and brain tumors in children has been around 2% per year. The WHO has observed a similar trend for neurological diseases (Parkinson's and Alzheimer's) and autoimmune disorders, and for reproduction dysfunctions. What explanations can be found for this worrying epidemic, which is hitting the "developed" countries particularly hard?

Haunted by that question, director Marie-Monique Robin launches an in-depth investigation into everyday products and the system charged with regulating them. Robin digs through the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) archives, manages to talk her way into secret meetings, and meets with regulators and respected renegade researchers throughout North American and Europe.

The result is OUR DAILY POISON-a shocking documentary film that reveals a broken safety system concerned more with protecting trade secrets than human health. (In one key moment, a member of the UN agency responsible for setting acceptable daily limits of poisonous chemicals admits that the numbers are "theoretical" and have "nothing to do with the real world.") The film shows that the main cause of the epidemic is environmental: it is the result of the 100,000 chemical molecules that have invaded our environment, and primarily our food, since the end of the Second World War.

The film is divided into three distinct, but interrelated sections, making it ideal for classroom use. In the first, Robin meets farmers suffering horrific health problems-such as leukemia, Parkinson's, and brain lesions-linked to pesticide poisoning, and looks into the effects those same pesticides have on people eating fruits and vegetables.

Robin then moves on to the broken regulatory regime, using the artificial sweetener Aspartame as a case study. It is a cautionary tale about the revolving door between government and industry, and the influence of money on research findings. Finally, OUR DAILY POISON reveals the inadequacies of testing individual compounds in a world where everyone carries around a cocktail of synthetic chemicals absorbed from food and the environment-many of them mimicking the body's own hormones.

OUR DAILY POISON is a smart, well-researched and thoroughly compelling documentary that will reshape the way you think about everyday products and the systems that are supposed to ensure their safety.

★★★½"OUR DAILY POISON makes a strong case that corporate interests have trumped truth at the expense of consumers' health, offering a sobering expose of industries intent on profit over safely-and governments asleep at the helm. Highly Recommended."—Video Librarian

"Highly Recommended. Robin provides information…through a superb blend of archival footage and documentation, as well as personal and expert interviews. …It offers a fascinating and somewhat horrifying look at the production of food across the globe as it makes its way from farmers' fields to our plates. The cinematography and sound quality are excellent. OUR DAILY POISON would make a great addition to any library, public, academic, or classroom collection."—Educational Media Reviews Online

"A masterly and implacable investigation."—Madame Figaro Magazine

"Can be watched like a thriller."—Terra Eco

"The elements brought forth by Marie Monique Robin—in particular on the lack of independent research centers—deserve a real debate."—Challenges

"A shocking documentary...complete and well researched."—Reforme

"A meticulous investigation."—VSD

"The battery of evidence is chilling."—Marianne Magazine

"The film serves as a good model of scientific methodology, the interpretation of results based on personal perspective, and the role of peer review and independent studies in science. Media and government play a prominent role as well. And if government testing sounds kind of boring, you haven't seen the film yet."—National Science Teachers Association Recommends

"Sobering stuff"—Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

Smart, well-researched and thoroughly compelling"—Cook and Taste

"Highlights the need for a new paradigm in the assessment of chemical risks"—Health & Environment Alliance

"Uncovers the hidden dangers in our daily food"—Slow Food Europe

"If we are what we eat, we may be in trouble"—The Science Teacher

"A shocking account of the dangerous chemical compounds that have infiltrated our food chain"—UTNE Reader