Before starting a family, Soozie Eastman, daughter of an industrial chemical distributor, embarks on a journey to find out the levels of toxins in her body and explores if there is anything she or anyone else can do to change them. Soozie has just learned that hundreds of synthetic toxins are now found in every baby born in America and the government and chemical corporations are doing little to protect citizens and consumers. With guidance from world-renowned physicians and environmental leaders, interviews with scientists and politicians, and stories of everyday Americans, Soozie uncovers how we got to be so overloaded with chemicals and if there is anything we can do to take control of our exposure. Can we hit the reset button, or is it too late?
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Overload: America’s Toxic Love Story
70-minutes
Screening day / time
Overload: America’s Toxic Love Story
Overload: America’s Toxic Love Story
Filmmaker Notes:
I grew up the daughter of an industrial chemical distributor. My life was made cleaner and easier thanks to a myriad of products that my dad had in the house for any situation. It was only when I grew up and my friends started having families that I began to wake up to the fact that it shouldn’t be just when there is an infant in the house that we are cognizant of exposures – why do we have this proliferation in the first place? Why are chemicals banned in other countries and welcomed in our products with little to no regulation on their use? My film focuses on the proliferation of petrochemicals in our personal care and household cleaning products and food. Unknowingly, average Americans are being exposed to hundreds of chemicals that can have negative impacts on both human health and the environment. The belief held by most people is that regulations exist to protect us and that is largely false. Filming began when we had some semblance of an EPA intact, and even then there was not really the oversight on corporations to provide transparency or limitation to the ingredients in our products. In the last year, the EPA has largely been muzzled, and any progress made in a chemical reform bill passed in 2016 has been halted. We are having to become greater advocates for ourselves. It is my hope that my film can be a force for positive change as it relates to unnecessary exposures impacting ourselves and future generations.
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