WE CURRENTLY HAVE A MATCH IN EFFECT! YOUR CONTRIBUTION WILL BE MATCHED 100%! SO DO IT NOW WHILE YOUR MONEY IS WORTH DOUBLE. THANK YOU!
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
A group of smart, committed women have been telling us something for almost 40 years: we need to protect our children from the shocking links between chemicals and human disease. But it seems like no one has been listening.
Love Canal is a community in Niagara Falls which discovered in the mid-1970's that its elementary school had been built on top of 22,000 tons of toxic chemicals. Realizing that this explained why their children were sick and dying, a group of women fought the government and industry with extraordinary determination and bravery for two years to have their families evacuated.
The area, however, was declared habitable in the early 1990s and the homes were resold for below market value to working families who jumped at the chance to own a little piece of the dream. But the dream has become a nightmare. The same symptoms that ravaged the community in the '70s are back with a vengeance.
We've been filming with families who bought those homes and we need your help to finish the movie and tell the world this story which highlights an issue that affects us all. 1 in 2 Americans lives within 10 miles of a site like Love Canal and we are exposed to toxic chemicals in waste streams and in products every day.
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TWO GOALS
We have two goals in making this film.
- The first is to save the families living in Love Canal today. And save is not too big a word: the rates of leukemia, miscarriages, and heart conditions are through the roof. Babies conceived in the area are at a hugely elevated risk of having birth defects. Logan in the video above is just one example.
- The second goal is what effects us all. There are practically no safeguards between you and toxic chemicals either in the products you use or in the waste streams where they are deposited. The current laws do not require a company to prove that a chemical is safe before it is used. We must amend this law so that we can live without this unnecessary risk. We believe there is a way for companies to make money while behaving responsibly. This film introduces people to this debate through one of the most infamous chemical disasters. It tells a specific human story that affects us all and hopefully will inspire us to demand change.
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WHERE THINGS STAND
We have shot the film over the course of the last three years and are ready to finish it and get it out in the world. We need to raise our goal so that we can finish editing the film, do the picture and audio post production work and license the archival material we need to use to tell the historical story. Only by showing how big this story was in the 1970s can we underline the craziness that it's repeating itself. There's something beautiful about seeing the women who fought the original battle interviewed now - they understood the lessons, they knew what should be done because their children suffered the consequences. But as so often happens, those that know a truth which challenges the status quo are marginalized or ignored.
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Any amount will help us. If you can't contribute, and we get it, tell your friends and family about us. Whether they can contribute or not, it's good for people to be aware of what is happening to us all. The people in places like Love Canal are at particular risk but we are all being exposed to toxic chemicals on a daily basis. It's time to take them out of products and waste streams and to properly manage the hazards we have already created.
Democracy has gone a little off the rails and it's time we put it back on track. We hope this film can play a part in doing that.
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YOUR DONATION IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE
All of your donation minus the market value of any physical perks (i.e. the t-shirt and the book) are tax deductible. You will receive an email with all the information you need to take the deduction on your 2014 tax return.
THE CLEAN AIR COALITION OF WESTERN NEW YORK
A percentage of the money you give will go to The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, which is an amazing organization dedicated to training grassroots activists and communities to run and win environmental justice and public health campaigns. Given the amazing legacy of Lois Gibbs and her own organization, The Center For Environmental Health and Justice, this feels like a fitting way to not only complete the film but to encourage ordinary citizens to take their health into their own hands.
