Penelope Jagessar Chaffer - April Inspirational Woman

[proverbialwisdom]

http://www.womensvoices.org/about/inspirational-women/penelope-jagessar-chaffer

Penelope Jagessar Chaffer

April Inspirational Woman

Penelope is the award-winning filmmaker of Toxic Baby and an author for Toxipedia.

As a filmmaker, I have the opportunity to tell stories with a unique cinematic voice. Being able to bring a visual and audio perspective together to explore aspects of our twenty-first century life is one of the greatest joys in my life. As an environmentalist and feminist, it is a huge honor that I can tell a story about my life.

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In 2004, I became pregnant with my first child. Like many mothers to be, I invested many, many hours researching pregnancy and preparing for my baby. I had taken some steps to reduce toxic chemicals in my home and to what I was exposed, so I was shocked and dismayed to find out that the toxic chemical problem actually affected EVERY product and item I brought into my home, I put on and in my body, and that children were the most vulnerable. At a friend’s child’s first birthday party, I discovered that the most commonly used preservative in baby care products mimicked estrogen and had been found in breast cancer tumors. It was a breast cancer survivor with a young daughter who was sharing the information that she had and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I went home and immediately jumped on the internet. Within seconds I found the research study and emailed the scientists who authored the study. Within a day, my life would irrevocably change. I found out that parabens were just the tip of the iceberg, and I kept saying to myself “I can’t believe I don’t know anything about this!! Why don’t I know anything about this?!” This question became Toxic Baby, which looks at how chemicals in the environment affect the health and development of babies and children and what we can do to address this situation, told through the lens of the mountain of research and studies that have been done.

It’s taken almost ten years to bring Toxic Baby to life. It’s been a long and hard journey to bring this science to life and were it not for the love, support, and encouragement of my female friends and relatives, I would not have gone the distance. This community of women coming together echoes the wonderful work of Women’s Voices for the Earth, whose incredible work allows us to harmonize our voices to produce great change and great advocacy for inner and outer environments.

Penelope is running a Kickstarter campaign to turn Toxic Baby into the world’s first interactive documentary app for the iPad. Please consider supporting and sharing.

http://www.toxicbaby.com
http://toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Welcome+to+Toxipedia
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1206653864/toxic-baby-the-worlds-first-interactive-documentar

More: http://www.womensvoices.org/about/inspirational-women/

[proverbialwisdom]

1. The branding of this project may suck, but the OVERALL GOAL renders such considerations moot.

http://vimeo.com/22090002

Dr. Michael P. Wilson PhD: What The Public Can Do
from Penelope Jagessar Chaffer PLUS 3 years ago

Dr. Michael P. Wilson discusses the Baby Tooth Study as an example of public advocacy and how the general public can bring about legislation and change.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017186063

THREAD: Our Stolen Future - Revisited 15 Years Later (Full Version)

READ ABOUT THE 18 SCIENTISTS HERE.

...of mice and men, babies and bees.

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Personally, I'd never juxtapose the words TOXIC and BABY, it makes me cringe and inhibits sharing.

Last edited Sun Apr 13, 2014, 07:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Frank Luntz would understand, I think.

On the image front, she glamorously vamps it up for the Kickstarter video straight out of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar or the BAFTA's. Ok, lovely, but here she is wearing a 'MOM'S CLEAN AIR FORCE' red t-shirt (far right) in a photo tweeted by the EPA Administrator the day of the Senate's all night session on the climate crisis. And certainly the TEDTalk below adds another serious element.

https://twitter.com/GinaEPA/status/443078532319563776

Kids & @CleanAirMoms stopped by today to deliver comments on the new power plant rule. We must #ActOnClimate for them http://pic.twitter.com/hmkE51T4N1

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http://www.ted.com/talks/tyrone_hayes_penelope_jagessar_chaffer_the_toxic_baby.html

Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer: The toxic baby
FILMED DEC 2010 • POSTED FEB 2012 • TEDWomen 2010

Filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer was curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant: Could they affect her unborn child? So she asked scientist Tyrone Hayes to brief her on one he studied closely: atrazine, a herbicide used on corn. (Hayes, an expert on amphibians, is a critic of atrazine, which displays a disturbing effect on frog development.) Onstage together at TEDWomen, Hayes and Chaffer tell their story.

Tyrone Hayes studies frogs and amphibians -- and the effects on their bodies of common farming chemicals. Full bio »

Penelope Jagessar Chaffer made the film "Toxic Baby," exploring environmental toxins through interviews and surreal imagery. Full bio »

She's made a brilliant film about the research of 18 scientists on the widespread harm to human development from toxic synthetic substances and is attempting to raise funds to turn it into an app which can be updated and will contain crowd-sourced maps. WOW!

She's getting the stiff arm from DU's science people. That's ironic since I learned about her only recently from a hugely popular DU thread on scientist Tyrone Hayes (included in her film). What's up with that? Sexism?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024479039 (118 replies, 8100 views, 215 DU recs)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/112763325
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122826713

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Update.

http://www.panna.org/blog/spinning-science-atrazine

Spinning the science on atrazine

Thu, 2014-04-17 07:32
Lex Horan

The last of the late spring snowstorms are winding down here in the Midwest, and it won’t be long before corn goes into the ground. With corn-planting, of course, comes atrazine applications. And though atrazine doesn’t get much use in the colder months, this winter hasn’t been a quiet one for the notorious herbicide and its manufacturer, the Syngenta Corporation.

In the last few months, investigative reporters in the U.S. and Canada have highlighted Syngenta’s desperate scrambling to discredit atrazine’s critics. Recent pieces in major outlets like the New Yorker and Canada’s 16 x 9, building on important findings first published in 100Reporters, have pulled back the curtain on Syngenta’s PR machine for a broader audience. The message? In the pesticide industry, spin is half the business.

Much of the recent media coverage zeroes in on Dr. Tyrone Hayes, the Berkeley biologist who was on Syngenta’s payroll until his findings raised red flags about atrazine.

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[proverbialwisdom]

3. Interview via Skype, September 2013, approximately 40 minutes. Watch it and please consider her KS.

http://greensisterhood.com/2013/09/toxic-baby-app-to-revolutionize-static-scientific-information/

Streamed live on Sep 3, 2013 (40:45)

Anna and Karen interview Penelope, the producer and director of Toxic Baby on her new application to help families to be safe and healthy. Her application is the first of its kind that makes her movie dynamic and not static to be current on all available environmental news.

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