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Penelope Jagessar Chaffer: I was going to ask if there's a doctor in the house.

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No, I'm just joking.

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It's interesting, because it was six years ago

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when I was pregnant with my first child

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that I discovered

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that the most commonly used preservative

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in baby care products

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mimics estrogen

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when it gets into the human body.

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Now it's very easy actually

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to get a chemical compound from products

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into the human body through the skin.

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And these preservatives had been found

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in breast cancer tumors.

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That was the start of my journey

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to make this film, "Toxic Baby."

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And it doesn't take much time

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to discover some really astonishing statistics

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with this issue.

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One is that you and I all have

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between 30 to 50,000 chemicals

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in our bodies

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that our grandparents didn't have.

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And many of these chemicals

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are now linked to the skyrocketing incidents

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of chronic childhood disease

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that we're seeing across industrialized nations.

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I'll show you some statistics.

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So for example, in the United Kingdom,

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the incidence of childhood leukemia

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has risen by 20 percent just in a generation.

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Very similar statistic for childhood cancer in the U.S.

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In Canada, we're now looking at one in 10 Canadian children with asthma.

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That's a four-fold increase.

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Again, similar story around the world.

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In the United States,

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probably the most astonishing statistic

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is a 600 percent increase

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in autism and autistic spectrum disorders

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and other learning disabilities.

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Again, we're seeing that trend

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across Europe, across North America.

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And in Europe,

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there's certain parts of Europe,

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where we're seeing a four-fold increase

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in certain genital birth defects.

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Interestingly, one of those birth defects

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has seen a 200 percent increase in the U.S.

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So a real skyrocketing

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of chronic childhood disease

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that includes other things

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like obesity and juvenile diabetes,

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premature puberty.

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So it's interesting for me,

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when I'm looking for someone who can really talk to me

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and talk to an audience about these things,

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that probably one of the most important people in the world

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who can discuss toxicity in babies

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is expert in frogs.

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(Laughter)

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Tyrone Hayes: It was a surprise to me as well

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that I would be talking about pesticides,

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that I'd be talking about public health,

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because, in fact, I never thought I would do anything useful.

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(Laughter)

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Frogs.

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In fact, my involvement in the whole pesticide issue

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was sort of a surprise as well

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when I was approached by the largest chemical company in the world

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and they asked me if I would evaluate

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how atrazine affected amphibians, or my frogs.

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It turns out, atrazine is the largest selling product

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for the largest chemical company in the world.

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It's the number one contaminant

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of groundwater, drinking water, rain water.

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In 2003, after my studies, it was banned in the European Union,

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but in that same year,

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the United States EPA re-registered the compound.

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We were a bit surprised when we found out

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that when we exposed frogs

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to very low levels of atrazine -- 0.1 parts per billion --

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that it produced animals that look like this.

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These are the dissected gonads of an animal

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that has two testes, two ovaries,

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another large testis, more ovaries,

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which is not normal ...

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(Laughter)

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even for amphibians.

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In some cases, another species like the North American Leopard Frog

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showed that males exposed to atrazine grew eggs in their testes.

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And you can see these large, yolked-up eggs

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bursting through the surface of this male's testes.

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Now my wife tells me, and I'm sure Penelope can as well,

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that there's nothing more painful than childbirth --

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which that I'll never experience, I can't really argue that --

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but I would guess that a dozen chicken eggs in my testicle

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would probably be somewhere in the top five.

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(Laughter)

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In recent studies that we've published,

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we've shown that some of these animals when they're exposed to atrazine,

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some of the males grow up

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and completely become females.

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So these are actually two brothers consummating a relationship.

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And not only do these genetic males mate with other males,

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they actually have the capacity to lay eggs

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even though they're genetic males.

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What we proposed,

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and what we've now generated support for,

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is that what atrazine is doing

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is wreaking havoc causing a hormone imbalance.

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Normally the testes should make testosterone,

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the male hormone.

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But what atrazine does is it turns on an enzyme,

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the machinery if you will, aromatase,

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that converts testosterone into estrogen.

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And as a result, these exposed males

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lose their testosterone, they're chemically castrated,

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and they're subsequently feminized

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because now they're making the female hormone.

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Now this is what brought me to the human-related issues.

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Because it turns out

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that the number one cancer in women, breast cancer,

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is regulated by estrogen and by this enzyme aromatase.

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So when you develop a cancerous cell in your breast,

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aromatase converts androgens into estrogens,

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and that estrogen turns on or promotes

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the growth of that cancer

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so that it turns into a tumor and spreads.

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In fact, this aromatase is so important in breast cancer

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that the latest treatment for breast cancer

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is a chemical called letrozole,

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which blocks aromatase, blocks estrogen,

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so that if you developed a mutated cell, it doesn't grow into a tumor.

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Now what's interesting is, of course,

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that we're still using 80 million pounds of atrazine,

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the number one contaminant in drinking water, that does the opposite --

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turns on aromatase, increases estrogen

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and promotes tumors in rats

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and is associated with tumors, breast cancer, in humans.

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What's interesting is, in fact,

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the same company that sold us 80 million pounds of atrazine,

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the breast cancer promoter,

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now sells us the blocker -- the exact same company.

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And so I find it interesting

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that instead of treating this disease

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by preventing exposure to the chemicals that promote it,

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we simply respond

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by putting more chemicals into the environment.

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PJC: So speaking of estrogen,

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one of the other compounds that Tyrone talks about in the film

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is something called bisphenol A, BPA,

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which has been in the news recently.

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It's a plasticizer.

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It's a compound that's found in polycarbonate plastic,

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which is what baby bottles are made out of.

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And what's interesting about BPA

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is that it's such a potent estrogen

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that it was actually once considered for use

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as a synthetic estrogen in hormone placement therapy.

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And there have been many, many, many studies that have shown

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that BPA leaches from babies' bottles

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into the formula, into the milk,

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and therefore into the babies.

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So we're dosing our babies,

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our newborns, our infants,

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with a synthetic estrogen.

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Now two weeks ago or so,

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the European Union passed a law

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banning the use of BPA

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in babies' bottles and sippy cups.

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And for those of you who are not parents,

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sippy cups are those little plastic things

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that your child graduates to after using bottles.

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But just two weeks before that,

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the U.S. Senate refused to even debate

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the banning of BPA

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in babies' bottles and sippy cups.

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So it really makes you realize

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the onus on parents

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to have to look at this and regulate this and police this

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in their own lives

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and how astonishing that is.

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(Video) PJC: With many plastic baby bottles

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now proven to leak the chemical bisphenol A,

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it really shows how sometimes

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it is only a parent's awareness

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that stands between chemicals and our children.

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The baby bottle scenario proves

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that we can prevent unnecessary exposure.

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However, if we parents are unaware,

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we are leaving our children

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to fend for themselves.

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TH: And what Penelope says here

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is even more true.

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For those of you who don't know, we're in the middle of the sixth mass extinction.

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Scientists agree now.

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We are losing species from the Earth

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faster than the dinosaurs disappeared,

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and leading that loss are amphibians.

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80 percent of all amphibians

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are threatened and in come decline.

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And I believe, many scientists believe

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that pesticides are an important part of that decline.

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In part, amphibians are good indicators and more sensitive

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because they don't have protection from contaminants in the water --

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no eggshells, no membranes

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and no placenta.

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In fact, our invention -- by "our" I mean we mammals --

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one of our big inventions was the placenta.

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But we also start out as aquatic organisms.

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But it turns out that this ancient structure

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that separates us from other animals, the placenta,

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cannot evolve or adapt fast enough

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because of the rate that we're generating new chemicals

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that it's never seen before.

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The evidence of that is that studies in rats, again with atrazine,

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show that the hormone imbalance atrazine generates causes abortion.

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Because maintaining a pregnancy is dependent on hormones.

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Of those rats that don't abort,

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atrazine causes prostate disease

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in the pups so the sons

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are born with an old man's disease.

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Of those that don't abort,

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atrazine causes impaired mammary, or breast, development

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in the exposed daughters in utero,

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so that their breast don't develop properly.

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And as a result, when those rats grow up,

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their pups experience retarded growth and development

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because they can't make enough milk to nourish their pups.

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So the pup you see on the bottom is affected by atrazine

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that its grandmother was exposed to.

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And given the life of many of these chemicals,

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generations, years, dozens of years,

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that means that we right now

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are affecting the health

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of our grandchildren's grandchildren

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by things that we're putting into the environment today.

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And this is not just philosophical, it's already known,

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that chemicals like diethylstilbestrol and estrogen,

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PCBs, DDT

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cross the placenta

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and effectively determine

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the likelihood of developing breast cancer

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and obesity and diabetes

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already when the baby's in the womb.

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In addition to that, after the baby's born,

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our other unique invention as mammals

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is that we nourish our offspring after they're born.

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We already know that chemicals

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like DDT and DES and atrazine

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can also pass over into milk,

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again, affecting our babies

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even after their born.

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PJC: So when Tyrone tells me

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that the placenta is an ancient organ,

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I'm thinking, how do I demonstrate that?

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How do you show that?

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And it's interesting when you make a film like this,

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because you're stuck trying to visualize science

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that there's no visualization for.

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And I have to take a little bit of artistic license.

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(Video) (Ringing)

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Old man: Placenta control.

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What is it?

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Oh what?

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(Snoring)

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(Honk)

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Puffuffuff, what?

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Perflourooctanoic acid.

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Blimey.

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Never heard of it.

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PJC: And neither had I actually

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before I started making this film.

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And so when you realize that chemicals can pass the placenta

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and go into your unborn child,

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it made me start to think,

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what would my fetus say to me?

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What would our unborn children say to us

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when they have an exposure

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that's happening everyday, day after day?

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(Music)

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(Video) Child: Today,

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I had some octyphenols,

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some artificial musks

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and some bisphenol A.

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Help me.

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PJC: It's a very profound notion

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to know that we as women

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are at the vanguard of this.

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This is our issue,

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because we collect these compounds our entire life

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and then we end up dumping it and dumping them

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into our unborn children.

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We are in effect

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polluting our children.

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And this was something that was really brought home to me a year ago

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when I found out I was pregnant

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and the first scan revealed

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that my baby had a birth defect

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associated with exposure

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to estrogenic chemicals in the womb

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and the second scan

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revealed no heartbeat.

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So my child's death, my baby's death,

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really brought home the resonance of what I was trying to make in this film.

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And it's sometimes a weird place

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when the communicator becomes part of the story,

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which is not what you originally intend.

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And so when Tyrone talks about

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the fetus being trapped in a contaminated environment,

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this is my contaminated environment.

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This is my toxic baby.

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And that's something

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that's just profound and sad,

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but astonishing

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because so many of us don't actually know this.

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TH: One of this things that's exciting and appropriate

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for me to be here at TEDWomen

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is that, well, I think it was summed up best last night at dinner

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when someone said, "Turn to the man at your table and tell them,

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'When the revolution starts, we've got your back.'"

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The truth is, women,

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you've had our back on this issue for a very long time,

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starting with Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"

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to Theo Colborn's "Our Stolen Future"

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to Sandra Steingraber's books

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"Living Downstream" and "Having Faith."

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And perhaps it's the connection to our next generation --

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like my wife and my beautiful daughter here about 13 years ago --

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perhaps it's that connection

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that makes women activists

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in this particular area.

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But for the men here, I want to say

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it's not just women and children that are at risk.

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And the frogs that are exposed to atrazine,

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the testes are full of holes and spaces,

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because the hormone imbalance,

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instead of allowing sperm to be generated,

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such as in the testis here,

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the testicular tubules end up empty

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and fertility goes down by as much as 50 percent.

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It's not just my work in amphibians,

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but similar work has been shown in fish in Europe,

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holes in the testes and absence of sperm in reptiles in a group from South America

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and in rats, an absence of sperm

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in the testicular tubules as well.

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And of course, we don't do these experiments in humans,

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but just by coincidence,

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my colleague has shown

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that men who have low sperm count, low semen quality

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have significantly more atrazine in their urine.

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These are just men who live

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in an agricultural community.

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Men who actually work in agriculture

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have much higher levels of atrazine.

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And the men who actually apply atrazine

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have even more atrazine in their urine,

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up to levels that are 24,000 times what we know to be active

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are present in the urine of these men.

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Of course, most of them, 90 percent are Mexican, Mexican-American.

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And it's not just atrazine they're exposed to.

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They're exposed to chemicals like chloropicrin,

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which was originally used as a nerve gas.

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And many of these workers

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have life expectancies of only 50.

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It shouldn't come to any surprise that the things that happen in wildlife

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are also a warning to us,

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just like Rachel Carson and others have warned.

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As evident in this slide from Lake Nabugabo in Uganda,

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the agricultural runoff from this crop,

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which goes into these buckets,

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is the sole source of drinking, cooking and bathing water for this village.

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Now if I told the men in this village

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that the frogs have pour immune function

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and eggs developing in their testes,

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the connection between environmental health and public health

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would be clear.

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You would not drink water that you knew was having this kind of impact

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on the wildlife that lived in it.

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The problem is, in my village, Oakland,

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in most of our villages,

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we don't see that connection.

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We turn on the faucet, the water comes out, we assume it's safe,

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and we assume that we are masters of our environment,

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rather than being part of it.

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PJC: So it doesn't take much to realize

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that actually this is an environmental issue.

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And I kept thinking over and over again

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this question.

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We know so much about global warming and climate change,

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and yet, we have no concept

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of what I've been calling internal environmentalism.

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We know what we're putting out there,

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we have a sense of those repercussions,

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but we are so ignorant of this sense

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of what happens when we put things, or things are put

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into our bodies.

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And it's my feeling

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and it's my urging being here

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to know that, as we women move forward

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as the communicators of this,

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but also as the ones who carry that burden

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of carrying the children, bearing the children,

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we hold most of the buying power in the household,

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is that it's going to be us moving forward

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to carry the work of Tyrone and other scientists around the world.

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And my urging is

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that when we think about environmental issues

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that we remember that it's not just about melting glaciers and ice caps,

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but it's also about our children as well.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)