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?
My film focuses on the largely unregulated overuse 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. While neither political party has pushed for sweeping reforms since TSCA was passed under President Ford in 1976, during the Trump administration, the EPA has been 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.
Learn more about OVERLOAD: America’s Toxic Love Story here