Our Daily Poison
Marie-Monique Robin
2010 - 112 min - HDCam - Couleur - France

According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of cancer has doubled over the last thirty years (after allowing for the population ageing factor). Over this period, the increase in leukaemia and brain tumours in children has been around 2% per year. And the WHO has observed a similar trend for neurological diseases (Parkinson's and Alzheimer's) and auto-immune disorders, and for reproduction dysfunctions. What explanations can be found for this worrying epidemic, which is hitting the ?developed? countries particularly hard?
This is the question which? Our daily poison? sets out to answer, on the basis of a two-year investigation in North America, Asia and Europe. Drawing on numerous scientific studies, and on interviews with representatives of regulatory agencies? such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)? , the film shows that the main cause of the epidemic is environmental: it is the result of the 100,000 chemical molecules which have invaded our environment, and primarily our food, since the end of the Second World War.
The documentary retraces the way food is produced, from the farmer's field (pesticides) to our plate (food additives and plastics). It focuses on the system used to evaluate and approve chemical products - through the examples of pesticides, aspartame and Bisphenol A - , showing that it is fundamentally flawed and totally unfit for purpose. Above all, it describes the pressures applied and the manipulations employed by the chemicals industry to ensure that highly toxic substances continue to be marketed. And it explores ways in which people can protect themselves by strengthening their immune mechanisms, through food, as demonstrated by many scientific studies (whose findings are rejected by the pharmaceutical industry).