Filmmaker's eye-opening presentation has kids reading labels

Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board
News Release

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Andrew Nisker wants students to change the way they clean and smell. The award-winning filmmaker stood in front of the entire St. Joseph-Scollard Hall student body and staff and revealed toxicity levels in their favourite cosmetic and household cleaning products. The writer and producer of Chemerical, a documentary that follows an average family’s switch to “green” products once they learn the danger of contents in popular brands, was on hand for the school’s Enviro-Insights Film Festival last week.

Students brought their favourite lipsticks and body sprays to Nisker’s presentation and watched in disbelief as he revealed their favourite products’ poor ratings in a database by the Environmental Working Group, Skin Deep. Products are given an ingredient hazard score, from 1-10, which reflects known and suspected hazards of ingredients.

“The quality of the air in your home is far worse than the quality of the air outside, and that all comes down to the chemicals in everything we use to clean ourselves and our home,” he said. “We are a generation that needs to smell like strawberries and vanilla because we are afraid of smelling like human beings.”

Nisker urged the audience to start buying natural products or learn to make their own. He encouraged students to report their switch to natural products on his “toxic products removed” counter at http://www.chemicalnation.com/content/take-action-tools. “What are some of the things we can start doing today,” one student asked. “You have to stop buying bottled water. You live in a city surrounded by beautiful lakes. Your tap water is gold, drink it!” he said.

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