In the small agricultural town of McFarland, California, children were dying from cancer at a rate more than four times the national average.  Their parents, mostly farm workers, blamed pesticide exposure.  In this hard-hitting examination, reporters Fred Setterberg and Lonny Shavelson uncover an explosive mixture of personal histories; scientific, medical and economic consequences; social upheaval; and potent grassroots organization in McFarland and towns like it across the United States.  Toxic Nation is about the struggle of people who have faced the health effects of chemical contamination head-on, and the democratic uprising engendered by that confrontation. 

 

McFarland, California: "Our kids get cancer like most kid get colds."

Click on thumbnail images to enlarge them  

Kiley Price.jpg (38222 bytes)

Esmeralda Sanchez.jpg (31599 bytes)

Carlos Sanchez.jpg (45815 bytes)

Sally Gonzales.jpg (37947 bytes)

Angela Ramirez.jpg (23050 bytes)

Kiley Price, kidney cancer

Esmeralda Sanchez, brain cancer

Carlos Sanchez, lymphatic cancer

Sally & Borjas Gonzales, their son Franky died of bone cancer

Angela Ramirez, adrenal cancer

 

Troubled Waters -- towns with contaminated water supplies

Woburn, 

Massachusetts

Jessica Aufiero.jpg (27727 bytes)

Jennifer Shephard.jpg (22289 bytes)

Fowler, 

California

 

Jessica Aufiero, leukemia

Jennifer Shephard, leukemia

 

                                                                 

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