Song of the Canary

One of the safety videos I show my students is a documentary "Song of the Canary". It is a story of men working in a pesticide company. During the filiming, it is discovered that an overwhelming number of men working in the plant are sterile. Even more shocking is the discovery of a study of the chemical on rats that clearly showed adverse health effects, published by scientist that work FOR THE SAME COMPANY and has sat on the shelf unheeded for years.

The comfrontation with the company VP leads to maybe my favorite quote in movie documentary history.*

Lindley (The company VP): Well there was a study, funded by Dow, and, that, the Torkelson study, Dr. Torkelson, and it did not show sterility in rats. What it showed was that with very high doses of DBCP you could get testicular atrophy, if you will; the shriveling up of the testicles. I've talked to, uh, two scientists who are familiar with that work and they both say heck, we just, we just didn't draw the conclusion that there'd be sterility from the fact that the testicles were shriveling up.

This quote always makes me want to go up to men and ask' "Would it be okay with you if your testicles shriveled up? I mean as long as you didn't become sterile"?

In fact if there are any men reading this or if you know any men, ask them and report back to me.

*By favorite, I mean most unf&*%king unbelievable, and does not diminish my sympathies for the men and families at Occidental Chemical Company.