Welcome to the Toxic Bodies Lecture Series

2011/2012 Toxic Bodies Lecture Series

One key expression of our society’s relationships with our ecosystems is human health. While attention in many environmental discussions is rightfully directed toward the ecosystemic impacts of our introduction of various manufactured products into the biosphere, we commit this year’s lecture series to reminding citizens that we too are an integral part of those ecosystems, and therefore our numerous “externalities” come back to bite us in the end in quite intimate ways, inside our own bodies. What happens to our own internal ecosystems, evolved over millennia, when we introduce foreign compounds like asbestos, transfats, soft plastic residuals, and pesticides? Join us in an exploration of what some of the latest findings reveal from the endeavours of scientists, academic and otherwise, to answer just such questions. In the process, we will hear about just how complex such a scientific endeavour this is, leaving all citizens to ask “how much risk and uncertainty can we live with?”

Nov 22, 2011 – “Canada’s ‘Rogue Nation’ Position on Asbestos”
by Dr. Colin Soskolne

Jan 25, 2012 – Safe Drinking Water—What Should We Fear?
by Dr. Steve Hrudey

Feb 29, 2012 – Pesticides and Other Environmental Chemicals – Black, White or Gray?
by Dr. Margaret Ann Armour

Mar 28, 2012 – From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads and Men
by Dr. Tyrone Hayes

Apr 4, 2012 – Greening the Rubber Duck:  Avoiding Our Toxic World
by Bruce Lourie

Doors open 6:30PM, Fee by Donation