Intermediate school students explore various aspects of the 1982 incident when unlawful levels of the pesticide heptachlor were found in Hawai‘i commercial milk supplies.
The students research the subject of the pesticide contamination from environmental, medical, political, legal, and public health points of view, interviewing two doctors, a chemist, an attorney, government officials, an entomologist, a public health activist, and an organic farmer, mentored by the director of the Hawai‘i Heptachlor Research and Education Foundation.
This documentary was produced in 1991 and updated in 2005 after long-term medical studies on the impact of the contamination were released.
Length: 45:22
Divided into three parts for classroom use
Produced for
Hawai‘i Heptachlor Research & Education Foundation
Featuring students
Julie Ann Brown
Crystal Jones
Heather McCoy
Omar Saidy
Jeanelle Wat
Holly Van Schaick
Damion Witham
Jarnett Lono
Ian Onizuka
also appearing
Willis Butler, MD
Steven Lee Montgomery, PhD
Art Mori, PhD
Rick Scudder
Jo E. Youngs
Helene Takemoto
Sherry Broder, Esq.
Hazel Cunningham, MPH
Barry Brennan, PhD
Ted Norton, PhD
Grant Stemmerman, MD
Ben Cayetano (then Lieutenant Governor)
Bruce Anderson, MPH
Grant McQuate
Dean Baker, MD, MPH
Screening
North American Association for Environmental Education Environmental Film Festival
Reviews
"Heptachlor in Hawai‘i impressed me greatly. The students in the video are excited and motivated about what they are learning. This is the way education should be."
--Kyle Merriam, Journal of Pesticide Reform
"An excellent step-by-step portrayal of stimulating, real-life research in a public school."
--Elizabeth Rosenberg, New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides newsletter