Uploaded January 2017 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
This is the first half of the 1979 documentary film Song of the Canary by Josh Hanig. The film is a powerful story of the hidden dangers in the American workplace - a story of men working in a pesticide company in California. During the making of this film, the furor set off by the filmmaker's discoveries about certain practices in the Ag Chem Department of Occidental Chemical Company, at a plant in California, resulted in a nationwide ban on the production of the pesticide DBCP. The filmmakers discovered that every one of the plant's employees involved in the production of that chemical had become sterile. Other abuses are also brought to light. In 1977, 60 workers at a chemical production plant in California making the pesticide DBCP (1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane), were found to be sterile. The EPA prohibited DBCP use in the United States in September 1977. DBCP is a potent carcinogen and perhaps the most powerful testicular toxin ever made. For more information about DBCP, go to the EPA website epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/dibromo-.html. Canaries' deaths once warned coal miners when shafts were unsafe. This documentary is an alarming update about safety hazards in U.S. industry.
This is the first half of the 1979 documentary film Song of the Canary by Josh Hanig. The film is a powerful story of the hidden dangers in the American workplace - a story of men working in a pesticide company in California. During the making of this film, the furor set off by the filmmaker's discoveries about certain practices in the Ag Chem Department of Occidental Chemical Company, at a plant in California, resulted in a nationwide ban on the production of the pesticide DBCP. The filmmakers discovered that every one of the plant's employees involved in the production of that chemical had become sterile. Other abuses are also brought to light. In 1977, 60 workers at a chemical production plant in California making the pesticide DBCP (1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane), were found to be sterile. The EPA prohibited DBCP use in the United States in September 1977. DBCP is a potent carcinogen and perhaps the most powerful testicular toxin ever made. For more information about DBCP, go to the EPA website epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/dibromo-.html. Canaries' deaths once warned coal miners when shafts were unsafe. This documentary is an alarming update about safety hazards in U.S. industry.
