Screening of the award-winning documentary film, Blue Vinyl: The World’s First Toxic Comedy (2002), followed by discussion.
Synopsis of the film: Turned off by her parents’ decision to put vinyl siding on their small Long Island house, director Judith Helfand takes viewers on her 5-year adventure across the United States and to Europe to get the back story on vinyl. Along the way she meets area residents who suffer from cancer and respiratory ailments–shining a spotlight on environmental justice years before the term became popular. She shows how they became empowered to test local air quality using simple buckets–soon discovering how vinyl chloride in the air often exceeded limits, limits that are arbitrary because there is no safe level of exposure to vinyl chloride.
The movie is 1 3/4 hours long and will be followed by discussion moderated by representatives from Beyond Plastics, Sullivan County.
Refreshment will be available. Please bring your refillabe water bottle; the library has a filtered water fountain on both floors.