A provocative film on the impact our increasingly toxic social and physical environment is having on our kids.
Prime time documentary 1 hour | ABC TV
SYNOPSIS
Increasing childhood rates of diabetes, respiratory disease, behavioural disorders, obesity and one in four children with mental health problems lead former Australian of the Year, Fiona Stanley to predict that the next generation of Australians could have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
But this is 2008. Australia is awash with cash. Shouldn’t our children be the healthiest kids in history? Internationally recognised Child Health Expert, Professor Fiona Stanley believes they are not.
Following Fiona Stanley and her team of scientists from their cutting edge laboratories to remote Aboriginal communities and into increasingly wealthy but unhealthy homes around Australia this film builds the case for what Fiona calls “the modernity paradox”. Can it be that our contemporary western lifestyle is delivering a toxic physical and social environment in which children are growing up sick?
After a lifetime of cutting edge scientific study into the condition of the nation’s children, Fiona passionately and eloquently explores the alarming, measurable health effects of the way we now bring up children. These are not problems without solutions, but, say Fiona, effective action needs political and community will right now.