birds, be ware of men that steal up the river through the great forest. and into the savannah lands. the moans and groans, hundreds, thousands stolen, we rarely speak the taken, i will this time because you have asked. come back, back, back, far edge of memory. we recall them and they are black smith, by all accounts a master craftsman, worthy of praise, honored as a powerful magician. one who could speak the old names of the mother elements, earth, fire, water, wind. they would do as bidding, think.

people sing praise songs. he was a gifted black smith. he is not remembered for that. he is best remembered for being a loving father. when his beloved wife died only after a year and embraced his newborn son, i will raise you myself. the elder women with argued against it saying you'll grow up wild without a gentle hand of a mother, a gentle hand to guide him. must divide by custom, take another wife or give the baby to a mother who is childless. how will you feed the baby?

you have no milk to give. dinka would not change his mind. the tortoise doesn't have milk to give but knows how to take care of its young. shamelessly he tied the baby on his back like a woman and headed for his forge at the place where 7 generations of his clan had once stood. he set his feet firmly on the ground and called to earth, takoma, thank you for yielding up the ore from your underground storehouse of treasure. he lit the fire in his porch and called to fire, tokumbi thank you for making the ore plyable for i might shape it.

thank you for setting the iron and making it strong. dinka fanned the bellows and the fire rows began and called to win, thank you for revising fire and keeping my brow cooled in the heat of the day and lifting his arms in praise, dinka cried come now elders behold my beloved son. mother earth appears first ageless and forever beautiful, she kissed the baby and spoke softly, see how he grabs my finger. already strong like my mountain son. i a woman leaped into the air

and swirled majestically in a flaming red. it is a sign he will be an inspired leader inspiring and courageous. she blew the child a warm kiss that made him cool. sang to the child in old lull hra byes. a boy has come and laughter has come. a son has come and beauty has come. then the child gurgled and replied even now i can hear the music in his voice. suddenly wind spirits swished in turning and made the baby happily, we'll dance through the tall grass as you and i

forever free. he is taken, he is taken aboard the ship and the elements go out and look for him and they do find him in, win finds him in south carolina in charleston, earth went looking for him. after earth fire, she could not get passed the fire. water follow it had ship and wind was able to go across and follow and find him. it was after many years that wind was able to find him. i'll read that last part. [inaudible] all living in the americas, i saw the taken shackled to the land from sun

up to sun down working tobacco, sugar cane and rice. i listen to them tell stories different but strangely familiar. now prayer rabbit. i stopped by kitchens and watched our women with cook yams, rice, oh kra and beans. our children had not forgotten. and i rejoice, led by the sound of a black smith's hammer, i travel to charleston, south carolina, john shannon, black smith. a large european with red hair, comfortable.

they were apprentices to all africans new and old, familiar yet fresh. i have sold another of your beautiful gape with the rice design, how did you learn to craft so well? a young man stepped into the light. i learned by reaching back with one hand and stretching forward with the other he said. people said you are a genius. my father dinka was the genius replied the apprentice. he taught me what 7 generations have learned, i am the 8th. i had bound [inaudible] who answers to moses shannon.

both mean safe water. he seems more confident now, wiser. playful mostafa. i had so much to tell him, he could not see me. he could not see me or hear me in this strange land. he touched the spotting smiles. [inaudible] with birds, flowers and animals inspired. i turned to someone tell moses, shannon is going to free you one day. they can find joy, [inaudible]

in my mind, i have always been free. free as the wind, thank you so much. [applause].

>> i honor each and every one of you for coming out to the library on saturday afternoon to have a discussion on this important topic. who used personal care products? shampoo, face cream, deodorant, contact solution? the numbers could be staggering. the stories that i tell in the book and stories i talk about

today are store reus about all of us. to tell you a little bit about my personal story. i was a 17 magazine makeup reading desperate to read in. with each careful purchase, i was one step closer to that girl i dreamed up. i used lots of them, 20 products a day, makeup, skin creams, an enormous cloud of aqua net hair spray. this is the back in the days of big hair and shoulder pads and bright makeup. i looked up all these products as a teen, 20 products a day, i was surprised to discover, i

had been with exposing myself to 200 products a day before i got on the school bus. what is in this stuff that we put on our bodies, put in our hair on a daily basis. that is what we have been working on and looking at for about the passed 5 years. these are the groups involved in the campaign for safe products. most poplar brands of all kinds of products, deodor rants, makeups, even baby shampoos contain chemicals that are toxic that get into our system. most of these chemicals, um, come from oil by-products,

petroleum. this is true of the high end brands like cliniq ue. we know they are toxic, animal studies show they lead to certain health effects. it is okay because there is just a little bit of toxic chemical and you can't prove it causes harm. so of course, as we pointed out, none of us used this product today. here is a run down of my beauty routine, some of the things i was supposed to, 40 hormone chemicals, 17 carcinogens, 17 penetration chemicals. they draw others more deeply into the property.

16 toxins, less than 50 percent of my chemicals has been assessed by any publically accountable institutions. there are no government requirements for us to understand these chemicals. we have a lot of information about some of them. most of them have never been -- the combined mixtures of a developing teenager saying day after day year after year. there is a lot we don't know. what do know there is a tremendous amount of scientific evidence that showing low doses of chemical exposures can interfere with hormones, change the way our genomes for diseases that come down the long. most important time of development in the womb,

teenagers developing. we also know that disease chronic disease is meaning chemicals are on the rise, breast cancers. who knows a young cancer or family member that has breast cancer, infertilities, testicular cancer. there is a lot of evidence showing environmental pollutants are part of the reason. so we see that there is a lot of cause for concerns and the trends um, cause us to look at these chemicals and say what is going on here. we know from the science that chemicals are ending up where they are not supposed to be and that is inside of our bodies. scientists can measure the chemicals getting into us, bio

measuring. this is from the first chapter, indecent exposure, the intimate details. charlotte was surprised by the test results. mother of 2 among the first people to be tested for a wide range of industrial chemicals. test revealed that her body contained mercury lead cosmetics. i felt violated charlotte reported. she was upset about the pesticide. i never used them in my house, never on my lawn. i bought organic whenever i could. her body contained several variations of organic chlorines

designed to attack nervous systems of insects. i never bought it. isn't that trespassing. i tell this in my story of mary broon. mary never felt called to be an environmentalist she was nursing her 6 month daughter olivia and a story had been done by texas tech where they looked at breast milk samples, all were contaminated with rocket fuel. i was stunned, i thought breast milk was as pure as it came for food source. i was up all night thinking about it.

i tell the story about michelle from california whose family was the first family to be monitored in the oakland tribune. it stunned even scientists. the tests found many of the same chemicals they found in charlotte's 5-year-old mic ala, she had recently spent a lot of time in nail salons. the biggest surprise of what they found in 2-year-old rowland, chemicals found in nearly anyone else in the world 6 times higher than in parents, twice the levels that researchers see in land animals. this is a serious warning said

a scientist researchers on flame retar tkapbts. young children are exposed because they put their hands in their mouth and bodies don't eliminate chemicals as readily. to me i think very historically crystallizes what we are learning. that was a story in 2006 by the environmental working group where they analyzed the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies and found an average of 200 chemicals found to be toxic in every single baby, man made synthetic chemicals. when we see this picture that babies are being born into the world polluted with industrial

chemicals it is time to say how can we do things differently? how can we do things differently? that is the question that essentially we took to the world's largest beauty companies starting in 2003 letters, phone calls. who thinks the companies were wanting to have this conversation? unfortunately they weren't. we encountered a lot of evasion, excuses. first they ignored us. increasingly they are having to have this conversation because people are become withing more concerned and the companies are having to face up to it. i think, you know, when we see this information, too, we realize, all of us are contaminated, we understand the choices we make intimately

affect our biology, the same poisons running through the rivers are running through our veins, especially the billion dollar corporations that are selling dreams of health and beauty around the world. they have a have a responsibility. does anybody think baby shampoo needs to contain carcinogens? many companys are making these products without the chemicals. when we look at testing of baby products, most of the brands and this is poplar bubble baths contained a known animal carcinogen, it was in seasame street character brands, and

johnson & johnson brand baby shampoo. this is some of the lipstick products. some of you may have seen we had a bill in california industry, they said we can't get lead out of lipstick. but it is not in 39 percent of the products that we tested including this $1.99 wet and wild but found $8 lorel and and $24 lipstick. what we see consistently is that

even the high end brands, you are paying for packaging and marketing. everybody likes to ask about cliniq u e if you go into a macies, you'll see the lab white coats and scientifically presented. it is the same set of chemicals packaged with a different marketing program. disturbing some of the women of color are among the most toxic. women are bombarded with light skinned looking models. every product claims to have a whitening benefit.

here is an example of one of the ads that you'll see in china, procter and gamble, high end line sk 2, hugely poplar, this product was the cause of near riots in china in 2006 after the government reported it contained, band heavy metal. hundreds of women demanding refunds lined up down the block. here is an example of them busting down the headquarters in shanghai. women do not want toxic bad metals. in their $100 skin cream. unfortunately, the government and procter and gamble was freaked out about this.

then it was announceable, just a little bit of toxic metals, don't worry. they put the products back on the shelf and back on the market. china is the no. 1 growth market for procter and gamble. have quotes where she says china is no. 2 mark and going for no. 1 and do it by marketing our products to millions of villages across china. that is the mentality of the company, all about growth and convincing us that we need more products. these are also in the most toxic categories and increasingly marketed to younger and younger girls. this is an example of a 5 or 7 year old on the cover of a skin, hair relaxer. these are ratings, that is the

most toxic hair relaxers and no. 1 is a kid's product. then for hair dye, younger and younger girls are getting hair dye. "new york times", girls 10 and 11 are getting their hair dyed into the salon. it used to be 15 or 16. the industry was excited. this represent as growth market for the industries. it also represents age and continued chemical exposures to many of these toxins for young girls and more exposures to the environment as hair dyes get into the waterway and food even if we don't get our hair dyed.

our skin should be lighter and darkers, smoother, lips plumper, these companies have so much power over our minds, public space and sense of self as they continue to expose us to chemicals even though safer alternatives are available. we have the power. we have the power to decide which products we put on our body and which companies we support with our money. that is actually a real power that can feel very very good when you start to take advantage of it. ahrolt a lot of this information is scary and real.

i tell people, i do get to the good news around chapter 10. there is a lot of good news to share. i have heard so many amazing stories along the way. 30 cities in 13 states. 3,000 people come out to these talks. there is just an amazing energy. and so many just wonderful store reus about people engaging in this work, people who have been to skin deep and start their own company or change their major. people making radical decisions about their own personal life styles. i like to tell this story of my kus cousin janet, 45, vice president at wells fargo.

she was queen makeup diva. i was baby diva. she admitted to me she was spending $800 a month on beauty products. it was hair dye and facials and the most expensive products, ever. she read the book and started to feel overwhelmed and discovered this superexpensive evening cream had hydroevo. it makes your skin tingle, so you think something is happening. she went back to the makeup counters and have polite conversations, hey, i think you can