BED%) Back to Treating toxic nation Treating toxic nation September 22, 2007 Lindsay Bonhviick Earlier this month, just as Ontario's body politic moved into election mode, the public was given a peek inside our leaders. Literally. Environmental Defence. an advocacy group, revealed the "body burdens" of Premier Dalton McGuinty, John Tory and Howard Hampton. Our politicians, it turns out. are polluted with dozens of toxic chemicals found in the environment. including lead, mercury. pesticides, flame retardants and non-stick chemicals, known as PFCs. And they're not alone. Every Ontarian. indeed, every Canadian. is exposed to harmful chemicals through the air we breathe. the food we eat and the water we drink McGuinty. Tory and Hampton reacted with surprise and alarm to the results of their tests and they immediately promised to introduce tough measures to safeguard the environment and the Canadian public from these substances. Were these more empty promises or had Environmental Defence finally delivered the jolt that would move government to take responsibility for our toxic nation? After all, isn't it up to government to manage this risk for us? Or is it? According to several North American sociologists, legions of consumers are taking the responsibility on themselves. They're trying to manage the risk of exposure to environmental contaminants by buying green; in so doing. they're middling environmentalism. The problem is. It's not necessarily for the better. At the University of Toronto, not far from Environmental Defence's office, Professor Jostie Johnston and her graduate student Norah MacKendrick are exploring what it means to live in an age of consumer activism. Johnston, who specializes in the sociology of food, including the organics movement. has witnessed the rise of hybrid citizen-consumers who both exert their politics and satisfy their pleasures through shopping. These shopping activists are voting with their wallets 'to stop child l