For more than twenty years, Rick Smith has worked to protect people from the damaging impacts of pollution. He is President of the Canadian Climate Institute, Canada’s leading climate change policy research organization. He has written two books on the topic of toxic chemicals in the human body including the international best-seller Slow Death by Rubber Duck, which the Washington Post said “is hard-hitting in a way that turns your stomach and yet also instills hope.” Previously the Executive Director of Environmental Defence Canada, Rick has a Ph.D. in biology and is the Executive Producer of the 2024 documentary Plastic People, which began as a feature article Rick wrote in Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe & Mail, for which he tested his own body for microplastic pollution.
