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Suggested Readings on Toxic Subjects

Here is a list of non-technical books regarding toxic hazards and occupational health written for the general public accompanied by comments.

Burkholz, Herbert. The FDA Follies: An Alarming Look At Our Food and Drugs in the 1980s. Basic Books, A division of Harper Collins Publishers, 1994. A brief exposé of the cozy relationship between the FDA and the drug industry, which allows drug companies to obtain FDA approval without proving drugs safe, and sometimes without even proving that they work.

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1962. This classic exposé of the toxic hazards of DDT, has recently been reprinted with an Introduction by Vice President Al Gore. As the Vice President states: "In 1962, when Silent Spring was first published, "environment" was not even an entry in the vocabulary of public policy. . . . The publication of Silent Spring can properly be seen as the beginning of the modern environmental movement."

Colborn, Theo, et al. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? Penguin Books, New York, 1996. Written by two environmental scientists and a journalist, this is the first book to piece together the evidence that PCBs and other synthetic chemicals are impairing sexual development and reproduction not only in many animal species, but also in humans. The book has frightening implications for reproductive health, and the laboratory accident which revealed the extreme reproductive toxicity of endocrine disruptors has prompted many studies to determine the extent of the reproductive hazard.

Fagin, Dan, et al. Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health. Carol Publishing Group, Secaucus, N.J., 1996. This book traces the regulatory history of four pervasive toxic chemicals (the herbicides Atrazine and Alachlor, and the industrial chemicals Perchloroethylene and Formaldehyde) and explains why they continue to be manufactured and used in huge quantities, despite their proven harmful effects.

Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action. Random House, New York, 1995. This book, which was a bestseller, recounts the litigation concerning the Woburn cancer cluster, in which a shocking excess of leukemia was noted among children living in Woburn Massachusetts, which was attributed to trichloroethylene, a chlorinated industrial solvent, contaminating public water wells. (The book is not only informative of the legal process and the difficulties of toxic tort litigation, but is also an excellent read.)

Harte, John, et al. Toxic A to Z: A guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1991. This book is a lexicon of commonly encountered toxins, from A (acetic acid) to Z (zinc). For each toxin, general information is provided in an introductory section, which is followed by information regarding physical and chemical properties, exposure and distribution, health effects, protection and prevention, environmental effects and regulatory status. The book includes an introductory section about toxicology, a discussion of the four major sources of toxic exposures (air, water, food, consumer products), and four major groups of toxic chemicals (metals, petrochemicals, pesticides, and radiation).

Hay, Alastair. The Chemical Scythe: Lessons of 2,4,5-T and Dioxin. Plenum Press, New York, 1982. This book, written by a pathologist at the University of Leeds, tells the Dioxin story. The book discusses the chemistry and occurrence of Dioxins, their toxicology, Chloracne (a skin condition caused by exposure to Dioxin), Dioxin injuries to Vietnam veterans, the 1976 explosion which contaminated the Italian town of Seveso with Dioxin, and Dioxin at Love Canal.

Lappé, Marc. Chemical Deception: The Toxic Threat to Health and the Environment: Exposing Ten Myths that Endanger Us All, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA, 1991. An excellent book written by Marc Lappé, Professor of Health Policy and Ethics at the University of Illinois, formerly Director of the California Hazard Evaluation System. The ten myths that Dr. Lappé debunks are: (1) toxic hazards are only a local phenomenon; (2) the body's defenses are adequate; (3) toxic effects not seen will not occur; (4) all toxic effects disappear as doses diminish; (5) the fetus develops out of reach of danger; (6) "nonreactive" or "inert" chemicals lack adverse effects; (7) the body's own chemicals are safe; (8) naturally occurring substances cause most cancer; (9) tap water is safe to drink; (10) the environment is resilient.

Moore, Thomas J. Deadly Medicine: Why Tens of Thousands of Heart Patients Died in America's Worst Drug Disaster. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995. Written by a senior fellow at George Washington University's Center for Health Policy Research, this book recounts the shocking story of Tambocor, a medication whose purpose was to prevent imperceptible irregular heartbeats but instead caused fatal heart attacks.

Proctor, Robert N. Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know & Don't Know About Cancer, Basic Books, A division of Harper Collins Publishers, 1995. Robert Proctor is Professor of the History of Science at Pennsylvania State University. In Cancer Wars he records the history of cancer as an environmental disease, explains why billions of dollars for cancer research is devoted to the quixotic search for a magic drug rather than cancer prevention. In the process, Dr. Proctor explains how the chemical industry attempts to avoid liability for causing cancer by sponsoring studies that are designed not to detect cancer, by misinformation, and by creating "doubt" as an industrial product.

Stauber, John C., and Sheldon Rampton. Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 1995. The title says it all.

Steingraber, Sandra. Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1997. An impassioned yet objective discussion of the growing body of evidence linking cancer to environmental contamination by a young scientist who was herself stricken with cancer in her twenties.

Trost, Cathy. Elements of Risk: The Chemical Industry and its Threat to America. New York Times Book Co., New York, 1984. A dramatic account of the threat that pesticides and industrial chemical pollution presents to public health.

Wargo, John. Our Children's Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us From Pesticides. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. 1996. John Wargo, an Associate Professor at Yale, presents a compelling case that children are more heavily exposed to some pesticides than adults and are especially vulnerable to some adverse effects. Wargo persuasively argues that fundamental reforms of science and law are necessary to understand and contain the health risks of pesticides to children.

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