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Contributors | November 10, 2009
By Zachary Lazar
Without knowing it, I'd always had two unspoken arrangements with the world. The first was that I would not trouble it with unpleasant conversation...
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More copies of this ISBN:
Poisoned Nation: Pollution, Greed, and the Rise of Deadly Epidemics
by Lore Schwartz Nobel
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Synopses & Reviews Poisoned Nation Reveals: - Americans are being denied urgent health information about the poisoning of our water, food, air, everyday products, and vaccines for the short-term profit of a reckless few. - The blood of every baby born today is already contaminated by more than two hundred industrial chemicals, pollutants, flame-retardants, and carcinogens. - Perchlorate, a highly toxic chemical used in the manufacture of rocket fuel and linked to thyroid disease, cancer, and a host of other illnesses, has already entered the drinking water of at least thirty-five U.S. states and is currently threatening the health of untold millions. - Despite a global ban on methyl bromide, an acutely toxic chemical known to cause devastating birth defects, it is still being sprayed on Christmas trees, fruits, and vegetables sold in America. The EPA has refused to reveal the extent of methyl bromide’s use and our country’s stored supply of the product. - The soaring epidemic of autism could not have taken place without the cooperation of drug companies, the government, scientists, and health officials. The worldwide poisoning of children during routine vaccinations continues today, especially in Third World countries. - The FDA allows thousands of cosmetic hair dyes and personal-care products known to contain carcinogens to remain unregulated and to be sold daily to millions of American men, women, and children even as links with cancer have been clearly established. - The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute have long known that mammograms used for diagnosis actually increase the risk of breast cancer, especially in younger women, yet they continue to recommend this diagnostic method. But it is not too late. Interfaith religious groups working together still have the collective power, the resources, and the moral obligation to demand and implement change. Praise for Growing Up Empty “Loretta Schwartz-Nobel’s Growing Up Empty is a forceful reminder of the great shame in our society that hunger still plagues millions of Americans. She puts a human face on hunger around us and shines a moral spotlight on a problem that is largely ignored. More than just a forceful call to action, Growing Up Empty is a mandate for reform.”—Senator Edward M. Kennedy Review: "'This angry book aims to expose the conspiracy of corrupt politicians, negligent regulators and greedy industry leaders covering up the epidemic of poisoned food, water and air that, the author claims, is filling our hospitals, killing our children and spreading cancer, birth defects, autism and leukemia. A veteran investigative journalist, Schwartz-Nobel (A Mother's Story) keeps the human element front and center by illustrating each pollutant with at least one heartbreaking anecdote. Although many of the pollutants the author denounces are proven poisons, others are only suspicious and several may be innocent. Moreover, it's often not clear from the evidence cited in the book whether a specific toxin was responsible, though the victim and the author have no doubt. Unfortunately, Schwartz-Nobel's apocalyptic tone and lack of skepticism weaken her case. She quotes scientists, but more often quotes other journalists, popular magazines, newspapers, victims groups, plaintiff lawyers and advocacy organizations like Washington Toxics Coalition and SafeMinds. No one refusing the join the bandwagon escapes her scorn, including pediatricians who express doubt that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. Environmental pollution needs a champion, but this overheated polemic preaches to the choir.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review: "With all the recent talk about childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes, it is hard to remember that the modern public health movement began with the Great Sanitary Awakening of the mid-19th century. Reformers in England and elsewhere convincingly argued that the environment served as a major source of disease and needed to be cleaned up. Now two new books remind us that toxins and other waste products ... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) are producing new and frightening threats to public health. Like Al Gore's arguments about oil dependence and the ozone layer, these concerns are surely inconvenient. But are they also true? The hero of Robert D. Morris' 'The Blue Death' is John Snow, the British epidemiologist who proved in the 1850s that epidemic cholera was spread by waste products in drinking water. Snow reached his conclusions, which initially were mocked, decades before the discovery of the cholera bacillus. His work eventually led to the modern system of purifying tap water, which involves both filtering and treatment with chlorine. But success has bred complacency, according to Morris. His book is full of examples of recent health problems traceable to inadequate supervision of our water supply. For instance, the majority of pipes that supply major urban centers — including Washington — are close to 100 years old and full of leaks that allow contamination. Morris puts into this broader context the now-familiar story of what happened in the District in 2004, when officials added phosphoric acid to the city's water system in an attempt to reduce lead levels and instead created a new headache by loosening a layer of slime and microorganisms, known as the biofilm, and flooding the system with bacteria. He also describes how a 1993 outbreak of diarrhea in Milwaukee was caused by cryptosporidium, an organism experts insisted could not be present. Morris is no impartial observer. An epidemiologist who specializes in drinking water, he is the author of a controversial paper suggesting that chlorine might increase the rates of several cancers. Indeed, some of his narrative describes his David-like efforts to challenge the Goliaths of water, ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the drinking-water industry, which he suggests are cutting corners on water purification to save money. Still, it is hard not to be sympathetic to Morris' claims, which rely in part on the same crack epidemiological detective work used by Snow 150 years ago. Indeed, I switched from tap to bottled water while reading his book (although Morris also warns that bottled water 'is less closely regulated than tap water and is not required to meet stricter standards for purity'). Loretta Schwartz-Nobel is a journalist, not a scientist, but if anything her outrage is even greater than Morris'. In 'Poisoned Nation,' she describes a series of diseases, ranging from asthma to cancer, that she believes are on the rise due to pollution. Her book has a much more conspiratorial tone. She is largely uninterested in presenting both sides of the issues in question, even when defenders of the status quo are respected scientists and government agencies. For example, she tells the now familiar story of how childhood vaccines containing the mercury additive thimerosal supposedly led to an enormous rise in cases of autism. Similarly, she charges that companies in the forefront of breast cancer awareness campaigns produce the very environmental toxins that cause the disease. To be sure, Schwartz-Nobel is right when she points out how profits and politics led industry to conceal the potential dangers of mercury in tuna and other foods. Similarly, the breast cancer movement only recently has turned from a focus on mammography and chemotherapy to investigating the connection between toxic waste and cancer rates. And she tells compelling stories about individuals with autism and breast cancer whose diseases seem to have emerged just after a toxic exposure. One such person was Chris, a bright 2-year-old who, after a reaction to a vaccine, 'could no longer concentrate on his books or anything else for more than a few seconds.' Eventually, he was diagnosed as having severe learning disabilities. But what does one do with this information when organizations such as the esteemed Institute of Medicine, one of the four U.S. National Academies, have found no association between thimerosal and autism? Or when the Long Island Breast Cancer Study did not find evidence that toxins were responsible for high rates of the disease? It is hard to accept, as Schwartz-Nobel apparently does, that the scientists involved in these studies make decisions based mostly on industrial connections and political pressure. A big part of the problem, both books acknowledge, is the difficulty of achieving definitive scientific proof when trying to determine causes of disease outbreaks. Such studies, which rely on retrospective data and participants' recollections, are notoriously difficult to carry out. So it is disappointing that neither book mentions the so-called precautionary principle, a moral and political argument often invoked by activists when there is no scientific consensus about potential harms. In this case, the principle would argue that society should err on the side of cleaning up possibly toxic environmental waste. Rather than characterizing industry as villains, it is time for critics such as Morris and Schwartz-Nobel to enlist activists, government and business in constructive partnerships. But this effort will require engaging the public, which can then put pressure on politicians. In making this point, Schwartz-Nobel quotes longtime breast cancer activist Barbara Brenner: 'We figured that if people really knew what was happening with the Cancer Industry, they would be furious.' Unfortunately, such anger has not yet materialized over breast cancer or other diseases with possible environmental causes. If, despite their limitations, these books alert the public to such environmental connections, they are doing a great service." Reviewed by Barron H. Lerner, the author of 'When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine', Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)About the Author Loretta Schwartz-Nobel is the author of six previous books. Among her awards are the Women in Communications Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Award, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the problems of the disadvantaged.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780312327972
- Subtitle:
- Pollution, Greed, and the Rise of Deadly Epidemics
- Author:
- Schwartz Nobel, Lore
- Author:
- Nobel-Schwartz, Loretta
- Author:
- Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta
- Publisher:
- St. Martin's Press
- Subject:
- Diseases - General
- Subject:
- Environmental Science
- Subject:
- Toxicology
- Subject:
- Epidemics
- Subject:
- Pollution
- Subject:
- Public Health
- Subject:
- Corporations -- Corrupt practices.
- Subject:
- Epidemics -- United States.
- Publication Date:
- August 2007
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 216
- Dimensions:
- 1 in.
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