Review of Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on our Children Doug Farquhar, JD
"If we love our children, we should want to protect them, to give them a safe and healthy environment in which to be born and to grow up and in which to inhabit the future. Whether we are strict parents or nurturing parents, whether we are conservative or liberal, whether we are rich or poor, whether we are blue-collar workers or corporate executives, whether we are devoutly religious or not, our values should reflects a deep-seeded, elemental-desire to shield our kids from harm."
So say Phillip and Alice Shabecoff in their new book "Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children" (Random House, NY 2008), an exhaustive review of how the extensive use of toxic chemicals in our environment have caused (or possibly caused) cancers, birth defects, cleft palates, deformities, autism, asthma and a host of other ailments in children. Looking at the plethora of chemicals in our environment, and the aggressive efforts the chemical industry has taken to ensure that these chemicals remain in commerce, the Shabecoff's explore the relationship between the chemical industry and government, citing the evolution of regulation from one of protection to one where government must rely on industry studies to justify federal safety standards.
Citing interviews with the leaders the environmental health community is familiar with - Dick Jackson, Lynn Goldman, Philip Landrigan, Ken Olden, Herbert Needleman - this book discusses governmental agencies' frustration and inability to effectively regulate and protect children from toxic chemicals, due to political, economic and legal interference with their efforts.
But beyond this expose' on the chemical regulatory system are the heartfelt stories of the families and communities that have suffered from industry's release of toxics into their environment, both legally and illegally. Excessive cases of birth defects in communities with TCE in their water. Brain tumors found in children living near nuclear power plants. Autistic children born in towns with abandoned industrial factories. Each case discussing the parent's desperate attempt to learn what could cause these illnesses, their frustration with the lack of comprehensive information on these chemicals, with the limitation of federal, state and local government officials, with the limited legal redress, with the few answers to their questions. This is a book about them, about their challenges and frustrations, and about the hope of a new, less toxic generation of chemicals which may be awaiting us.
"Poisoned Profits" (Random House, NY 2008) by Philip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff