Guest guest Posted October 13, 2001 Report Share Posted October 13, 2001 From chapter 2, wherein a real-estate deal near a golf-course would enable toxic sludge to be " washed " from the soil upon which the sludge had been dumped, so that the profiteers illegal dumping might remain unnoticed: " Patty poured out her suspicions to Lenore at the golf course. Lenore's [the landowner's] son, then thirty and a golf course worker for nine hears, had testicular cancer. One of the ingredients found in the rinse pond [source of toxic sludge relabled as " fertilizer " ], cadmium, causes testicular cancer. There was no evidence the rinse poind material had been put anywhere near the golf course, but it made Patty pretty suspicious. " Cadmium is a mobile and insidious poison (2), efficiently pulled from the soil by roots but nontoxic to plant life, innocuous until it enters the food chain of animals. Cadmium can cause cancer and birth defects in people with trace exposures at just the wrong time in biological cycltes. It can emerge years later in maladies of the kidney, liver, heart, testicles, pancreatic system, bone, and blood. Ninety percent of human exposure to cadmium comes from food. " (p65, ) Question: how many of us know whether or not the vegetables we buy at our local grocery stores include plants grown on farms wherein toxic sludge has been used as fertilizer? How many of us know if a toxic-sludge-into-fertilizer " factory " is located near us? Binstock wrote: > Yesterday I " found " the book Fateful Harvest, a story of how various toxic metals are entering the food chain -- unsurprisingly, with approval of regulatory agencies and local bureaucrats we might formerly have trusted. The book is very non-technical (though citations are included). Many paragraphs are frighteninly akin to the metals lists autism parents are reporting in their children. Hereinbelow are some editorial reviews. The customer reviews, also visible on the url, are mixed -- some very supportive, some quite the opposite (as if dutifully written by agribusiness public-relations operatives). I first encountered the full significance of " toxic sludge " when reading the book " Toxic Sludge is Good for You " (url at end hereinbelow), which delineates how public-relations businesses are hired to obfuscate environmental and human ramifications of environmental toxins. The book Toxic Sludge... has a chapter about toxic sludge; the book Fateful Harvest focuses entirely upon toxic > sludge and its effects upon humans. Not surprisingly, Doctor's Data was a source of some of the metals-analyses described in the book. Persons wanting clues about where toxic metals are entering the food chain (and thus our bodies) would be well served to read Fateful Harvest. > > > Fateful Harvest: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, > and a Toxic Secret > by Duff > List Price: $26.00 > Amazon's Price: $18.20 > You Save: $7.80 (30%) > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0060193697/reviews/10\ 3-2022158-1379860 > > << much deleted >> > Duff , whose Seattle Times series on this story was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, here provides the > definitive account of a new and alarming environmental scandal. Fateful Harvest is a gripping study of corruption > and courage, of recklessness and reckoning. It is a story that speaks to the greatest fears -- and ultimate hope -- > in us all. > > About the Author > Duff has worked as an investigative reporter for the Seattle Times since 1989. He has been nominated five > times for a Pulitzer Prize and has won more than thirty other journalism awards. lives near Seattle with his > wife and two children. > > Fateful Harvest > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0060193697/reviews/10\ 3-2022158-1379860 > > Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! : Lies, Damn Lies and the Public > Relations Industry > by C. Stauber, Sheldon Rampton > List Price: $16.95 > Our Price: $13.56 > You Save: $3.39 (20%) > Availability: In stock > > Average Customer Rating: Based on 27 reviews. > Paperback - 236 pages 1st edition (October 1995) > > Toxic Sludge is Good for You: > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567510604/qid=1002980677/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1\ _2_1/103-2022158-1379860 > > This post may be forwarded hither & yon. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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