Fw: Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science

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From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 9:51 PM

Subject: Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science

> http://www.mapcruzin.com/review_toxic_deception.htm

>

> Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the

> Law, and Endangers Your Health by Dan Fagin, nne Lavelle.

>

> Editorial Reviews

>

> From Booklist

> Fagin and other investigative reporters, with funding by the Center for

> Public Integrity, show chemical companies successfully working to keep

> known health threats profitably on the market. The authors suggest one

> industry method for prosperity: nearly half the top officials who left the

> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the last 15 years now work for

> these companies, directly or indirectly--which might explain why the

> industry is essentially responsible for testing the toxic effects of its

> own chemicals and then reporting the results to the EPA. The authors find

> numerous discrepancies between the work of industry and that of

independent

> scientists. Chemical companies also resort to obfuscation, lawsuits both

> threatened and real, propaganda, and borderline fraud. The result is that

> their products continue to contaminate our air, water, and food. And those

> pro-environmental television commercials these companies sponsor? After

> reading this book, many viewers will never take them seriously again.

> McCombie --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of

> this title.

>

> Montague, 's Environment and Health Weekly, July 11, 1997,

> about first edition

> " ...describes the nearly complete failure of all our attempts to regulate

> the behavior of the chemical corporations.... Even those of us who study

> chemicals and health full-time have never put all the pieces together the

> way these two have. "

>

> Bob Herbert, The New York Times, Feb. 17, 1997, about first edition

> " Toxic Deception shows how the industry uses campaign contributions,

> junkets, job offers, 'scorched earth' courtroom strategies, misleading

> advertising and multi-million-dollar public relations campaigns to keep

> their products on the market no matter how great the potential dangers. "

>

> Book Description

>

> Dry cleaning, particleboard, plywood, permanent press fabrics, many

popular

> detergents and common pesticides are all hazardous to human health-that

> means toxins in your food, your water, your clothes, and your walls. In

> Toxic Deception, prize-winning investigative journalists Dan Fagin and

> nne Lavelle and the Center for Public Integrity bring you a stunning

> expos of the secretive world of the chemical giants.

>

> Why do corporations keep harmful products on the market even when safer,

> cheaper alternatives are available? Consider these corporate crimes:

>

> Secret industry documents and internal records of the Environmental

> Protection Agency (EPA) prove that the chemical industry twists scientific

> studies to mislead the public and play down the dangers of its products,

> while the EPA stands by.

>

> The EPA usually bases its regulations on safety tests run, directly or

> indirectly, by the very companies the agency is meant to keep watch on.

>

> Fagin and Lavelle back up their investigations with analysis of a range of

> scientific studies and, chillingly, the stories of families whose lives

> have been devastated by toxic products they thought were harmless. The

book

> also explains how you can reduce your own risk and help to revitalize a

> dying system of health and safety laws.

>

> Synopsis

>

> Two investigative journalists document how the chemical industry in

America

> has used its financial power to circumvent government regulation, keep

> dangerous products on the market, and taint research to further their

> business. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of

> this title.

>

> About the Author

>

> Dan Fagin is the environmental writer for Newsday and was a 1994 Pulitzer

> Prize finalist. He is adjunct professor of environmental journalism at New

> York University.

>

> nne Lavelle is a senior editor at U.S. News and World Report, and is

a

> recipient of the Polk Award. The Center for Public Integrity is a

> nonpartisan, non-profit organization well-known for its exposs of

> corruption in Washington.

>

> Reader Reviews

>

> Toxic Deception book simply deceptive, April 24, 2000 Reviewer:

> WWW.STATS.ORG (see more about me) from Wash, DC

> The enthusiasm of your reviewers for Toxic Deception is unwarranted.This

> volume is far from a reliable guide to the science and politics of

> environmental health risks. Let one example suffice. Research from Science

> (7 June,1996) is characterized by the authors in the following manner; " A

> recent study of the effects of ... pesticides on estrogen-sensitive cells

> in test tubes, for example, found that the pesticides were 1,000 times

more

> potent in combination than individually. "

>

> The research in question was formally retracted by its authors in Science,

> on 25 July 1997. The episode was widely discussed and led to an ethics

> investigation by Tulane University. Toxic Deception was published in 1999.

> That news of this development took two years to reach the authors

stretches

> plausibility. Moreover, the same environmental foundation (W. Alton )

> which funded the retracted study likewise supported the publication of

> Toxic Deception.

>

> Muckraking is not (totally) dead!, April 13, 1999 Reviewer: A reader from

> Chicago, Illinois

> This is a great book, telling the reader how and why the EPA, the supposed

> bane of industry, has become toothless in the face of organized opposition

> (and co-optation) from the industries themselves. Four chemicals,

including

> the drycleaning chemical " perc " , formaldehyde, and two pesticides, are

> followed through the EPA maze, with fascinating diversions to corporate

> lawfirms, PR flacks, and financial records, until the reader discovers why

> these dangerous chemicals are not properly regulated. Anyone who

> understands math knows the EPA will never adequately test the millions of

> chemicals now in existence--now find out the politics that explain why

they

> can't even properly test or regulate some of the most dangerous ones in

> common use all over the USA. An eye-opener!

>

>