Description
"A superb tool for making our homes, finally, a safe place to raise children."--Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author of Crimes Against Nature and St. Francis of Assisi."This is the work of a lifetime, one sure to be a classic for future lifetimes. Thirty years ago, Paul Blanc educated me about the threat of cancers caused by corporate and government negligence. Now he tells a great, entertaining and shocking story, based on a vast knowledge of science, government regulation, history and popular culture that shows our personal dependency and the almost-forsaken cause of public health."--Tom Hayden, former chairman, committee on natural resources, California state senate.""A masterful synthesis of some of the very heated and critical environmental and occupational health issues of our time. Paul Blanc offers a grounded look at the long term history of industrial disease, and the toxic environment in which we now live -- something that has been overlooked in discussions of the rise of the modern environmental movement."--David Rosner, author of Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution and co-author of Are We Ready? Public Health Since 9/11.
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This book reveals the hidden health dangers in many of the seemingly innocent products we encounter every day—a tube of glue in a kitchen drawer, a bottle of bleach in the laundry room, a rayon scarf on a closet shelf, a brass knob on the front door, a wood plank on an outdoor deck. A compelling exposĂ©, written by a physician with extensive experience in public health and illustrated with disturbing case histories, How Everyday Products Make People Sick is a rich and meticulously documented account of injury and illness across different time periods, places, and technologies. It presents a picture not of one exceptional or corrupt industry but rather of how run-of-the-mill manufacturing processes and consumer marketing expose workers and the general public alike to toxic hazards. More troubling still, even when such hazards are recognized, calls for their control are routinely ignored. Written for a wide audience, it offers a critical and disquieting perspective on the relationship between industrial development and its adverse health consequences.Among the surprisingly common hazards discussed in How Everyday Products Make People Sick:* Glue and rubber cement* Chlorine bleach* Rayon and other synthetic textiles* Welding and other metal fumes* Wood preservatives* Gasoline additives
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