Author: Philip Shabecoff, Alice Shabecoff
Binding: Hardcover
Published: 2008-08-12
ISBN: 1400064309
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

$17.16

Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children
by: Philip Shabecoff, Alice Shabecoff

Editorial Review:

In this shocking and sobering book, two fearless journalists directly and definitively link industrial toxins to the current rise in childhood disease and death. In the tradition of Silent Spring, Poisoned Profits is a landmark investigation, an eye-opening account of a country that prizes money over children's health.
With indisputable data, Philip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff reveal that the children of baby boomers-the first to be raised in a truly "toxified" world-have higher rates of birth defects, asthma, cancer, autism, and other serious illnesses than previous generations. In piercing case histories, the authors identify the culprit as corporate pollution. Here are the stories of such places as Dickson, Tennessee, where babies were born with cleft lips and palates after landfill chemicals seeped into the water, and Port Neches, Texas, where so many graduates of a high school near synthetic rubber and chemical plants contracted cancer that the school was nicknamed "Leukemia High."
The danger to our children isn't just in the outside world, though. The Shabecoffs provide evidence that our homes are now infested with everything from dangerous flame retardants in crib mattresses to harmful plastic softeners in teething rings to antibiotics and arsenic in chicken-additives that are absorbed by growing and physically vulnerable kids as well as by pregnant women. Compounding the problem are chemical corporations that sabotage investigations and regulations, a government that refuses to police these companies, and corporate-hired scientists who keep pertinent secrets massaged with skewed data of their own.
Poisoned Profits also demonstrates how people are fighting back, whether through grassroots parents' groups putting pressure on politicians, the rise of "ecotheology" in the pulpits of formerly indifferent churches, or the new "green chemistry" being practiced in labs to replace bad elements with good. The Shabecoffs also include helpful tips on reducing risks to children in how they eat and play, and in how parents clean and maintain their homes.
Powerful, unflinching, and eminently readable, Poisoned Profits is a wake-up call that is bound to inspire talk and force change.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Thoroughly researched book:

I found this to be an absolutely excellent book explaining the chemicals in our everyday items, what testing (if any) was likely done on these chemicals, and how the government is being bought to allow these items to continue to be sold in the US. Makes me totally appalled. The back of the book has tons and tons of fabulous resources to follow up with your own investigation as well. I learned about the Superfund site in my neighborhood and now pray that they don't develop that area like they are talking... more info

Have a Drink of Trichloroethlene:

From your Mama's breasts to the water you drank today your system is being bombarded by chemicals and toxins. Forget about the 10 most wanted notorious hitler toxins like DDT or asbestos. Instead now the assaults are slow and innocuous. Dinnertime! Well give me some Orange Roughy and asparagus and a glass of cold milk. Sounds healthy? NOT! Dioxin in milk / Mercury in fish / pesticides in your veggies. . . . You're immersed in the workplace and home. Formaldehyde in dishwashing soap, hydrocarbs in all that... more info

Read, Live Long and Prosper:

Like family values? Planning to have children? Want your grandchildren to live long and prosper? Then buy and read this book. The Shabecoff's have produced a well researched and documented work that lifts the curtain on toxic waste and the effects on children. They show the political gamesmanship behind decisions that affect the health of children; the failure of corporations (with few exceptions) to act except in their own interests; and offer tangible alternatives in the appendices. The science is... more info

Well Researched:

Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children, by Philip and Alice Shabecoff, examines the correlation between the rise of childhood illnesses and industrial and environmental pollution over the past half century.
The authors use their expertise--he as a reporter for The New York Times and she as a freelance journalist--to present solid evidence that industry is harming our environment and children. The amount of research that went into this book is staggering, but the book doesn't overwhelm; it... more info

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