Correcting myths about pesticides and toxins
When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution, Devra Davis, Basic Books, 2002. There are only a few tales of deception, still the book is well worth reading as it gives the scientific basis for pollution control.
Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, University of California Press, 2002. A look at how first the lead industry, in the form of the lead paint and leaded gasoline industries, and then the plastics industry, in the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) makers and users, deceived the government, workers and the public.
Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health, Dan Fagin, Marianne Lavelle, and the Center for Public Integrity, Birch Lane Press, 1996. (Second edition, Common Courage Press, 1999). Concentrating on four chemicals (atrazine, alachlor, perchlorethylene, and formaldehyde) the book shows how the system that should protect the publics health instead protects the makers of hazardous chemicals. Includes chapters on alternatives to the chemicals and fixing the system.
Chemical Deception: The Toxic Threat to Health and the Environment, Mark Lappe, Sierra Club Books, 1991. Includes a look a ten myths about toxins
NEW Two articles by ALEXANDER LANE on business frendly scientists Dennis Paustenbach who claims that the dangers from chromium and other chemicals have been greatly overstated; Weakened rules a boon to 3 polluters and When corporations need an expert, he gladly answers the call
NEW In Future Scientists of America, Unite! Chris Mooney describes the blandly titled Science in Policy. The group looks at a number of issues including climate change, tozxins, endangered species and forests.
NEW Putting Myths to Bed by Dr Alan Lymbery is the best responce I have seen to the DDT myth makers:
NEW John Quiggin notes that the far right is still recycling nonsence about DDT UPDATE Quiggin has added a clarification of his views on DDT.
NEW In DDT, Eggshells, and Me Ronald Bailey, a leading "brownlash" author breaks with the useual "junk science" dogma and shows that DDT and its metabolites did harm bird populations. For more on the topic see Effects of DDT on Birds: Does Dixy Know Something the Experts Do Not?
Consumers Union Research Team Shows: Organic Foods Really DO Have Less Pesticides
WTC Asbestos Junk Science by John Young
In "Regulatory Costs of Mythic Proportions" (Yale Law Journal, Vol. 107, May 1998, pages 1981-2070) Lisa Heinzerlinger takes a critical look at a table of regulatory costs authored by John Morrall. This table has been widely used to claim that regulatory costs are excessive.
In Food for Thought Donella Meadows looks at claims that organic food is unhealthy
Pesticide industry propaganda, The Environmental Working Group's look at eight pesticide myths
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Toxin du jour
"The alar 'scare' was real" by Elliott Nergin, pages 13 to 15 in the September/October 1996 Columbia Journalism Review.
Ten Years Later, Myth of 'Alar Scare' Persists from the Environmental Working Group.
One Bad Apple: Facts and Myths Behind the Alar Scare from PR Watch
Effects of DDT on Birds: Does Dixy Know Something the Experts Do Not?
From the Our Stolen Future web site
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Written by Jim Norton
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