Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health by Dan Fagin, Marianne 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. Brian McCombie --This text refers to an out of print
or unavailable edition of this title.
Peter Montague, Rachel'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 Marianne 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.
Marianne 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.
