Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution(6 California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public)

An account of the attempts by the chemical and lead industries to deceive Americans about the dangers that their deadly products present to workers, the public, and consumers. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner pursued evidence steadily and relentlessly, interviewed the important players, investigated untapped sources, and uncovered a bruising story of cynical and cruel disregard for health and human rights. This resulting expose is full of startling revelations, provocative arguments, and disturbing conclusions - all based on research and information gleaned from secret industry documents. The book reveals the public relations campaign that the lead industry undertook to convince Americans to use its deadly product to paint walls, toys, furniture, and other objects in America's homes, despite a wealth of information that children were at risk for serious brain damage and death from ingesting this poison. This book highlights the immediate dangers ordinary citizens face because of the relentless failure of industrial polluters to warn, inform, and protect their workers and neighbours.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Industry's Child The House of the Butterflies Lead Poisoning among Workers and Consumers A Child Lives in a Lead World Cater to the Children The Promotion of White Lead Old Poisons, New Problems Better Living through Chemistry? Evidence of an Illegal Conspiracy by Industry Damn Liars Ol' Man River or Cancer Alley? A Hazy Mixture Science, Civil Rights, Pollution, and Politics Science and Prudent Public Policy Conclusion Notes Index

About the Author :
Gerald Markowitz is Professor of History at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. David Rosner is Professor of History and Public Health at Columbia University and Director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. They are coauthors of Children, Race, and Power: Kenneth and Mamie Clark's Northside Center (1996) and Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease in Twentieth Century America (1994). They are coeditors of Dying for Work: Safety and Health in the United States (1987) and Slaves of the Depression: Workers' Letters about Life on the Job (1987).

Review :
"[T]his is a riveting account that can convey a better understanding of the complex influences of corporate-government interactions and the cost to health."--"Journal of the American Medical Association