About the Book
New evidence seems to arrive dailyfrom stories about tainted pet food to toxic toysof the dangerous consequences that lax environmental policies are having on the consumer products that we, and our children, use every day thanks to lobbying efforts by the U.S. chemical industry.Meanwhile, the European Union is forcing these global corporate giants to chart a new path that, by requiring safe products, is revamping how businesses can create safe products and make money.In Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power investigative journalist Mark Schapiro takes the reader inside the corridors of global power where tectonic battles are occurring that will impact the health of ourselves and the planet.Schapiros expos shows how laws adopted by the European Unionwhere stricter consumer-safety standards are in placehave forced multinationals into manufacturing safer products. And, short of such strong government action the United States will lose its claim of economic and environmental supremacy.Increasingly, products developed and sold in the United States are equated with serious health hazards, and many of those products are soon to be banned from Europe and other parts of the world.Schapiros revelations in this thought-provoking work will change the way American consumers think about everyday productsfrom plastic softeners that can contribute to sexual malformations to lipstick additives that are potential toxins to the brain, liver, kidneys, and immune system. And it will stir them into forcing our government to take the lead of others, including the European Union, China, and countries in Central and South America.Exposed is a revealingand fascinating look at global markets, everyday products, and the toxic chemicals that bind them. It will shock, inform, and warn American businesses and government leaders about the risks of being left behind in the international marketplace.Schapiros book shines a light on Europes evolving search for higher standards that places Brussels, not Washington, at the center of global market innovation.
Review :
"A compelling wake-up call from deep inside the trenches. Europe is overtaking us in environmental health and safety regulations, while Americans are being sold out by their own government. This story desperately needs to be told, and Mark Schapiro is just the one to tell it."-David Wirth, Professor of Law and Director of International Programs, Boston College Law School
"Listen up, American business, and save yourselves while you still can. Time and again in his career, journalist Mark Schapiro has been years ahead of the pack in unveiling stories that reveal the emerging global future. This time, Schapiro shows that Europe, by taking the environmental high road, is cleaning America's economic clock (not to mention exposing its people to much less pollution). The markets of the future are green. America will lose them if it doesn't get smart, soon."-Mark Hertsgaard, author of "Earth Odyssey" and "The Eagle's Shadow"
A compelling wake-up call from deep inside the trenches. Europe is overtaking us in environmental health and safety regulations, while Americans are being sold out by their own government. This story desperately needs to be told, and Mark Schapiro is just the one to tell it.-David Wirth, Professor of Law and Director of International Programs, Boston College Law School
Listen up, American business, and save yourselves while you still can. Time and again in his career, journalist Mark Schapiro has been years ahead of the pack in unveiling stories that reveal the emerging global future. This time, Schapiro shows that Europe, by taking the environmental high road, is cleaning Americas economic clock (not to mention exposing its people to much less pollution). The markets of the future are green. America will lose them if it doesnt get smart, soon.-Mark Hertsgaard, author of "Earth Odyssey" and "The Eagles Shadow"
Americans' confidence in their government-sanctioned environmental and consumer protections receives another blow in investigative reporter Schapiro's expos, which explores such discomforting information as the 2005 U.S. Centers for Disease Control tests that found 148 toxic chemicals "in the bodies of 'Americans of all ages.'"Schapiro (co-author, with David Weir, of "Circle of Poison: Pesticides and People in a Hungry World") discovers toxins in personal care products, toys, electronics and foods which are, in some cases, manufactured solely for U.S. consumption, and traces them to the people and events responsible."Publishers Weekly", 8/07
aA compelling wake-up call from deep inside the trenches. Europe is overtaking us in environmental health and safety regulations, while Americans are being sold out by their own government. This story desperately needs to be told, and Mark Schapiro is just the one to tell it.a
-David Wirth, Professor of Law and Director of International Programs, Boston College Law School
aListen up, American business, and save yourselves while you still can. Time and again in his career, journalist Mark Schapiro has been years ahead of the pack in unveiling stories that reveal the emerging global future. This time, Schapiro shows that Europe, by taking the environmental high road, is cleaning Americaas economic clock (not to mention exposing its people to much less pollution). The markets of the future are green. America will lose them if it doesnat get smart, soon.a
-Mark Hertsgaard, author of "Earth Odyssey" and "The Eagleas Shadow"
