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Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie’s research for the book included lots of rubber duckies and urine samples.
The toxic avengers Two new books, two more reasons to go au naturale… by Annie Spiege lman
I
was hoping to write a stellar review of my own new gardening book, Talking Dirt (available at Book Passage!), but my editor was concerned it would be a conflict of interest. What a spoilsport! So not only did I have to write reviews of other books, but I had to actually read them. Say what! Luckily, they were both captivating and highly informative. In Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things (Counterpoint), two wild and crazy Canadian science-policy geeks, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, write about the slightly horrific and sometimes hilarious experiment they conducted on themselves. For a few days, they hung out in a condo inhaling and ingesting a variety of harmful chemicals that are hidden in everyday household products. Some examples: personal-care products containing phthalates and triclosan; the bisphenol A that leaches from baby bottles; the mercury in tuna; and off-gassing from new carpets. The authors carefully monitored themselves, taking urine and blood tests throughout the experiment to send to a highly respected forensic laboratory. “While we were
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voluntarily and deliberately exposing ourselves to these substances, thousands of people were unknowingly and involuntarily exposing themselves to the same chemicals,” writes Lourie. By doing these things that people do every day, for one week, Smith increased his urine levels of phthalate (MEP) 22 times, his level of BPA 7.5 times and his levels of triclosan 2,900 times. A large and growing body of scientific research links exposure to toxic chemicals to many ailments, including several forms of cancer, reproductive problems and birth defects, respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Simmer down now. I promise you won’t get depressed when you read this book, but you may just get fed up enough with being a guinea pig for the chemical industry and the negligent government officials to become an activist. C’mon already. We need you! As 18 >
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