A healthy antidote to some of the fog clouds of PR coming out of Midland, Michigan these days is Jack Doyle's new book on the environmental practices of Dow Chemical Corporation. Here's the blurb on Trespass Against Us: Dow Chemical and the Toxic Century. Jack, by the way, is also author of Taken for a Ride: Detroit’s Big Three & the Politics of Pollution. He's a terrific investigative reporter and I commend his work.
Trespass Against Us is a story of how one company’s chemical products and byproducts have damaged, and continue to damage, public health and the environment. Known in the 1960s for producing the lethal Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange, and more recently for acquiring Union Carbide’s still-unresolved Bhopal legacy, Dow Chemical today is a company at the manufacturing headwaters of many of the world’s most problematic chemicals, including pesticides, plastics, and solvents. Dow's organochlorines have unleashed dioxins and dioxin-like compounds, among the most lethal substances on the planet. Dow pollutants and known carcinogens also continue to spew from its factories, waste dumps, and incinerators worldwide.
Trespass Against Us is a story of “invent-first-and-ask-questions-later” chemistry; of toxic and hazardous materials pushed into commerce before being fully tested; and of future generations burdened with toxic chemicals that will persist in the environment for decades. Dow's story is also about corporate power: of a company accustomed to getting its way and not above manipulating science, pushing aside safety, or spending millions in the courts and Congress to achieve its ends. Yet Trespass Against Us is also a hopeful story; an account of everyday moms and dads, Vietnam veterans and villagers, chemical workers and communities fighting back; of people standing up to power and seeking a better way. What they are saying is clear and unequivocal: no trespassing – no more invasive toxic chemicals.
Just Published !
Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine
www.commoncouragepress.com