Taking Action, Saving Lives

"The U.S. government says industrial and agricultural toxins cause at least 10 percent of cancer deaths - 60,000 of 600,000 annually in the United States - and environmentalists put the figure even higher. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control say avoidable U.S. pollution annually costs citizens $13 billion from asthma, $351 billion from cardiovascular disease, and $240 billion from occupational disease and injury." "Why is government not protecting people? In this compelling, disturbing, yet highly readable book, Shrader-Frechette shows how campaign contributions, lobbyists and their control of media, advertisements, and PR can all conspire to manipulate scientific information, withhold data, cover-up pollution-related disease and death, and "capture" regulators. The result is often the best science, politicians, and policy - that money can buy." "Warning against scapegoating any groups, Shrader-Frechette puts the blame - and the solution - squarely on the shoulders of ordinary citizens. She shows how and why virtually everyone in a democracy has justice-based duties to help prevent avoidable, environment-related deaths."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Mental Health, Nonfiction, Philosophy. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.