This book was VERY eye opening!

I have read several books on the topics of poisons and pesticides and chemicals in common products, but I never really understood how they all tie together. This book does a great job of showing how many of the problems with “chemicals” all ties back into one industry. (I thought these were separate problems from separate industries).

Many books in this genre are far too dramatic and alarmist for my taste. This book was much more balanced than others in the “Silent Spring” tradition.

The book is lengthy and exhaustive. It really goes to length to try to substantiate each of its points (health impacts, bioaccumulation, suitable replacements, etc.) I don’t think it could be any more thorough without becoming a textbook. It is not the easiest read but it is also clear enough for the average person to understand.

And the thing that makes me give this book a really good grade is that after the painstaking analysis about health and environmental harm, the author takes a solid amount of time to go through a very reasonable plan to phase out most or all of the chemicals that stem from the chlorine industry. This section was very convincing to me that there are alternatives already available for most current chlorine applications, including by far the largest uses.

I highly recommend this book. This is one aspect of health that I had never really understood until now, and I imagine most people are in the same position.