big reality check for those of us who think everything is just fine, Time to wake up. In the United States alone, industrial and agricultural toxins account for about,avoidable cancer deaths annually, Pollutionrelated health costs to Americans are similarly staggering:billion a year from asthma,billion from cardiovascular disease, andbillion from occupational disease and injury, Most troubling, children, the poor, and minorities bear the brunt of these health tragedies,
Why, asks Kristin ShraderFrechette, has the government failed to protect us, and what can we do about it In this book, at once brilliant and accessible, ShraderFrechette reveals how politicians, campaign contributors, and lobbyistsand their power over media, advertising, and public relationshave conspired to cover up environmental disease and death.
She also shows how science and regulators themselves are frequently "captured" by wellfunded polluters and special interests, But most important, the author puts both the blameand the solutionon the shoulders of ordinary citizens, She argues that everyone, especially in a democracy, has a duty to help prevent avoidable environmental deaths, to remain informed about, and involved in, publichealth and environmental decisionmaking.
Toward this end, she outlines specific, concrete ways in which people can contribute to lifesaving reforms, many of them building on recommendations of the American Public Health Association.
As disturbing as it is, ShraderFrechette's message is ultimately hopeful, Calling for a new "democratic revolution," she reminds us that while only a fraction of the early colonists supported the
American Revolution, that tiny group managed to change the world.
Her book embodies the conviction that we can do the same for environmental health, particularly if citizens become the change they seek,
"Timely, accessible, and written with enviable clarity and passion, A distinguished philosopher sounds an ethical call to arms to prevent illness and death from pollution, "
Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University
"Influential and impressive, A mustread. "
Nicholas A. Ashford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"By one of America's foremost philosophers and public intellectuals immensely readable, courageous, often startling, insightful, "
Richard Hiskes, University of Connecticut
"Like Rachel Carson's Silent Springbrilliant, brave, "
Sylvia Hood Washington, University of Illinois, Chicago
"A blistering account of how advocacy must be brought to bear on issues of justice and public health.
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Jeffrey Kahn, University of Minnesota
"No other author can so forcefully bring together ethical analysis, government policy, and environmental science, Outstanding. "
Colleen Moore, University of Wisconsin
Kristin Shrader Frechette bornis ONeill Family Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Philosophy, at the University of Notre Dame.
She has previously held senior professorships at the University of California and the University of Florida, Most of Shrader Frechettes research work analyzes the ethical problems in risk assessment, public health, or environmental justice especially those related to radiological, ecological, and energy related risks.
Shrader Frechette has received the World Technology Award, the Global Citizenship Award, and the Catholic Digest named her one ofHeroes for the US and the World.
from Wikipedia Kristin Shrader Frechette bornis O'Neill Family Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Philosophy, at the University of Notre Dame, She has previously held senior professorships at the University of California and the University of Florida, Most of Shrader Frechette's research work analyzes the ethical problems in risk assessment, public health, or environmental justice especially those related to radiological, ecological, and energy related risks.
Shrader Frechette has received the World Technology Award, the Global Citizenship Award, and the Catholic Digest named her one of"Heroes for the US and the World".
from Wikipedia sitelink.