Customer Reviews

Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?--A Scientific Detective Story

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

'Our Stolen Future' is a great introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries in our time. Having recently completed a thesis project at university on Endocrine Disruptors, I have reviewed hundreds of papers on the subject. This book is a good clear overview of the scientific literature on EDs. The authors are experts - Theo Colborn is largely responsible for creating the field by bringing together diverse researchers so they could see the big picture of their work. Many of the principle investigators are interviewed and quoted at length on the way chemicals participate in and interfere with delicate hormonal systems in animals (including humans). The major accomplishment of the book is to make an easy-to-follow story out of complex research. Many resources are available to help you assess the reliability of this story, and the best thing to do if you have any doubts is read review articles in scientific journals (which are easier to understand than technical papers). The Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) have a guidebook for health-care professionals on Endocrine Disruptors, and the US EPA has many reports on the matter. Beware of people or websites who try to 'debunk' this book (or the science behind it) by simply declaring it false, flawed or disproven. There is far too much supporting research for so simple a refutation. 'Our Stolen Future' is well written and a compelling read.

Without doubt, this is the most terrifying book I've ever read. Stephen King, move over, reality bites.....Nope, this is not fiction, this is the air we breathe, the food we eat - even the very containers we eat from. No place on the planet is safe anymore, so would someone please stop it and let me off now?

For me, the most terrifying aspect was the dawning realization that I had read many of the research papers cited within, but had not drawn the elements together. As the pieces fell into place, my eyes opened in horror at the implications....and I looked down at my infant son, who I was breastfeeding, appalled at the choices now confronting me.

But make no mistake, this is no tabloid horror, nor a new age book on the environment. This is a well-researched work, with an opening prelude by Vice President Al Gore. The facts are presented in a clear, concise manner that does not require a college degree to understand, but nor will it bore academics. Told with the same mounting tension as Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, the real terror comes when the reader realizes that unlike Ebola, there is no possible escape. This is not some emerging virus in a distant country, this is here...now, already in us....

Current human population growth masterfully disguises an insidious biological time bomb already exploding within us all. In our desire to create new and better chemical nightmares manufactured under the guise of modern living conveniences, we may be headed to extinction as fast and sure as any currently endangered species. ...And it's hitting is right where it hurts most, the physical and psychological abilities we need to reproduce.

But like a well presented piece of research, with the null hypothesis clearly in mind, this book does not draw unfounded conclusions. It allows you, the reader, to draw your own. And when you do, you may never sleep well again.

Buy this book. Read it, lend a copy to a friend and encourage them to buy it. It may be the single most important book you ever read.

The Industrial Revolution ushered in a lot of nice toys and some really convenient products - if it hasn't made our lives a little more frantic - but with this book, and now a host of other books like it, we see that the end results of our mad-dash to make and remake the world using our new scientific know-how is taking a huge toll on human health: Sperm counts are plummeting, cancer-rates are sky high, the immune system is being undermined, and hormone-mimics are quite possibly eroding our intelligence and altering our behavior. Without realizing it, we have put ourselves in grave peril, and ironically enough it is a cadre of scientists (life scientists, that is, ecologists and biologists) who are sounding the wake-up call -- ironic because it was their ilk, the chemists and scientific industrialists, who brought us pesticides, PCBs, and other toxic substances in the first place. The sad fact is, we all have these substances in our body now. There is no way to escape the new, chemicalized environment we have constructed. So in other words, there is no getting off this joy ride. That said, if you are interested in learning about natural detoxification processes, read "Hormone Deception" (Berkson, 2000). There is a lot of useful information in there, as well as a chapter about how diet and excercise can help keep these substnaces at lower levels by speeding up and aiding the body's natural detoxification processes. In a nutshell, she suggested to eating green, yellow and red veggies, taking in a lot of protein (nuts and seeds work fine for veggetarians), getting a regular dose of antioxidents, and excercising until you sweat for 30 minutes six days a week. For more detailed information, read the book. Take care of your body. Tread lightly on the planet. Good luck!

As a biology major in college, I was fortunate enough to take a class on mammalian reproduction with Dr. Fred vom Saal at the University of Missouri, one of the main researchers in this book. Although this book is nearly 10 years, it is still incredibly telling of the insidious nature of various industries who clearly do not have your safety in mind. The fact that a representive from Dow Chemical actually came down to bribe Dr. vom Saal to not publish his research right away is pretty telling of their goals. The plastics industry makes billions of dollars per year on polycarbonate plastics and its base unit bisphenol A used to make baby bottles, the lining of many aluminum cans, and the popular Nalgene water bottles. When it comes to you and your future children, shouldn't the burden of proof rest on the plastics industry? If you check out www.bisphenol-a.org, which of course lauds the safety and wonders of polycarbonate plastic, you might notice that those and other sites are maintained by the American Plastics Council, among others, which love to site their own studies that say that bisphenol A is just great. Gee, do you think they want bad press about a chemical that has been shown to cause a myriad of reproductive and other physiological problems? Does this sound like the tobacco industry to anyone else? I am fortunate enough now, several years later, to now be a graduate student with Dr. vom Saal as my advisor. After my PhD, I also plan on going to law school for environmental law to finally bring some truth of this to light. As said previously, this should be a required reading of all college students who will have to make some choices about the future of our species.

After hearing about this book in Jan.'99 on public radio,I finally bought it and read it in Feb. It changed my life. I've sent over 30 petitions, with 37 friends' signatures, to food and beverage providers, requesting further info based on the book. I received several letters, most notably from the Coca Cola Company and Campbell's Soup, that they line all or part of their canned items with Bisphenol-A, an estrogen mimic and hormone disruptor that is biologically active and leaches into the food.. They tell me that it's FDA approved. Some responses from providers stated that the amt. of bisphenol-A is too minute to be harmful. I answ. them that acc. to the book, minute amts. are more damaging than lg. quantities..esp. for pregnant women & young children. My mother died in 1977 from experimental estrogen therapy in the mid-70's. They since have added progesterin into the mixture. Thousands of women are currently having Estrogen therapy pushed on them, with no advice to more holistic options,(soy milk, broccoli, exercise). I miss my mother. Please contact me if you need to know what else I've found out. Stay away from all canned beverages to play it safe. Tell everyone you know to do the same. So far, the PET (polyethanol) plastic bottles-(recycle#1) seem to be a safe container, Evian water was professional enough to get me as much info as they had avail. to ease my mind of that. Thank you, Floris RGF.

This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the survivial of the human race and the terrible price we are paying by pouring toxic chemicals into our environment without thought for the consequences. As a gynecologist I have been trained in reproductive embryology and endocrinology. Cancer is only one of many worries from these pollutants and this book makes more sense than any I've read on the subject. Easy to read for laypeople and scientist alike. Should be required reading for every high school and college student and every parent.

The book "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colborn and John Peterson Myers, two leading environmentalists and Dianne Dumanoski, an environmental journalist, list the compelling effects of chemical contamination revealed from wildlife studies, laboratory experiments and human data. Synthetic chemicals are now linked to reproductive problems: a low sperm count (the male sperm count has plummeted by 50% since 1940 worldwide), infertility, genital and urethra abnormalities, the feminization of males, the masculization of females and hormonally triggered human diseases such as breast and prostrate cancer. Other symptoms include neurological and developmental disorders in children, the abnormal functioning of the thyroid, endocrine and immune system and mental and emotional development.
The danger we face in being exposed to industrial chemical contaminates is not simply disease and death. Something more sinister than straightforward poisoning may be occurring-the actual destruction of our human potential and our ability to reproduce.
Carcinogens are poisons that kill cells or attack DNA, other man-made chemicals target hormones. These synthetic hormones mimic the effects of natural hormones, usually the female hormone estrogen, by altering the natural synthesis of hormones or altering hormone receptor levels. The effects most often appear in the offspring, not the exposed parent. Many mothers are unknowingly passing their chemical legacy on to their babies through their womb and through their breast milk.
Eighty thousand chemicals have been registered with the Environmental Protection Agency in the last 60 years. Twenty new chemicals enter the market a week. Few are properly tested. These chemicals include pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, industrial detergents, and household cleaners. They are found everywhere in our water, air, soil, and food. They may even lurk in unexpected places such as the nonylphenols and the alkylphenols found in plastics and personal care items.
The chemicals may be low in the environment but they resist breakdown and accumulate in the body fat of humans over time. Because of food contamination the concentrations are higher in the bodies of animals up the food chain and in humans. This chronic synthetic hormone exposure is unprecedented in our evolutionary experience. However, most research money for investigating the effects of environment contamination of health goes to cancer studies. Also, because industrial chemicals have become a major sector of the global economy, any evidence linking them to serious human and ecological health problems is met with opposition.
Colburn, Myers and Dumanoski chillingly warn, "There is no clean, uncontaminated place, nor any human being who hasn't acquired a considerable load of persistent hormone-disrupting chemicals ... we are altering the fundamental systems that support life."
What can we do? We need to get political. We have to clean up the toxins in our environment and ourselves to reclaim our future.

This book is a real wake-up, for all, but especially to inhabitants of far off non-industrialized lands such as the polar arctic where villagers find themselves contaminated by chemicals in pesticides they had never even heard of, or what they are used for. There very food and way of life undermining the survival of their offspring. Scary book when you consider the future of man. A book that has given me some insight to why my grandmother went through life perfectly healthy while her twin daughters developed alopecia and in 1 case wegeners disease, both of which are immune disorders, I myself now have alopecia given to me by my mother. As doctors tell us they know nothing of why it occurs, this book has brought up a possible answer, perhaps unknowingly through generations chemicals in pesticides and plastics, in water and in the air, had wreaked havoc on our hormones. A must read to people ignorant to the enviroment today.

As a former teacher, I am always inspired by the response of motivated students. This book, a must read for high school and college, can encourage them to realize that they have an important part to play in the future of this planet.
Most students today do not know about DES or Thalidomide or the consequences of what chemicals have done to endanger all species including our own.
The book is a page-turner which reads like a great mystery novel, and the reader will find it hard to put down. Hopefully, the book will inspire new generations to demand funding for correcting past mistakes.

"Our Stolen Future" seeks to find the commonality in a series of seemingly unrelated abnormalities in animal populations occuring on a world-wide scale. A worthy successor to the environmental classic "Silent Spring", this is a frightening study of the effects of our highly artificial environment.