The Polluters: The Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment [Hardcover]

Benjamin Ross (Author), Steven Amter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2010

The chemical pollution that irrevocably damages today's environment is, although many would like us to believe otherwise, the legacy of conscious choices made long ago. During the years before and just after World War II, discoveries like leaded gasoline and DDT came to market, creating new hazards even as the expansion and mechanization of industry exacerbated old ones. Dangers still felt today--smog, pesticides, lead, chromium, chlorinated solvents, asbestos, even global warming--were already recognized by chemists, engineers, doctors, and business managers of that era. A few courageous individuals spoke out without compromise, but still more ignored scientific truth in pursuit of money and prestige.

The Polluters reveals at last the crucial decisions that allowed environmental issues to be trumped by political agendas. It spotlights the leaders of the chemical industry and describes how they applied their economic and political power to prevent the creation of an effective system of environmental regulation. Research was slanted, unwelcome discoveries were suppressed, and friendly experts were placed in positions of influence, as science was subverted to serve the interests of business. The story of The Polluters is one that needs to be told, an unflinching depiction of the onslaught of chemical pollution and the chemical industry's unwillingness to face up to its devastating effects.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In this startling, intense, and brilliantly elucidated volume, Ross and Amter present a concise history of the American chemical industry. With examples both infamous (Love Canal) and long forgotten (Donora, Pennsylvania), the authors expose the historically close relationship between the industry and government regulators, making it sharply relevant to the present-day disasters of the BP oil spill and the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion. And there is little comfort found in the evidence of backroom deal making, determined neglect, and willful ignorance of solid research. The authors recount the stunning impact of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring when it was released in 1962 in a country still enthralled by the chemical industry’s control of science. Can anything be more startling than Henry du Pont’s assertion here that it was modern technology and not government which ended slavery and child labor? The sheer arrogance on display boggles the mind and makes this thoroughly researched and refreshingly nonpartisan work an unlikely page-turner. All it lacks is a happy ending, but hopefully the tide is finally turning on that score. --Colleen Mondor

Review

"The engrossing, infuriating history of American pollution... An important, disheartening account of widespread willful ignorance."--Kirkus Reviews

"Startling, intense, and brilliantly elucidated... sharply relevant to the present-day disasters of the BP oil spill and the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion... an unlikely page-turner."--Booklist

"The Polluters documents how the strategies used by today's polluters to duck regulation of their toxic chemicals were pioneered by polluters who poisoned the American landscape and killed hundreds of Americans in the early twentieth century. For nearly one-hundred years, corporate polluters have subverted democracy and corrupted public officials to control government regulation of toxic chemicals maximizing profits at the expense of public health."--Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

"The Polluters is a readable, comprehensive and authoritative study of the history of pollution. No matter how much you think you know about this issue, you'll learn something from this book--and you'll be outraged as well as informed."--David Kusnet, Chief Speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, 1992-1994

"The Polluters is a fascinating account of how the polluters in this country got away with murder for decades. This book puts a name and face on the many polluters who knew for years the damage they were doing to the public's health and to the environment and unveils their efforts to cover up the effects of this pollution; a must for any activist who wants to understand the strategies these polluters used to continue business as usual."--Lois Gibbs, Executive Director, Center for Health, Environment & Justice

"The Polluters details how the chemical industry in the 20th century erected political and scientific barriers to government oversight by failing to test the toxicity of their compounds or, worse, keeping secret damning data about health risks of widely used and profitable chemicals."--Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post

"Ross and Amter are certainly not friends of the chemical companies, but they deserve credit for also being able to see things from the industry's standpoint... by taking us back to the period before the great environmental awakening, the book provides an invaluable historical perspective. There's no doubt from this saga that we still need strong government regulation: 100 years of experience shows that companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves."--Chris Mooney, The American Prospect

"A remarkably timely, extensively researched, and accessible book offering a fresh
perspective . . . This is little-known history that makes for fascinating reading."--The Washington Post

"Frustration. That is the best way to describe the experience of reading The Polluters: The Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment. Page after page reveals the history of industries spewing toxins into our air, water, and soil and a government more apt to look the other way. Presenting the conflict through the lens of individual action and human cost, authors Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter provide an engaging and unsettling account of U.S. pollution."--BluePlanetGreenLiving.com

"The Polluters is a commendable effort to present the history of industrial
environmental harm with candor and clarity in a readable, anecdotal form."--Chemical & Engineering News

"Keep moving if you're looking for a happy ending . . . But if you seek a knowing, readable chronicle of humanity's struggle to rein in its own mess-making, these 223 meticulously footnoted pages are, well, the bomb." --Lancaster Sunday News

"To write a history of industrial pollution, with a few shining exceptions, is largely to document its denial by both industry and government. That just the history Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter have given us in The Polluters, an amply footnoted but briskly readable new book published by Oxford University Press." --Dakota Resource Council

"[A] spellbinding and detailed compendium of corporate deceit and defiance that will leave readers fuming at the towering gall of the Polluting Class . . . The Polluters is brimful with decades of tales that will have readers grinding their teeth in indignation and frustration."
--Berkeley Daily Planet

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (September 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199739951
• ISBN-13: 978-0199739950
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nuanced Chemical History December 12, 2010

By Saleem Ali

Format:Hardcover

There are also several academic case histories of particular industrial establishments across the country. However, none of these earlier works make the connections between chemical innovation, consumer culture and the political manipulation of science, in a synthetic way that Ross and Amter provide in The Polluters. The authors start the book with three important questions: "What is the basis of scientific authority? Is science value-free or is it shaped by social and economic conditions? How does economic power influence government?"

These questions need to be addressed by scientists, engineers and policy-makers in concert and The Polluters provides a nuanced historical context for this conversation in a globalized economy. To this day most economists continue to refer to pollution as an "externality" - suggesting that the salience of the natural environment cannot be captured by market mechanisms. This book shows us how this linear logic of economic expediency in the early twentieth century defiled not only the environment but also the scientific process itself.

Where industry deserves to be praised, the authors are willing to do so without hesitation. Numerous industrial researchers who stood up for environmental consciousness are mentioned in heroic terms. In particular the authors devote a chapter to Wilhelm Hueper who started to work on environmental cancer concerns long before Rachel Carson's work popularized concerns about the impact of pesticides in this context. His career trajectory, which started at Haskell Labs and meandered through industrial appointments, ultimately landed him at the National Cancer Institute. Even at the corporate level, where there was a shift in compliance culture, positive trends are acknowledged. For example, the environmental management of the Hanford site by Dupont is highlighted as ahead of its times and the leadership of corporate executives is duly praised.

Overall, The Polluters, is a commendable effort to present the history of industrial environmental harm with candor and clarity in a readable anecdotal form. The lessons of "regulatory capture" by industry and other special interest groups and its implications on scientific progress are important for us to consider in these times when global environmental issues are gaining political prominence.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stirring Account of Industry Special Interests September 2, 2010

By Jessica Slater

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Polluters in an engrossing tale of the men (n.b., all the women seem to have been on the side of good in this story) who battled the regulators and won the right to poison the environment from the early 1900s through to the 1970s. Rather than treating the chemical industry giants as monolithic entities Ross & Amter dig deeper to uncover the men behind the corporate facades who were largely responsible for the callous actions of these companies. This is a book that tells a timeless tale of special interests and the power they wield in the hallowed halls of government. The mantra of "more research was needed to understand the problem" can easily be found in current arguments about global warming and the more recently debated existence of underwater oil plumes in the gulf. The Polluters is a riveting narrative and at the end you are left wanting more, knowing the main characters in this tale are real and the story of our chemically altered environment is one that is continually unfolding.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Eye Opening History August 15, 2010

By Stuart C Elliott

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter have written a fascinating and eye-opening history of the companies, institutions, and policies that have created our chemically altered environment over the last century.

If Earth Day or the Love Canal tragedy were the events that brought the environmental crisis into your consciousness, then you owe it to yourself to read The Polluters. Even more so, if it was Global Warming or the BP oil spill.

Killer smog in LA and mass zinc poisoning in Denora, Pennsylvania are two dramatic events, just after WWII, covered by Ross and Amter. But there is also the story of DDT and leaded gasoline. The coverups by companies and the obfuscations of industry-influenced scientific groups are constants in the story.

Government has rarely been an effective regulator. The chemical industry in pursuing its own pecuniary interests has promoted and exploited an ideology of market fundamentalism, which has helped to negate and undermine efforts at regulation.

The Polluters is free of academic jargon and is written in a lively style.