Customer Reviews

Toxic Truth: A Scientist, a Doctor, and the Battle over Lead

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Fascinating and incredibly well written, interesting both for the story it tells about lead and also as a template for the many battles that are waged between between what is best for our children and ourselves and what happens when they are at odds with political and economic agendas. It is also inspiring in tracing how individuals who set their minds to it can make a huge difference in the world we live in.

Toxic Truth continues in the fine tradition of other important and groundbreaking "public health mysteries" as Johnson's "Ghost Map", Barry's "The Great Influenza" and Shilts's "And the Band Played On" to tell the tragic story of lead poisoning in America. While the two heroes of Toxic Truth emerge in the persons of geochemist Clair Patterson and pediatrician Herbert Needleman, the third hero of the story is clearly science itself. Throughout the book, and especially at times when both Patterson's and Needleman's quarrelsome personalities become problematic, it is good science that asserts itself and ultimately wins the day.

The author's background as a journalist is much appreciated by the reader in her ability to provide balanced portraits, not just of her heroes, but also of those scientists who often went toe-to-toe with Patterson and Needleman. Lesser books in this genre are often so lopsided in how they fawn over their chosen luminary and dismissive of their chosen villain that one is left to wonder whether the writer is playing straight with the facts. Fortunately, there is no such concern with Toxic Truth. The book's central thesis is greatly strengthened by the fair treatment of its many subjects not weakened.

For readers curious about the nexus of science, government, public health, and monied-interests, Toxic Truth is the best new book on the market and is much recommended.

A must read for anyone who cares about children and the environment. This book will bring out the inner cynic because of all the politics and severe tactics used to keep lead in gasoline, paint, and other products in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is dangerous and worse accumulative. It definitely reduces the IQ of children. Lead is everywhere and is still poisoning children especially in inner cities but the suburbs and country kids do not escape either. Maybe schools with low test scores should have a random sample of their children tested for lead (reduces IQ) instead of instantly blaming the parents or teachers as all options should be explored as to why our schools are failing.

Romans used it to line their wine casks and water pipes and it is suggested by some this helped bring down their civilization.

One study in 1972 (page 90) using rats fed lead showed the normally nocturnal rats completely hyperactive during the day. Very unusual. Silbergold then gave these lead fed now hyperactive rats Ritalin and "saw the same effects that pediatricians saw in children." "My control animals (no lead) with Ritalin became hyper, the hyper animals (fed lead) calmed down immediately." Rats aren't children but this result is fascinating and horrifying.

What a story! Two individuals, one a scientist and the other a doctor, simultaneously yet independently take on big business and save the lives of who knows how many. What I found perhaps most fascinating was the alert, creative thinking that led them to suspect that lead might be poisoning our environment in the first place and the dogged process of trial and error they followed to prove it. Inspiring.

Denworth's report on the exposure of the lead industry due to the dedicated work of Needleman & Patterson packs a punch. The story of the little guys overcoming all the odds in their fight against a powerful industry is a testament to perservance, ethics and humanity. This expose of the cozy relationship between scientific research, commercial interests and government continues to have relevance and merits serious consideration.

Good journalism on the fight to get the lead out. The reporting seeming fair and unbiased and brought out the personalities of Needleman, Patterson and other participants. The only quibble I had was on minor detail describing Charles Kettering and Delco in Dayton around 1920 and the invention of leaded gasoline. The work was actually done via some of Kettering's other companies, but going into such detail would only have added confusion without much useful purpose. I didn't get the sense such issues were common in the rest of the book. I recommend it.

Fantastic book - written by a journalist in easily understood language with enough "scienctific speak" to make the story credible. An important historical analysis that sheds light on the way industry uses its tremendous influence against the public good - even when all signs are pointing to harm. I highly recommend this book, not only for environmental health activists, but any parent who wishes a better life for their child.Toxic Truth: A Scientist, a Doctor, and the Battle over Lead

I have been doing consulting on lead-based paint issues and EPA's abatement training since the early 90's. As one who has been involved in this but not on the front lines as Dr. Needleman and Patterson were, but aware to some degree of them both and these struggles, this book filled in my knowledge gaps wonderfully. Doing so as well in a way that is imminently readable. I felt very often as if I was there to witness the emergence of awarenesses of just what the cost's of lead being dispersed so widely into our environment were. I could not recommend this book any higher to anyone interested in this subject no matter what perspective you might approach it from.

This is a good book about two heroes: the man who succeeded in getting the US to ban lead in gasoline, and the man who showed that lead contamination was dangerous for children. In a perfect world, both men: Patterson and Needleman, should have had the Nobel prize. In the 70s and 80s the cultural mood for it was not there.

I used to work in a laboratory in Paris where most of the scientists quoted in the book came to give talks. Needleman had come up with the idea of measuring lead not in blood, because blood is renewed too fast in the body, but in baby teeth. In baby teeth, the whole history of lead contamination is integrated. Then, you have a point of comparison to measure, for instance the relation between lead and intellectual deficiencies. Needleman was so good that I remember everything he said, and this was 30 years ago. He had a program with a reward for kids who brought him their baby teeth and a lot of trouble with kids bringing him dog teeth and grandma's dentures! The correlations he found between lead and loss of IQ got us to ask a lot of questions: it is pretty hard to justify that you see the effect of lead when so many factors (race,heredity, fortune, education) are expected to play a role. But he had thought of everything and I got to say that he was not only very good, he was also very cool. We were impressed.

Patterson was totally dedicated to educate everybody about lead. I remember him in a chic restaurant in Paris refusing a bottle of wine capped with tin (as all bottles were in the 70s) and giving a 20 minutes lecture to the server: I had to translate, it was just as funny as it was embarrassing. We all admired Patterson because nobody had believed him for many years, especially the scientists who had bad data (lead is difficult to measure because contamination is easy) Most of the fight against fuel companies, he fought alone. He was for us the Richard Feynman of the environment: a role model.

The book is timely, a good read and very well researched. It should be in every high school: look! This is what one person can do to change the world! A Short History of Nearly Everything has also a great portrait of Patterson and his discovery of the age of the earth.