Customer Reviews

Trespass Against Us: Dow Chemical and the Toxic Century

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This book reports on the history of those who have been adversely affected by Dow's products, byproducts, and practices, especially from the forties onward. The three main topics are workplace (un)safety, hazardous products, and toxic waste. It's a bit disjointed, though. Most chapters focus on a single product or manufacturing site, and there isn't much of an overarching chronology or a neat conclusion on, say, Dow's culture, or much discussion on how it compares to large corporate culture in general. The author might also have made it clearer that establishing allowable levels for chemical releases doesn't help when bioaccumulation causes the presumed-safe thresholds to be exceeded in people.

Technical editing would have helped as well. There are several typos or misspellings of chemical names, and other errors that would be caught by an editor with some knowledge of chemistry -- for example, the author at one point states, incorrectly, that acetone and benzene are chlorinated compounds. This is not good for the book's credibility. Fortunately, many of the people the author quotes are chemical or medical experts, and the quotes at least seem to be (plausibly) correct. The best parts of the book are the stories of workers or nearby residents that have been affected by Dow, and the people who have tried to solve the problems. Unfortunately, so far it seems that only threats of regulation or litigation have had much effect.

Exposing chemical industry crime and the personal stories that make their poisoning of the world real to us, Trespass Against Us takes on Dow Chemical. The book was launched on the 20th Anniversary of the Bhopal Chemical Disaster that stole the lives of 22,000 people and counting. Social justice organizers hope the book will help spur Dow to present its subsidiary Union Carbide to the Indian Courts to face the criminal charges against them.


Asserting that it is a human right to be born and live free of manmade chemicals which enter our bodies without our permission; Doyle makes the case that Dow is guilty of legal and ethical trespass. The book chronicles the poisoning Dow has been responsible for through quality investigative journalism, while telling the story of dioxin, Agent Orange, and silicone breast implants. The lesser known stories of plastic wrap, pesticides, dry cleaning chemicals and myriad of other products that we use every day and inhabit our bodies are also told.

The book is both a human story and a thorough resource for anyone who wants to understand Dow's seemingly endless quest for power and the toxics that have made it the largest chemical company in the world. On a more human scale, the book helps one understand the connection between the subtle impacts of chemicals in the world on our health from asthma and endometriosis to cancer. I think this connection is the most important one in made in the book, the personal stories of suffering that are caused by Dow are not associated with everyday pollution and they should be. It is impossible to live in this modern world today and be totally untouched by Dow. The current administration would have us believe that Dow has more of a right to pollute than a child with Dow- triggered cancer has to live. The story of how this could happen in just 100 years is worth reading.

Jack once again show us he is an american hero Thanks Jack for your work on this ugly corporation!!!!!!!