088
source notes
Abbreviations used in Notes
ACSAmerican Cancer Society
AEH Archives of Environmental Health
AJE American Journal of Epidemiology
AJPH American Journal of Public Health
ATSDRAgency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
CDCCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
EDFEnvironmental Defense Fund
EHP Environmental Health Perspectives
EPAU.S. Environmental Protection Agency
FDAFood and Drug Administration
GAOGeneral Accounting Office
IARCInternational Agency for Research on Cancer
IASSIllinois Agricultural Statistics Service
IDAIllinois Department of Agriculture
IDCIllinois Department of Conservation
IDENRIllinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources
IDPHIllinois Department of Public Health
IEPAIllinois Environmental Protection Agency
IFBIllinois Farm Bureau
INHSIllinois Natural History Survey
ISGSIllinois State Geological Survey
ISGWSIllinois State Geological and Water Surveys
ISWSIllinois State Water Survey
JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute
JTEH Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health
MDPHMassachusetts Department of Public Health
NCINational Cancer Institute
NEJM New England Journal of Medicine
NIHNational Institutes of Health
NIOSHNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
NRCNational Research Council
NRDCNatural Resources Defense Council
NTPNational Toxicology Program
OSHAOccupational Safety and Health Administration
PDT Pekin Daily Times
PJS Peoria Journal Star
SSJR Springfield State Journal Register
USDAU.S. Department of Agriculture
USDHHSU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
WHOWorld Health Organization
Note: Organized by page number, the citations provided below represent the primary sources I consulted and are not intended to serve as a comprehensive review of the scientific literature. Some of the articles, monographs, and texts cited here are difficult to obtain, and some are highly technical in nature. Whenever I was aware of them, I also provide references to articles appearing in popular publications that, I hope, may be more accessible to lay readers.
 
vii (epigraph): Living downstream parable adapted from “Population Health Looking Upstream” (editorial), Lancet 343 (1994): 429-30.

Foreword to Second Edition

The opening of this foreword appeared, in a slightly different form, in S. Steingraber, “Three Bets on Ecology, Economy, and Human Rights,” Orion Magazine, May/June 2009.
xii data going back a hundred years: This evidence was so convincing that the International Labour Office declared that two types of aromatic amines were carcinogens in 1921. P. Vineis and R. Pirastu, “Aromatic Amines and Cancer,” Cancer Causes and Control 8 (1997): 346-55.
xiii regulation of chemicals: M. Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2007).
xiii 216 breast cancer carcinogens: R. A. Rudel et al., “Chemicals Causing Mammary Gland Tumors in Animals Signal New Directions for Epidemiology, Chemicals Testing, and Risk Assessment for Breast Cancer Prevention,” Cancer 109 (2007): 2635-66.
xviii cancer causation is complex: F. Mazzocchi, “Complexity in Biology—Exceeding the Limits of Reductionism and Determinism Using Complexity Theory,” European Molecular Biology Organization Reports 9 (2008): 10-14.
xix epigenetics: B. Sadikovic et al., “Cause and Consequences of Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations in Human Cancer,” Current Genomics 9 (2008): 394-408.
xix endocrine disruption: Endocrine disruptors do not always behave identically to endogenous hormones. They vary in potency, and, even when they activate hormone receptors within the cell, gene expression may vary. A. K. Hotchkiss, “Fifteen Years after ‘Wingspread’—Environmental Endocrine Disrupters and Human and Wildlife Health: Where We Are Today and Where We Need to Go,” Toxicology Sciences 105 (2008): 235- 59; A. Kortenkamp, “Low Dose Mixture Effects of Endocrine Disrupters: Implications for Risk Assessments and Epidemiology,” International Journal of Andrology 31 (2008): 233-40.
xx the timing makes the poison: In May 2007, two hundred leading environmental scientists gathered in the Faroe Islands north of Scotland and released a signed declaration, The Faroes Statement, which summarized the evidence for the link between low-level exposures to common environmental chemicals during fetal life and infancy and subsequent risks for adult-onset health problems, including cancer. P. Grandjean et al., “The Faroes Statement: Human Health Effects of Developmental Exposures to Chemicals in Our Environment,” Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology 102 (2008): 73-75. See also S. A. Vogel, “From ‘The Dose Makes the Poison’ to ‘The Timing Makes the Poison’: Conceptualizing Risk in the Synthetic Age,” Environmental History 13 (2008): 667-73.
xx chemicals that alter breast development in early life: J. L. Rayner et al., “Adverse Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Atrazine During a Critical Period of Mammary Gland Growth,” Toxicological Sciences 87 (2005): 255-66; L. S. Birnbaum and S. E. Fenton, “Cancer and Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors,” EHP 111 (2003): 389-94.
xx chemical mixtures: S. Jenkins et al., “Prenatal TCDD Exposure Predisposes for Mammary Cancer in Rats,” Reproductive Toxicology 23 (2007): 391-96; A. Kortenkamp, “Breast Cancer, Oestrogens and Environmental Pollutants: A Re-evaluation from a Mixture Perspective,” International Journal of Andrology 29 (2006): 193-98.
xx mixtures of chemicals with other stressors: The emergent cancer risks created by mixtures of variables—psychosocial stress plus poor nutrition plus environmental exposures—are largely unexplored. T. Schettler, “Toward an Ecological View of Health: An Imperative for the 21st Century,” presentation before the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sept. 2006.
xx precautionary principle: A. Stirling, “Risk, Precaution and Science: Towards a More Constructive Policy Debate: Talking Point on the Precautionary Principle,” European Molecular Biology Association Report 8 (2007): 309-15; D. Gee, “Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Toward Realism and Precaution with Endocrine-Disrupting Substances,” EHP 114 (2006; S-1): 152-60; J. G. Brody, “Breast Cancer and Environment Studies and the Precautionary Principle,” EHP 113 (2005): 920-25.
xxi costs of Appalachian coal mining: The coal industry generates $8 billion in economic benefits and $42 billion in costs due to premature death of residents living in coal-mining areas. These costs do not include reduced productivity due to illness. M. Hendryx and M. M. Ahern, “Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Life Lost,” Public Health Reports 124 (2009): 541-50.
xxi costs of pollution to workers and children in California: M. P. Wilson et al., Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Sustainable California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health, 2008).
xxi health care costs: ASPE Issue Brief, Long Term Growth of Medical Expenditures—Public and Private (USDHHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, May 2005); M. W. Stanton and M. K. Rutherford, The High Concentration of U.S. Health Care Expenditures, Research in Action Issue 19, AHRQ Pub. No. 06-0060 (Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2005).
xxii U.S. petroleum industry: Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Taking Stock: 2005 North American Pollutant Releases and Transfers (Montreal, June 2009).
xxii trends in cancer mortality: T. R. Frieden et al., “A Public Health Approach to Winning the War Against Cancer,” The Oncologist 13 (2008): 1306-13.
xxii trends in cancer incidence: L. A. G. Ries et al. (eds.), SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2004 (Bethesda, MD: NCI, 2007); J. Ahmedin et al., “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Use, and Tobacco Control,” JNCI 100 (2008): 1672-94. See also summary of trends in R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005-2007,” Reviews on Environmental Health 23 (2008): 1-37; R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited,” Journal of Public Health Policy 27 (2006): 61-76.
xxiii projected 45 percent increase in number of people with cancer: B. D. Smith et al., “Future of Cancer Incidence in the United States: Burdens upon an Aging, Changing Nation,” Journal of Clinical Oncology 17 (2009): 2758-65.
xxiii declines in death rate due to smoking cessation: Frieden et al., “Public Health Approach.”
xxiii declines in lung and colon cancers: Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005-2007.”
xxiv proof that smoking causes lung cancer: Mechanistic proof was demonstrated when researchers identified in 1996 the subcellular pathway by which tobacco causes lung cancer: a smoke-borne chemical called benzo[a]pyrene mutates a gene called p53; it is this alteration that places a lung cell on the pathway to tumor formation. M. F. Denissenko, “Preferential Formation of Benzo[a]pyrene Adducts at Lung Cancer Mutational Hotspots in p53,” Science 274 (1996): 430-32. Physician Ted Schettler argues that the 1964 decision was only precautionary in the sense that the tobacco companies denied what everyone else knew to be true. From this perspective, the Surgeon General’s announcement simply represents the courage and political will to say what was already obvious. Indeed, case-control studies beginning in the 1940s showed clear associations between smoking and lung cancers with dose-response features. This kind of evidence is often impossible to gather for involuntary exposures to other carcinogens. We should not wait for the kind of proof that finally served to denormalize tobacco.
xxiv President’s Cancer Panel: “Consensus Statement on Cancer and the Environment: Creating a National Strategy to Prevent Environmental Factors in Cancer Causation,” submitted by the Collaborative on Health and Environment to the President’s Cancer Panel, October 2008.
xxiv types of cancers rising in incidence: L. A. G. Ries et al. (eds.), SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2004 (Bethesda, MD: NCI, 2007); J. Ahmedin et al., “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Use, and Tobacco Control,” JNCI 100 (2008): 1672-94. See also summary of trends in Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005-2007.”
xxiv childhood cancer trends: Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005-2007.”
xxv “to ignore the scientific evidence”: Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited.”
xxv historical studies bladder cancer and aromatic amines: These studies are reviewed in Vineis and Pirastu, “Aromatic Amines and Cancer.” Aromatic amines are a large class of chemicals that include ingredients in tobacco smoke. In light of their evidence for harm, a few individual aromatic amine substances have been banned or tightly regulated in the workplace. After certain aromatic amines were removed from chemical industry, incidence of bladder cancer among affected workers declined considerably. See also S. P. Lerner et al. (eds.), Textbook of Bladder Cancer (London: Taylor and Francis, 2006).
xxv bladder cancer in farmers: S. Koutros et al., “Heterocyclic Aromatic Amine Pesticide Use and Human Cancer Risk: Results from the U.S. Agricultural Health Study,” International Journal of Cancer 124 (2009): 1206-12.

one: trace amounts

2 Mahomet River: J. P. Kempton and A. P. Visocky, Regional Groundwater Resources in Western McLean and Eastern Tazewell Counties with an Emphasis on the Mahomet Bedrock Valley, Cooperative Groundwater Report 13 (Champaign, IL: ISGWS, 1992); J. P. Kempton et al., “Mahomet Bedrock Valley in East-Central Illinois: Topography, Glacial Drift Stratigraphy, and Hydrogeology,” in N. Melhorn and J. P. Kempton (eds.), Geology and Hydrology of the Teays-Mahomet Bedrock Valley System, Special Report 258 (Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America, 1991); J. P. Gibb et al., Groundwater Conditions and River-Aquifer Relationships along the Illinois Waterway (Champaign, IL: ISWS, 1979); M. M. Killey, “Do You Live above an Underground River?” Geogram 6 (Urbana, IL: ISGS, 1975).
2 the ancestral Mississippi River valley: M. A. Marion and R. J. Schicht, Groundwater Levels and Pumpage in the Peoria-Pekin Area, Illinois, 1890-1966 (Champaign, IL: ISWS, 1969), 3; S. L. Burch and D. J. Kelly, Peoria-Pekin Regional Groundwater Quality Assessment, Research Report 124 (Champaign, IL: ISWS, 1993), 6.
2 Illinois farm statistics: IFB, Farm and Food Facts 2007 (Bloomington, IL: IFB, 2008).
3 disappearance of the Illinois prairie: IDENR, The Changing Illinois Environment: Critical Trends, summary report and vol. 3, ILENR/ RE-EA-94/05 (Springfield, IL: IDENR, 1994); S. L. Post, “Surveying the Illinois Prairie,” The Nature of Illinois (Winter 1993): 1-8; R. C. Anderson, “Illinois Prairies: A Historical Perspective,” in L. M. Page and M. R. Jeffords (eds.), Our Living Heritage: The Biological Resources of Illinois (Champaign, IL: INHS, 1991).
4 pesticide application in Illinois: Fifty-four million represents pounds of active ingredient. This is a 1995 extrapolation derived from small-scale surveys: L. P. Gianessi and J. E. Anderson, Pesticide Use in Illinois Crop Production (Washington, DC: National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, 1995), table B-2. Other than California and New York, both of which maintain state pesticide registries, no state keeps track of pesticide use unless the pesticide is classified as restricted. See IDENR, Changing Illinois, summary report, 81. In recent years, the state of Illinois has not provided compiled estimates of total pesticide use. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, 14,143 million pounds of atrazine was applied to Illinois corn in 2005. NASS estimates total insecticide and herbicide use on Illinois corn and soybeans at 46,544 million pounds in 2005. The USDA has not collected agricultural chemical use since 2005. This lack of data complicated the Peoria Journal Star’s attempt to investigate trends in the use of fungicide between 2006 and 2008. S. Tarter, “Illinois Farmers Have Increased the Use of Plane-Sprayed Fungicides,” PJS, 26 July 2009.
5 percentage of corn treated with pesticides in 1950: IDENR, Changing Illinois 3, 78.
5 percentage of corn treated with pesticides in 2005: from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, www.nass.usda.gov.
5 atrazine use in Illinois: D. Coursey, Illinois Without Atrazine: Who Pays? Economic Implications of an Atrazine Ban in the State of Illinois (University of Illinois Harris School of Public Policy Working Paper, Feb. 2007).
5 pesticide drift: C. M. Benbrook et al., Pest Management at the Crossroads (Yonkers, NY: Consumers Union, 1996); C. A. Edwards, “The Impact of Pesticides on the Environment,” in D. Pimentel et al. (eds.), The Pesticide Question: Environment, Economics, and Ethics (New York: Routledge, 1993); D. E. Glotfelty et al., “Pesticides in Fog,” Nature 325 (1987): 602-5; C. Howard, “Chemical Drift a Growing Concern for Rural Residents,” PJS, 25 July 2009; S. M. Miller et al., “Atrazine and Nutrients in Precipitation: Results from the Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study,” Environmental Science & Technology 34 (2000): 55-61.
5 pesticides in Illinois surface and ground water: M. Wu et al., Poisoning the Well: How EPA Is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in Surface and Drinking Water in the Central United States (New York: NRDC, 2009); IDA, Pesticide Monitoring Network (Springfield, IL, 2006); R. B. King, Pesticides in Surface Water in the Lower Illinois River Basin 1996-98 (U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 2002-4097, 2003); A. G. Taylor and S. Cook, “Water Quality Update: The Results of Pesticide Monitoring in Illinois’ Streams and Public Water Supplies” (paper presented at the 1995 Illinois Agricultural Pesticides Conference, University of Illinois, Urbana, 4-5 Jan. 1995); A. G. Taylor, “The Effects of Agricultural Use on Water Quality in Illinois” (paper presented at the 1993 American Chemical Society Agrochemicals Division Symposium, “Pesticide Management for the Protection of Ground and Surface Water Resources,” Chicago, 25-26 Aug. 1993); S. C. Schock et al., Pilot Study: Agricultural Chemicals in Rural, Private Wells in Illinois, Cooperative Groundwater Report 14 (Champaign, IL: ISGWS, 1992).
5 2009 report on drinking water: Wu et al., Poisoning the Well. The two Illinois communities with chronically elevated atrazine levels are Mount Olive and Evansville.
5 withered vineyards: C. Howard, “Chemical Drift a Growing Concern for Rural Residents,” PJS, 25 July 2009.
5 DDT most common pesticide in fish: R. J. Gilliom et al., The Quality of Our Nation’s Waters: Pesticides in the Nation’s Streams and Ground Water, 1992-2001 (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1291, 2006).
6 DDT residues on kitchen floors: The same study found chlordane in the kitchen floor dust of 74 percent of U.S. homes and chlorpyrifos and diazinon in 78 and 35 percent of homes, respectively. Fipronil and permethrin were also commonly detected. The house dust in some homes contained 24 different insecticides. D. M. Stout et al., “American Healthy Homes Survey: A National Study of Residential Pesticides Measured from Floor Wipes,” Environmental Science and Technology 43 (2009): 4294-4300.
6 health effects of DDT: B. Eskenazi et al., “The Pine River Statement: Human Health Consequences of DDT Use,” EHP 117 (2009): 1359-67.
6 hormonal effects of atrazine exposure: For example, H. Shibayama et al., “Collaborative Work on Evaluation of Ovarian Toxicity. 14) Two-or Four-week Repeated-Dose Studies and Fertility Study of Atrazine in Female Rats,” Journal of Toxicological Sciences 34 (2009, S-1): SP147- 55; J. R. Lenkowski et al., “Perturbation of Organogenesis by the Herbicide Atrazine in the Amphibian Xenopus laevis,” EHP 116 (2008): 223-30; M. Suzawa and H. A. Ingraham, “The Herbicide Atrazine Activates Endocrine Gene Networks via Non-Steroidal NR5A Nuclear Receptors in Fish and Mammalian Cells,” PLoS ONE 3 (2008): e2117; R. L. Cooper et al., “Atrazine and Reproductive Function: Mode and Mechanism of Action Studies,” Birth Defects Research (Part B), 80 (2007): 98-112; R. R. Enoch et al., “Mammary Gland Development as a Sensitive End Point after Acute Prenatal Exposure to an Atrazine Metabolite Mixture in Female Long-Evans Rats,” EHP 115 (2007): 541-47; V. M. Rodriguez et al., “Sustained Exposure to the Widely Used Herbicide Atrazine: Altered Function and Loss of Neurons in Brain Monoamine Systems,” EHP 113 (2005): 708-15; T. Hayes et al., Hermaphroditic Demasculinized Frogs after Exposure to the Herbicide Atrazine at Low Ecologically Relevant Doses,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99 (2002): 5476-80.
6 toxic releases in Illinois: Data from the 2007 Toxics Release Inventory for Illinois, retrieved from the Right-to-Know Network database, www.rtknet.org. Ethanol production unites agriculture with industry in Illinois. IDA, Facts about Illinois Agriculture (Springfield, IL: IDA, 2001).
6 metal degreasers and dry-cleaning fluids: IDPH, Chlorinated Solvents in Drinking Water (Springfield, IL: IDPH, Division of Environmental Health, n.d.).
6 dry cleaners: Investigation was prompted by solvent-contaminated drinking water in Crestwood, Illinois. M. Hawthorne, “Dry Cleaners Leave a Toxic Legacy—Despite Cleanup Effort, Chemicals Still Taint Hundreds of Illinois Sites,” Chicago Tribune, 26 July 2009.
6 quote from a state assessment: IDENR, Changing Illinois, summary report, 6.
7 atrazine in U.S. water: R. J. Gilliom et al., The Quality of Our Nation’s Waters: Pesticides in the Nation’s Streams and Ground Water, 1992- 2001 (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1291, 2006).
7 PCBs in Illinois fish: C. L. Straub et al., “Trophic Transfer of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias) at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, Illinois, United States,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 52 (2007): 572-79; IDPH, “Illinois Fish Advisory: Illinois River, Contaminant—PCBs” (Springfield, IL: IDPH, 2005).
7 DDT off the California coast: J. Gottlieb, “EPA Seeks to Clean Up DDT-tainted Site off Palos Verdes Peninsula,” Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2009.
7 Archival film clips appear in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, documentary film by Peace River Films, aired on PBS, The American Experience, 8 Feb. 1993.
7 Old magazine ads for DDT are reprinted in E. P. Russell III, “‘Speaking of Annihilation’: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945,” Journal of American History 82 (1996): 1505- 29; and in J. Curtis et al., After Silent Spring: The Unsolved Problem of Pesticide Use in the United States (New York: NRDC, 1993), 2.
8 DDT for polio control: T. R. Dunlap, DDT: Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 65.
8 DDT in paint: This ad, for Sherwin-Williams, appeared in 1946. See E. C. Helfrick as told to M. Riddle, “Mass Murder Introduces Sherwin-Williams’ ‘Pestroy,’” Sales Management, 15 Oct. 1946, 60-64. See also E. P. Russell III, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
8 quotes from fellow baby boomers: Jean Powers of Dover, MA, and John Gephart of Ithaca, NY.
8 “the harmless aspect of the familiar”: R. Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 20.
8 “It is not my contention . . . ”: Ibid., 12.
9 Carson on future generations: Ibid., 13.
9 “killer of killers,” “the atomic bomb of the insect world”: J. Warton, Before Silent Spring: Pesticides and Public Health in Pre-DDT America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 248-55.
9 failure of DDT: Carson, Silent Spring, 20-23, 58, 103, 107-9, 112, 113, 120-22, 125, 143-44, 206-7, 225, 267-73; Dunlap, DDT, 63-97.
9 DDT in breast milk: E. P. Laug et al., “Occurrence of DDT in Human Fat and Milk,” AMA Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Medicine 3 (1951): 245-46. DDT remains a common contaminant of human breast milk as well as human blood. It is also found in the bodies of migrating songbirds and in forest soils. USDA, Pesticide Data Program, Annual Summary Calendar Year 1994 (Washington, DC: USA, Agricultural Marketing Service, 1994), 13; R. G. Harper et al., “Organochlorine Pesticide Contamination in Neotropical Migrant Passerines,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 31 (1996): 386-90; ATSDR, “DDT, DDE, and DDD” (fact sheet) (Atlanta: ATSDR, 1995); R. G. Lewis et al., “Evaluation of Methods for Monitoring the Potential Exposure of Small Children to Pesticides in the Residential Environment,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 26 (1996): 37-46; W. H. Smith et al., “Trace Organochlorine Contamination of the Forest Floor of the White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire,” Environmental Science and Technology 27 (1993): 2244-46; EPA, Deposition of Air Pollutants to the Great Lakes: First Report to Congress , EPA-453/R-93-055 (Washington, DC: EPA, 1994).
10 history of lindane: Once used widely in the Christmas tree industry, lindane is now banned in over fifty countries and in the state of California. It is being phased out globally under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an international treaty negotiated under the custody of the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva, Switzerland, and to which the United States is not party (http://chm.pops.int). M. P. Purdue et al., “Occupational Exposure to Organochlorine Insecticides and Cancer Incidence in the Agricultural Health Study,” International Journal of Cancer 120 (2007): 642-49; EPA, “Lindane; Cancellation Order,” Federal Register 71 (Dec. 13, 2006), 74905; M. Moses, Designer Poisons: How to Protect Your Health and Home from Toxic Pesticides (San Francisco: Pesticide Education Center, 1995); EPA, Suspended, Cancelled and Restricted Pesticides, 20T-1002 (Washington, DC: EPA, 1990); Curtis, After Silent Spring.
10 my 1992 discovery of lindane: Pesticides banned for use in the 1970s and 1980s were nevertheless still exported from the United States to nations with more lenient pesticide restrictions until at least the early 1990s. This practice seems now to have ended. The chemical company in my hometown may have been formulating lindane for the export market, but I was not able to confirm this. In 1992, 600,000 pounds of DDT were shipped out of U.S. ports. Some analysts suspect this cargo may represent a transshipment—cargo imported and then exported again. Poor labeling of pesticide exports make careful tracking very difficult. J. Raloff, “The Pesticide Shuffle,” Science News 149 (1996): 174- 75; Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education, Exporting Risk: Pesticide Exports from U.S. Ports (Los Angeles: Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education, 1996); J. Wargo, Our Children’s Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), 163-64; D. J. Hanson, “Administration Seeks Tighter Curbs on Exports of Unregistered Pesticides,” Chemical and Engineering News, 14 Feb. 1994, 16-18; Monica Moore, Pesticide Action Network, personal communication.
10 aldrin and dieldrin: J. B. Barnett and K. E. Rodgers, “Pesticides,” in J. H. Dean et al. (eds.), Immunotoxicology and Immunopharmacology, 2nd ed. (New York: Raven Press, 1994); R. Spear, “Recognized and Possible Exposures to Pesticides,” in W. J. Hayes and E. R. Laws Jr. (eds.), Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology, vol. 1 (New York: Academic Press, 1991); EPA, 1990, Suspended; Carson, Silent Spring, 26.
10 chlordane and heptachlor: J. J. Spinelli et al., “Organochlorines and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” International Journal of Cancer 121 (2007): 2767-75; Spear, “Possible Exposures,” 245; P. F. Infante et al., “Blood Dyscrasias and Childhood Tumors and Exposure to Chlordane and Heptachlor,” Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health 4 (1978): 137-50.
10 pesticides in baby food: Dunlap, DDT, 68.
11 women with breast cancer have higher levels of DDE and PCBs in their tumors: M. Wasserman, “Organochlorine Compounds in Neoplastic and Adjacent Apparently Normal Breast Tissue,” Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 15 (1976): 478-84.
11 other studies followed: H. Mussalo-Rauhamaa et al., “Occurrence of Beta-Hexachlorocyclohexane in Breast Cancer Patients,” Cancer 66 (1990): 2124-28 (lindane is the gamma isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane); F. Falck Jr. et al., “Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Residues in Human Breast Lipids and Their Relation to Breast Cancer,” AEH 47 (1992): 143-46.
11 Wolff study: M. S. Wolff et al., “Blood Levels of Organochlorine Residues and Risk of Breast Cancer,” JNCI 85 (1993): 648-52; D. J. Hunter and K. T. Kelsey, “Pesticide Residues and Breast Cancer: The Harvest of a Silent Spring?” JNCI 85 (1993): 598-99; M. P. Longnecker and S. J. London, “Re: Blood Levels of Organochlorine Residues and Risk of Breast Cancer” (letter and response by M. S. Wolff), JNCI 85 (1993): 1696-97.
11 role of breast cancer activism in redirecting scientific inquiry: See chapter two in Phil Brown, Toxic Exposures, Contested Illnesses and the Environmental Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
11 pesticide use since Silent Spring: Pesticide use doubled between 1964 and 1982, as measured by weight of active pesticidal ingredients. See Wargo, Toxic Legacy, 132.
11 breast cancer among women born between 1947 and 1958: D. L. Davis et al., “Decreasing Cardiovascular Disease and Increasing Cancer among Whites in the United States from 1973 through 1987: Good News and Bad News,” JAMA 271 (1994) 431-37.
12 contradictory studies: É. Dewailly et al., “High Organochlorine Body Burden in Women with Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer,” JNCI 86 (1994): 232-34. Increasing incidence of receptor-positive breast cancer is largely responsible for the increase in breast cancer rates that occurred between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s. See A. G. Glassand and R. N. Hoover, “Rising Incidence of Breast Cancer: Relationship to State and Receptor Status,” JNCI 82 [1990]: 693-96; N. Krieger et al., “Breast Cancer and Serum Organochlorines: A Prospective Study among White, Black and Asian Women,” JNCI 86 (1994): 589-99; B. MacMahon, “Pesticide Residues and Breast Cancer?” JNCI 86 (1994): 572-73; S. S. Sternberg, “Re: DDT and Breast Cancer” (and responses by the authors), JNCI 86 (1994): 1094-96; J. E. Brody, “Strong Evidence in a Cancer Debate,” New York Times, 20 Apr. 1994, C-11; D. A. Savitz, “Re: Breast Cancer and Serum Organochlorines: A Prospective Study among White, Black, and Asian Women,” JNCI 86 (1994): 1255; M. S. Wolff, “Pesticides—How Research Has Succeeded and Failed in Informing Policy: DDT and the Link with Breast Cancer,” EHP 103, S-6 (1995): 87-91.
12 NEJM study: D. J. Hunter et al., “Plasma Organochlorine Levels and the Risk of Breast Cancer,” NEJM 337 (1997): 1303-4.
12 animal studies and early-life exposure: L. S. Birnbaum and S. E. Fenton, “Cancer and Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors,” EHP 111 (2003): 389-94.
13 Cohn study: B. A. Cohn et al., “DDT and Breast Cancer in Young Women: New Data on the Significance of Age at Exposure,” EHP 115 (2007): 1406-14.
13 gene-environment interaction in PCB cancer risk: J. G. Brody et al., “Environmental Pollutants and Breast Cancer: Epidemiologic Studies,” Cancer 109 (2007; S-12): 2667-2711; Y. Zhang et al., “Serum Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Cytochrome P-450 1A1 Polymorphisms, and Risk of Breast Cancer in Connecticut Women,” AJE 160 (2004): 1177-83.
14 atrazine’s ranking: Ranked by pounds of active ingredient, atrazine was the most abundantly applied pesticide in the United States from 1987 until 2001, when glyphosate surpassed it. KRSNetwork, 2005 U.S. Pesticide Industry Report (Covington, GA, 2006).
14 atrazine and human cancer: For example, D. W. Gammon et al., “A Risk Assessment of Atrazine Use in California: Human Health and Ecological Aspects,” Pest Management Science 61 (2005): 331-55; J. A. Rusiecki et al., “Cancer Incidence Among Pesticide Applicators Exposed to Atrazine in the Agricultural Health Study,” JNCI 96 (2004): 1375-82; P. A. MacLennan et al., “Cancer Incidence Among Triazine Herbicide Manufacturing Workers,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 45 (2003): 243-44.
14 human studies needed on early-life exposure to atrazine: J. R. Roy et al., “Estrogen-like Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Affecting Puberty in Humans—A Review,” Medical Science Monitor 15 (2009): RA137-45; D. A. Crain et al., “Female Reproductive Disorders: The Role of Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds and Developmental Timing,” Fertility and Sterility 90 (2008): 911-40.
15 U.S. regulatory decision on atrazine and aftermath: T. B. Hayes, “There Is No Denying This: Defusing the Confusion about Atrazine,” Bioscience 54 (2004): 1138-48; J. Huff, “Industry Influence on Occupational and Environmental Public Health,” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 13 (2007): 107-17, and J. Huff and J. Sass, “Atrazine—A Likely Human Carcinogen?” [letter], International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 13 (2007): 356-57; EPA, “EPA Begins New Scientific Evaluation of Atrazine,” press release, October 7, 2009; Wu et al., Poisoning the Well.
15 atrazine is banned in Europe: The inability to keep atrazine out of drinking water was the basis for the ban. J. B. Sass and A. Colangelo, “European Union Bans Atrazine, while the United States Negotiates Continued Use,” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 12 (2006): 260-67.
15 failure to pursue research on cancer’s environmental connections: This question is brilliantly addressed by Devra Davis, Ph.D. MPH, the director of the Center of Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, in her book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (New York: Basic Books, 2007).

two: silence

I explore more deeply the ways in which my work has been influenced by that of Rachel Carson in essays published in two anthologies: “Silent Spring: A Father-Daughter Dance,” in Peter Matthiessen (ed.), Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007) and “Living Downstream of Silent Stream,” in Lisa Sideris and Kathleen Dean Moore (eds.), Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008). Both commemorate the 100th anniversary of Carson’s birth in 1907.
18 Carson’s concern about pesticide debates: L. J. Lear, “Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring,” Environmental History Review 17 (1993): 23-48. See also Lear’s definitive biography, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (New York: Holt, 1997).
19 letter from Huckins: T. T. Williams, “The Spirit of Rachel Carson,” Audubon 94 (1992): 104-7; P. Brooks, The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989), 229-35.
19 “Knowing what I do . . . ”: Carson’s letter to Freeman, June 28, 1958, reprinted in M. Freeman (ed.), Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman (Boston: Beacon, 1995), 259.
19 Iroquois County: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 91-100.
20 refusal of scientists to send Carson information: Dr. Linda Lear, personal communication.
20 threat of defunding: Carson, Silent Spring, 94-95.
20 “The other day . . . ”: Carson’s letter to Freeman, 27 June 1962, reprinted in Freeman, Always, Rachel, 408. Abraham Lincoln is likely not the source of this quote. “To sin by silence” is a line from a poem entitled “Protest,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, which was published in her collection Poems of Problems (Chicago: W. B. Conkey, 1914). Wheeler Wilcox was known to be inspired by Lincoln.
20 Carson’s speech: quoted in Brooks, House of Life, 302-4.
23 twenty years of life lost: Dr. Devra Lee Davis, personal communication.
24 Carson’s cancer diagnosis and physical ailments: Carson’s letters to Freeman, 1960-1964, in Freeman, Always, Rachel; Brooks, House of Life; Dr. Linda Lear, personal communication.
24 Carson’s relief at finishing Silent Spring: Carson’s letter to Freeman, 6 Jan. 1962, in Freeman, Always, Rachel, 391.
24 two quotes from letters to Freeman: 3 Nov. 1963 and 9 Jan. 1964, ibid., 490, 515. See also letters dated 6 Jan. 1962; 2 Mar. 1963; and 25 Apr. 1963.
27 Carson’s letters to Freeman that speak openly: 3 Jan. 1961; 23 Mar. 1961; 25 Mar. 1961; and 18 Sept. 1963, ibid., 326, 364, 365-66, 469.
27 letters that speak elliptically: 17 Jan. 1961; 15 Feb. 1961; 25 Oct. 1962; 25 Dec. 1962; and 2 Jan. 1964, ibid., 331, 346, 414, 420, 508.
28 Freeman’s reference to Carson’s mastectomy: Freeman’s letter to Carson, 30 Apr. 1960, ibid., 305.
28 their entreaties and admissions: See, for example, Freeman’s letter to Carson, 6 Mar. 1963, ibid., 441.
28 the darker story: Freeman’s letters to Carson, 4 and 17 Mar. 1961, ibid., 356, 363.
28 confessions and recantations: Carson’s letters to Freeman, 23 Jan. 1962; 26 Mar. 1962; 10 Apr. 1962; 14 Feb. 1963; 18 Feb. 1963; 2 Mar. 1963; 14 Jan. 1964, ibid., 395, 399, 404, 434-37, 439-40, 516.
28 Carson’s prohibition of discussions about her health: M. Spock, “Rachel Carson: A Portrait,” Rachel Carson Council News 82 (1994): 1-4; Dr. Linda Lear, personal communication.
28 quotes instructing Dorothy: Carson’s letters to Freeman, 1 Apr. 1962 and 20 May 1962, in Freeman, Always, Rachel, 401, 405.
29 photographs and old film clips: Beinecke Library archives, Yale University; Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, documentary film by Peace River Films, aired on PBS, The American Experience, 8 Feb. 1993.
30 farmers and housewives with cancer: Carson, Silent Spring, 227-30.
30 first line of evidence: Ibid., 219-20.
31 second and third lines of evidence: Ibid., 221.
31 “whatever seeds of malignancy . . . ”: Ibid., 226.
31 death certificates and children’s cancers: Ibid., 221-22.
31 animals with cancer: Ibid., 221-22.
31 cellular mechanisms of carcinogenesis: Ibid., 231-35.
32 effect on sex hormones: Ibid., 235-37.
32 effect on metabolism: Ibid., 231-32. Carson was particularly prescient on this point. The ability of certain chemicals to alter metabolic processes by which other chemicals are converted into genotoxic metabolites was acknowledged in a 2009 paper as an important nontraditional pathway to tumor formation. L. G. Hernández et al., “Mechanisms of Non-Genotoxic Carcinogens and the Importance of a Weight of the Evidence Approach,” Mutation Research 2009 [in press].
32 Carson’s prediction: Ibid., 232-33.
32 interspecies differences in susceptibility: H. C. Pitot III and Y. P. Dragan, “Chemical Carcinogens,” in D. Klaassen (ed.), Casarett and Doull’s Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poison, 5th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996); NRC, Animals as Sentinels of Environmental Health Hazards (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1991).
32 uncontrolled human experiment: A lack of unexposed controls makes human studies difficult but not impossible. Theoretically, all that is required for such studies are measurable difference in exposure levels among segments of the human population. For example, all of us are believed to carry detectable levels of dioxin in our tissues. The question of whether dioxin contributes to human cancers can be addressed by studies that compare cancer incidence rates among those heavily, moderately, and lightly exposed. All other things being equal, a positive trend would indicate a dose-response relationship, which is considered strong evidence by cancer researchers. The wider the spread in exposure levels, the more likely the relationship—if indeed one exists—will reveal itself. As such, researchers interested in conducting human studies often look for “natural experiments” where an unfortunate event—such as a toxic spill of some sort—has exposed an identifiable sector of the population to a heavy dose of the substance in question. Disease rates among this group can then be compared to those of the general population, whose exposures to this substance may be common and ongoing but are occurring at much lower levels.
33 Olga Owen Huckins, the Committee Against Mass Poisoning, and the New Yorker: L. Lear, Rachel Carson: The Life of the Author of Silent Spring (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 312-38; S. Steingraber, “Silent Spring: A Father-Daughter Dance,” in Matthiessen, Courage for the Earth.

three: time

Unless otherwise stated below, cancer statistics quoted in this chapter are drawn from the following two sources: U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. United States Cancer Statistics: 1999-2005 Incidence and Mortality Web-Based Report. (Atlanta: USDHHS, CDC and NCI, 2009), available at www.cdc.gov/uscs; Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, Delay-Adjusted Incidence Database: SEER Incidence Adjusted Rates, 7 Registries, NCI, 2008. Available at: www.seer.cancer.gov/.
36 number of cancer diagnoses in 2009: ACS, Cancer Facts & Figures—2009 (Atlanta: ACS, 2009).
39 quantifying and correcting problems in data ascertainment: H. Menck and C. Smart (eds.), Central Cancer Registries: Design, Management, and Use (Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Press, 1994); O. M. Jensen et al. (eds.), Cancer Registration: Principles and Methods, IARC Scientific Publication 95 (Lyon, France: IARC, 1991). For an excellent history of cancer registration in the United States, see E. R. Greenberg et al., “Measurements of Cancer Incidence in the United States: Sources and Uses of Data,” JNCI 68 (1982): 743-49. For an overview of the system of state registries, see USDHHS, A National Program of Cancer Registries At-a-Glance, 1994-1995 (Atlanta: CDC, 1995), 69-72.
39 percentage of upsurge in breast cancer attributable to earlier detection: R. N. Proctor, Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know and Don’t Know about Cancer (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 251; J. M. Liff, “Does Increased Detection Account for the Rising Incidence of Breast Cancer?” AJPH 81 (1991): 462-65.
40 rise in breast cancer predates mammography: E. J. Feuer and L. M. Wun, “How Much of the Recent Rise in Breast Cancer Incidence Can Be Explained by Increases in Mammography Utilization?” AJE 136 (1992): 1423-36; J. R. Harris, “Breast Cancer,” NEJM 327 (1992): 319-28.
40 recent drop in breast cancer incidence: P. M. Ravdin et al., “The Decrease in Breast-Cancer Incidence in 2003 in the United States,” NEJM 356 (2007):1670-74; S. L. Stewart et al., “Decline in Breast Cancer Incidence—United States, 1999-2003,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 56 (2007): 549-53.
40 2002 warning on estrogen: Writing Group for the Women’s Health Initiative Investigators, “Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: Principal Results from the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial,” JAMA 288 (2002): 321-33.
40 decline in hormone replacement in California: C. A. Clarke et al., “Recent Declines in Hormone Therapy Utilization and Breast Cancer: Clinical and Population-Based Evidence,” Journal of Clinical Oncology 33 (2006): 349-50.
40 decline restricted to estrogen-dependent tumors: J. Gray et al., “State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment,” International Journal of Environmental Health 15 (2009): 43-78.
41 racial disparities in breast cancer incidence: Ibid.
41 declining rates of mammography: A. Jemal et al., “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Cancer, and Tobacco Control,” JNCI 100 (2008): 1672-94.
41 possible declining exposure to other causative agents: Gray et al., “State of the Evidence,” 43-78.
42 the Spanish study: J. J. Ibarluzea et al., “Breast Cancer Risk and the Combined Effects of Environmental Estrogens,” Cancer Causes and Control 15 (2004): 591-600.
42 Connecticut registry: W. Haenszel and M. G. Curnen, “The First Fifty Years of the Connecticut Tumor Registry: Reminiscences and Prospects,” The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 59 (1986): 475-84.
43 data exchange in Illinois: H. L. Howe et al., Effect of Interstate Data Exchange on Cancer Rates in Illinois, 1986-1990, Epidemiological Report Series, 94:1 (Springfield, IL: IDPH, 1994).
43 seventeen geographic areas: These are a mixture of state and metropolitan registries. They are Atlanta, Connecticut, Detroit, Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico, San Francisco-Oakland, Seattle-Puget Sound, Utah, Los Angeles, San Jose-Monterey, rural Georgia, the Alaska Native Tumor Registry, Greater California, Kentucky, Louisiana, and New Jersey. NCI “Seer Data, 1976-2006.” Available at www.seer.cancer.gov/data/.
43 SEER and NPCR: P. A. Wingo, “Building the Infrastructure for Nationwide Cancer Surveillance and Control—A Comparison Between the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program (United States),” Cancer Causes and Control 14 (2003): 175-93.
44 trends in overall cancer incidence rate: R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited,” Journal of Public Health Policy 27 (2006): 61-76.
44 mortality rates as more reliable: The renowned biostatistician John Bailar, for example, holds this view. J. C. Bailar III and E. M. Smith, “Progress Against Cancer?” NEJM 314 (1986): 1226-32; J. C. Bailar III, “Observations on Some Recent Trends in Cancer,” presentation at the President’s Cancer Panel Meeting, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 22 Sept. 1993.
44 mortality has not changed much in 60 years: Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited,” 61-76; D. L. Davis, “The Need to Develop Centers for Environmental Oncology,” Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 61 (2007): 614-622.
44 trends in cancer mortality: T. R. Frieden, “A Public Health Approach to Winning the War on Cancer,” The Oncologist 13 (2008): 1306-13; Davis, “Need to Develop Centers.”
45 childhood cancers: P. J. Landrigan, “Childhood Cancer and the Environment,” testimony before the President’s Cancer Panel, East Brunswick, NJ, Sept. 16, 2008; Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited”; L. A. G. Ries and S. S. Devesa, “Cancer Incidence, Mortality, and Patient Survival in the United States,” in D. Schottenfeld and J. F. Fraumeni (eds.), Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention , 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); L. L. Robison et al., “Assessment of Environmental and Genetic Factors in the Etiology of Childhood Cancers: The Children’s Cancer Group Epidemiology Program,” EHP 103 (1995, S-6): 111-16; S. H. Zahm and S. S. Devesa, “Childhood Cancer: Overview of Incidence Trends and Environmental Carcinogens,” EHP 103 (1995, S-6): 177-84.
45 greater exposure of children: J. Wargo, Our Children’s Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996); L. Mott et al., Handle with Care: Children and Environmental Carcinogens (New York: NRDC, 1994).
47 more than 40 percent of Americans will contract cancer: ACS, Cancer Statistics—2009.
47 cancer as the leading cause of death under age 85: Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited.”
47 lung cancer trends: M. R. Spitz et al., “Cancer of the Lung,” in Schottenfeld and Fraumeni, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.
47 percent of lung cancer deaths due to smoking: A. Jernal et al., “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Use, and Tobacco Control,” JNCI 100 (2008): 1672-94.
47 nonsmoking lung cancer deaths: A. Jernal et al., “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Use, and Tobacco Control,” JNCI 100 (2008): 1672-94.
48 testicular cancer: R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence,” Reviews on Environmental Health 23 (2008): 1-37.
48 types of cancers that are increasing: Ibid.
48 thyroid cancer: L. Enewold, “Rising Rates of Cancer Incidence in the United States by Demographic and Tumor Characteristics, 1980-2005,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 18 (2009): 784-91.
48 quotes by Hueper and Conway: W. C. Hueper and W. D. Conway, Chemical Carcinogenesis and Cancers (Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas, 1964): 17, 158.
49 quotes about the ISCR: IDPH, Cancer Incidence in Illinois by County, 1985-87 (Springfield, IL: IDPH, 1989).
49 National Children’s Study: Landrigan, “Childhood Cancer and the Environment.”
50 centers for environmental oncology: Davis, “Need to Develop Centers.”
51 birth cohort study: D. L. Davis, “Decreasing Cardiovascular Disease and Increasing Cancer Among Whites in the United States from 1973 through 1987: Good News and Bad News,” JAMA 271 (1994): 431-37. These results have been replicated in Sweden, where researchers, making use of one of the world’s oldest and most reliable cancer registries, have shown increasing cancer rates extending into the 1950s birth cohort: H-O. Adami et al., “Increasing Cancer Risk in Younger Birth Cohorts in Sweden,” Lancet 341 (1993): 773-77.
51 quote by Davis: personal communication.
54 trends in NHL: P. Hartge et al., “Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” in Schottenfeld and Fraumeni, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.
54 AIDS and NHL: L. K. Altman, “Lymphomas Are on the Rise in the U.S., and No One Knows Why,” New York Times, 24 May 1994, C-3; P. Hartge et al., “Hodgkin’s and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas,” in R. Doll et al. (eds.), Trends in Cancer Incidence and Mortality, Cancer Surveys 19/20 (Plainview, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1994).
54 occupations associated with NHL: Hartge et al., “Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.”
55 chemicals associated with NHL: Ibid.
55 NHL and PCBs: Exposures to chlordane, the now-banned termite pesticide, also show connections to lymphoma risk. J. S. Colt et al., “Organochlorine Exposure, Immune Gene Variation, and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” Blood 113 (2008): 1899-1905; L. S. Engel et al., “Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention 16 (2007): 373-76; K. Hardell et al., “Concentrations of Organohalogen Compounds and Titres of Antibodies to Epstein-Barr Virus Antigens and the Risk for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” Oncology Reports 21 (2009): 1567-76; J. J. Spinelli et al., “Organochlorines and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” International Journal of Cancer 121 (2007): 2767-75.
55 NHL and pesticides: Hartge et al., “Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma”; S. H. Zahm and A. Blair, “Pesticides and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,” Cancer Research 52 (1992, S): 5485s-88s; S. H. Zahm, “The Role of Agricultural Pesticide Use in the Development of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in Women,” AEH 48 (1993): 253-58.
55 military history of phenoxy herbicides: D. E. Lilienfeld and M. A. Gallo, “2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, and 2,3,7,8-TCDD: An Overview,” Epidemiologic Reviews 11 (1989): 28-58.
56 trade names: S. A. Briggs, Basic Guide to Pesticides: Their Characteristics and Hazards (Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis, 1992).
56 evidence for a connection: Hartge et al., “Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma”; Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994); D. D. Weisenburger, “Epidemiology of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: Recent Findings Regarding an Emerging Epidemic,” Annals of Oncology 1 (1994, S-5): s19-s24; Zahm and Blair, “Pesticides and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma”; S. Zahm et al., “A Case-Control Study of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and the Herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid (2,4-D) in Eastern Nebraska,” Epidemiology 1 (1990): 349-56; L. Hardell et al., “Malignant Lymphoma and Exposure to Chemicals, Especially Organic Solvents, Chlorophenols and Phenoxy Acids: A Case-Control Study,” British Journal of Cancer 43 (1981): 169-76.
56 lymphoma in golf course superintendents: B. C. Kross et al., “Proportionate Mortality Study of Golf Course Superintendents,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 29 (1996): 501-06.
56 lymphoma in dogs: H. M. Hayes et al., “Case-Control Study of Canine Malignant Lymphoma: Positive Association with Dog Owner’s Use of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Herbicides,” JNCI 83 (1991): 1226-31.
56 residential herbicide use: P. Hartge et al., “Residential Herbicide Use and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 14 (2005): 934-37.
56 2006 review of NHL: Hartge et al., “Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.”
57 leukemia in southeastern Massachusetts: M. S. Morris and R. S. Knorr, “Adult Leukemia and Proximity-Based Surrogates for Exposure to Pilgrim Plant’s Nuclear Emissions,” AEH 51 (1996): 266-74; M. S. Morris and R. S. Knorr, Southeastern Massachusetts Health Study Final Report: Investigation of Leukemia Incidence in 22 Massachusetts Communities, 1978-86 (Boston: MDPH, 1990); L. Tye, “Screening Sought in Cancer Link to Pilgrim,” Boston Globe, 19 Sept. 1989, 21, 25; R. W. Clapp et al., “Leukemia Near Massachusetts Nuclear Power Plant,” Lancet 2 (8571) 1987: 1324-25.
57 quote about leukemia risk: Morris and Knorr, Southeastern Massachusetts , 2.

four: space

59 history and environmental problems of Normandale: T. L. Aldous, “Community Dreads Threat of Disease,” PDT, 14 Sept. 1991, A-2, A-12.
60 global patterns of cancer incidence: IARC, World Cancer Report, 2008 (Lyon, France: IARC, WHO, 2009). For European data on cancer’s geography, consult the Eurostat database. Eurostat has been collecting and disseminating health data on EU member states since 1994. Fact sheets on different cancers in different EU countries are provided by the European Cancer Observatory.
61 worst-polluted places: D. Biello, “World’s Most Polluted Places,” Scientific American, Sept. 13, 2007; Blacksmith Institute, The World’s Worst Polluted Places: The Top Ten (of the Dirty Thirty) (New York: Blacksmith Institute, 2007).
61 China and coal: The World Bank and State Environmental Protection Administration, P.R. China, Cost of Pollution in China: Economic Estimates of Physical Damages (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007).
61 reporting by Steven Ribert: S. Ribert, “Horrors of Hongwei,” The Standard (Hong Kong), 16 June 2007.
62 cancer villages in China: J. Watts, China’s Environmental Health Challenges,” Lancet 372 (2008): 1451-52; J. F. Tremblay, “China’s Cancer Villages,” Chemical and Engineering News 85 (2007): 18-21.
62 cancer incidence trend in China: IARC, World Cancer Report, 2008 (Lyon, France: IARC, WHO, 2009).
62 migrant studies: These are reviewed in J. Gray et al., “State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment,” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 15 (2009): 43-78. See also E. M. John et al., “Migration History, Acculturation, and Breast Cancer Risk in Hispanic Women,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 14 (2005): 2905-13; E. V. Kliewar and K. R. Smith, “Breast Cancer Mortality Among Immigrants in Australia and Canada,” JNCI 87 (1995): 1154-61; N. Angier, “Woman’s Move Can Change Her Risk of Breast Cancer,” New York Times, 2 Aug. 1995, A-17; H. Shimizu et al., “Cancers of the Prostate and Breast Among Japanese and White Immigrants in Los Angeles County,” British Journal of Cancer 63 (1991): 963-66; L. Tomatis (ed.), Cancer: Causes, Occurrence and Control (London: Oxford University Press, 1990); D. B. Thomas and M. R. Karagas, “Cancer in First and Second Generation Americans,” Cancer Research 47 (1987): 5771-76.
63 cancer in Normandale: Aldous, “Community Dreads Threat.”
63 quote from Normandale resident: Ibid.
64 geography of cancer: Interactive maps and graphs of cancer mortality in the United States are found on the NCI’s Web site: www.cancer.gov/atlasplus/index.html; L. W. Pickle et al., “The New United Sates Cancer Atlas,” Recent Results in Cancer Research 14 (1989): 196-207; C. S. Stokes and K. D. Brace, “Agricultural Chemical Use and Cancer Mortality in Selected Rural Counties in the U.S.A.,” Journal of Rural Studies 4 (1988): 239-47; B. A. Goldman, The Truth About Where You Live: An Atlas for Action on Toxins and Mortality (New York: Random House, 1991); S. S. Devesa, “Recent Cancer Patterns Among Men and Women in the United States: Clues for Occupational Research,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 36 (1994): 832-41; and S. H. Zahm et al., “Pesticides and Multiple Myeloma in Men and Women in Nebraska,” in H. H. McDuffie et al. (eds.), Supplement to Agricultural Health and Safety Workplace, Environment, Sustainability (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada: University of Saskatchewan Press, 1995); J. L. Kelsey and P. L. Horn-Ross, “Breast Cancer: Magnitude of the Problem and Descriptive Epidemiology,” Epidemiologic Reviews 15 (1993): 7-16; Pickle, “New United States.”
65 maps of childhood cancers in the United Kingdom: E. G. Knox and E. A. Gilman, “Hazard Proximity of Childhood Cancers in Great Britain from 1953-80,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 51 (1997): 151-59.
65 workplace carcinogens: P. R. Infante, “Cancer and Blue-Collar Workers: Who Cares?” New Solutions (Winter 1995): 52-57; J. Randal, “Occupation as a Carcinogen: Federal Researcher Suggests Change in Cancer Registries,” JNCI 86 (1994): 1748-50; P. Landrigan, “Cancer Research in the Workplace,” presentation at the President’s Cancer Panel meeting, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 22 Sept. 1993.
65 high cancer rates in farmers: S. H. Zahm and A. Blair, “Cancer Among Migrant and Seasonal Farmers,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 24 (1993): 753-66; A. Blair et al., “Clues to Cancer Etiology from Studies of Farmers,” Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health 18 (1992): 209-15; D. L. Davis et al., “Agricultural Exposures and Cancer Trends in Developed Countries,” EHP 100 (1992): 39-44. Excesses in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and brain cancer did not always attain statistical significance.
66 Agricultural Health Study: All published papers are available on the AHS Web site: http://aghealth.nci.nih.gov/. Studies cited here are M. C. R. Alavanja et al., “Cancer Incidence in the Agricultural Health Study,” Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environment 31 (2005; S1): 39-45; G. Andreotti et al., “Agricultural Pesticide Use and Pancreatic Cancer Risk in the Agricultural Health Study Cohort,” International Journal of Cancer 124 (2009): 2495-2500; A. Blair et al., “Mortality Among Participants in the Agricultural Health Study,” Annals of Epidemiology 15 (2005): 279-85; B. D. Curwin et al., “Urinary Pesticide Concentrations Among Children, Mothers and Fathers Living in Farm and Non-Farm Households in Iowa,” Annals of Occupational Hygiene 51 (2007): 53-65; L. S. Engel et al., “Pesticide Use and Breast Cancer Risk Among Farmers’ Wives in the Agricultural Health Study,” AJE 161 (2005): 121-135; S. L. Farr et al., “Pesticide Exposure and Timing of Menopause,” AJE 163 (2006): 731-42; S. L. Farr et al., Pesticide Use and Menstrual Cycle Characteristics Among Premenopausal Women in the Agricultural Health Study,” AJE 160 (2004): 1194- 1204; K. B. Flower et al., “Cancer Risk and Parental Pesticide Application in Children of Agricultural Health Study Participants,” EHP 112 (2004): 631-35; J. A. Rusiecki et al., “Cancer Incidence Among Pesticide Applicators Exposed to Permethrin in the Agricultural Health Study,” EHP 117 (2009): 581-86.
67 other occupations with high cancer rates: R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005- 2007,” Reviews on Environmental Health 23 (2008): 1-37; R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Re-visited,” Journal of Public Health Policy 27 (2006): 61-76; E. L. Hall and K. D. Rosenman, “Cancer by Industry: Analysis of a Population-Based Cancer Registry with an Emphasis on Blue-Collar Workers,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 19 (1991): 145-59; J. M. Stellman, “Where Women Work and the Hazards They May Face on the Job,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 36 (1994): 814-25.
67 cancer in firefighters: G. K. LeMasters et al., “Cancer Risk Among Firefighters: A Review and Meta-analysis of 32 Studies, ” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 48 (2006): 1189-1202. Firefighters’ risk of cancer increases with duration of employment. Those with long service also have elevated rates of leukemia as well as cancers of the colon, brain, and kidney. S. Youakim, “Risk of Cancer Among Firefighters: A Quantitative Review of Selected Malignancies,” Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health 61 (2006): 223-31; G. Tornling et al., “Mortality and Cancer Incidence in Stockholm Firefighters,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 25 (1994): 219-28.
67 cancers in Finnish women workers: M. L. Lindbohm et al., “Risk of Liver Cancer and Exposure to Organic Solvents and Gasoline Vapors Among Finnish Workers,” International Journal of Cancer 124 (2009): 2954-59; J. Lohl et al., “Occupational Exposures to Solvents and Gasoline and Risks of Cancers in the Urinary Tract Among Finnish Workers,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 51 (2008): 668-72.
67 Taiwanese electronics workers with breast cancer: T. I. Sung et al., “Increased Standardized Incidence Ratio of Breast Cancer in Female Electronics Workers,” BMC Public Health 7 (2007): 102.
67 concerns about nail salons: These concerns have been taken up by the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative.
67 professional jobs with high cancer rates: Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence,” 1-37; Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer Revisited,” 61-76; E. A. Holly, “Intraocular Melanoma Linked to Occupations and Chemical Exposure,” Epidemiology 7 (1996): 55-61; B. B. Arnetz et al., “Mortality Among Petrochemical Science and Engineering Employees,” AEH 46 (1991): 237-48.
67 cancer in dentists, dental assistants, and chemotherapy nurses: L. M. Pottern et al., “Occupational Cancer Among Women: A Conference Overview,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 36 (1994): 809-13.
67 children’s cancers related to parental exposures: L. M. O’Leary et al., “Parental Exposures and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Review,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 20 (1991): 17-35. The gender imbalance in certain cancers also points to the importance of occupational exposures. W. J. Nicholson and D. L. Davis, “Analysis of Changes in the Ratios of Male-to-Female Cancer Mortality: A Hypothesis-Generating Exercise,” in D. L. Davis and D. Hoel (eds.), Trends in Cancer Mortality in Industrial Countries (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1990).
68 two health studies in Normandale: IDPH, “Incidence of Cancer in Pekin (Tazewell County), Illinois” (Springfield, IL: IDPH, 1991); G. Poquette, “Normandale Cancer Study” (memorandum) (Tremont, IL: Tazewell County Health Department, 5 Mar. 1992).
68 headline: T. L. Aldous, “Study: Area Cancer Rates Normal,” PDT, 19 Dec. 1991, A-2, A-12.
69 Superfund: Congress enacted legislation on hazardous waste sites in 1980 when it passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), which is generally known as Superfund. The goals of the bill are to inventory hazardous waste sites, to establish priorities for cleanup based on relative danger, to contain dangerous releases, and ultimately to remediate through elimination of unsafe sites. The nomenclature surrounding hazardous waste is confusing. Waste sites appearing on the National Priorities List are called Superfund sites, whereas waste sites inventoried under the program but not on the NPL are commonly referred to as CERCLA sites. The trust fund to clean up NPL sites was created through a corporate “polluter pays” tax, which expired in 1995. Superfund went bankrupt in 2003. For an outstanding history of the program and to locate Superfund sites in your community, see the Center for Public Integrity’s 2007 online project, Wasting Away: Superfund’s Toxic Legacy: http://projects.publicintegrity.org/Superfund/. See also the searchable Superfund database on the EPA’s Web site, www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/index.htm. The Web-based public art project Superfund365, launched by digital artist Brooke Singer, is based on travels to 365 different Superfund sites across the nation. www.superfund365.org
69 children living near Superfund sites: ATSDR, Children Living Near Hazardous Waste Sites (Atlanta: USDHHS, ATSDR, 2003).
69 750 million tons: J. Griffith and W. B. Riggan, “Cancer Mortality in U.S. Counties with Hazardous Waste Sites and Ground Water Pollution,” AEH 44 (1989): 69-74.
69 cancer in New Jersey: G. R. Najem et al., “Female Reproductive Organs and Breast Cancer Mortality in New Jersey Counties and the Relationship with Certain Environmental Variables,” Preventive Medicine 14 (1985): 620-35; G. R. Najem et al., “Clusters of Cancer Mortality in New Jersey Municipalities, with Special Reference to Chemical Toxic Waste Disposal Sites and Per Capita Income,” International Journal of Epidemiology 14 (1985): 528-37; G. R. Najem et al., “Gastrointestinal Cancer Mortality in New Jersey Counties and the Relationship to Environmental Variables,” International Journal of Epidemiology 12 (1983): 276-89.
70 cancer in counties with groundwater contamination: Griffith and Riggan, “Cancer Mortality in U.S. Counties.” See also R. Hoover and J. F. Fraumeni Jr., “Cancer Mortality in U.S. Counties with Chemical Industries,” Environmental Research 9 (1975): 196-207. Bladder cancer is linked to living near toxic waste sites. L. J. Gensburg, “Cancer Incidence among Former Love Canal Residents,” EHP 117 (2009): 1265-71.
70 Ecological fallacy: can also refer to the mistake of applying group attributes to individuals. For example, in a famous study of suicide and religion in nineteenth-century Europe, researchers found that suicide rates rose as the proportion of Protestants living in a given region increased. The obvious conclusion—that Protestants are more likely to kill themselves than Catholics—does not necessarily follow, however. It is entirely possible that all the suicides in Protestant-dominated areas had occurred among Catholics: perhaps people become increasingly vulnerable to suicide as they become an increasingly isolated minority. This latter explanation turned out not to be the case, but an ecological study of groups could not distinguish between these two mutually exclusive conclusions. For a lively discussion of this study, see J. Esteve et al., Descriptive Epidemiology: Statistical Methods in Cancer Research, vol. 4 (Lyon, France: IARC, Scientific Pub. No. 128, 1994), 150-54.
72 For an introduction to epidemiological methods and, from a variety of viewpoints, their limitations, see K. J. Rothman and C. Poole, “Causation and Causal Inference,” in D. Schottenfeld and J. F. Fraumeni Jr. (eds.), Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, 2nd ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1996); N. Krieger, “Epidemiology and the Web of Causation: Has Anyone Seen the Spider?” Social Science and Medicine 39 (1994): 887-903; D. Trichopoulos and E. Petridou, “Epidemiologic Studies and Cancer Etiology in Humans,” Medicine, Exercise, Nutrition, and Health 3 (1994): 206-25; S. Wing, “Limits of Epidemiology,” Medicine and Global Survival 1 (1994): 74-86; M. S. Legator and S. F. Strawn (eds.), Chemical Alert! Community Action Handbook (Austin: Texas University Press, 1993).
72 Mary Wolff’s study: M. S. Wolff et al., “Blood Levels of Organochlorine Residues and Risk of Breast Cancer,” JNCI 85 (1993): 648-52.
73 the vexations of cluster studies: See the supplemental issue of the AJE 132 (1990), which contains the proceedings of the National Conference on Clustering of Health Events, held in Atlanta, 16-17 Feb. 1989. See also G. Taubes, “Epidemiology Faces Its Limits,” Science 269 (1995): 164-69; Legator and Strawn, Chemical Alert; CDC, “Guidelines for Investigating Clusters of Health Events,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 39/RR-11 (1990): 1-23; and K. J. Rothman, “Clustering of Disease,” AJPH 77 (1987): 13-15.
74 overtly dismissive: For an example, M. J. Thun and T. Sinks, “Understanding Cancer Clusters,” CA 54 (2004): 273-80. See also J. D. Besley et al., “Local Newspaper Coverage of Health Authority Fairness During Cancer Cluster Investigations,” Science Communication 29 (2008): 498-21.
74 Limited power: Power and significance can be described in several ways. One of the most commonly used measures in epidemiology is the confidence interval—a computed range with a given probability (95 percent) that the true value of the variable lies within it. Further explanations of epidemiological statistics for laypersons can be found in M. J. Scott and B. L. Harper, “Lots of Information: What to Do with It: Statistics for Nonstatisticians,” in Legator and Strawn, Chemical Alert.
74 eight to twenty times higher: R. R. Neutra, “Counterpoint from a Cluster Buster,” AJE 132 (1990): 1-8.
75 TCE: ATSDR, Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Trichloroethylene Toxicity (Atlanta: ATSDR, 1992).
75 quote by nurse: D. Robinson, “Letter in Response to ‘Cancer Clusters: Findings vs Feelings,’” Medscape General Medicine 4 (2002): 4.
76 the Eleven Blue Men: B. Roueche, Eleven Blue Men and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954). The significance of this case study for cancer clusters is discussed by Neutra, “Counterpoint.”
77 GIS and exposure assessment: B. S. Kingsley et al., “An Update on Cancer Cluster Activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” EHP 115 (2008): 165-71.
77 statistics to test for randomness: M. Kulldorff et al., “Cancer Map Patterns: Are They Random or Not?” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2006; F. Wang, “Spatial Clusters of Cancers in Illinois, 1986- 2000,” Journal of Medical Systems 28 (2004): 237-56.
77 limits to GIS: D. C. Wheeler, “A Comparison of Spatial Clustering and Cluster Detection Techniques for Childhood Leukemia Incidence in Ohio, 1996-2003,” International Journal of Health Geographics 6 (2007): 13.
77 problems with ZIP codes: T. H. Grubesic and T. C. Matisziw, “On the Use of ZIP Code and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) for the Spatial Analysis of Epidemiological Data,” International Journal of Health Geographics 5 (2006): 58.
77 the biggest hindrance is ignorance: Pew Environmental Health Commission, Environmental Health Project Team, America’s Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 2000); N. S. Juzych et al., “Adequacy of State Capacity to Address Noncommunicable Disease Clusters in the Era of Environmental Health Tracking, American Journal of Public Health 97 (2007, S-1): S163-69.
78 cluster studies: A. M. Nieder et al., “Bladder Cancer Clusters in Florida: Identifying Populations at Risk,” Journal of Urology 182 (2009): 46-51; J. Dahlgren et al., “Cluster of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in Residents Near a Non-Operational Petroleum Refinery,” Toxicology and Industrial Health 24 (2008): 683-92; R. W. Clapp and K. Hoffman, “Cancer Mortality in IBM Endicott Plant Workers, 1969-2001: An Update on a NY Production Plant,” Environmental Health 7 (2008):13; M. Gilbert, “Cancer Cluster is Confirmed in Clyde,” Toledo Blade, 30 May 2009.
79 two excesses attained statistical significance: This reanalysis was conducted by Richard Clapp, an epidemiologist at Boston University and the former director of the Massachusetts Cancer Registry.
79 breast cancer and chemical plants on Long Island: E. L. Lewis-Michl et al., “Breast Cancer Risk and Residence Near Industry or Traffic in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Long Island, New York,” AEH 51 (1996): 255-65; J. Melius et al., “Residence Near Industries and High Traffic Areas and the Risk of Breast Cancer on Long Island” (Albany: New York State Dept. of Health, 1994).
79 earlier Long Island study: New York State Department of Health, Department of Community and Preventative Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Nassau County Department of Health, and Suffolk County Department of Health Services, The Long Island Breast Cancer Study, Reports 1-3 (1988-1990).
79 CDC: G. Kolata, “Long Island Breast Cancer Called Explainable by U.S.,” New York Times, 19 Dec. 1992, A-9.
80 Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project: M. D. Gammon et al., “Environmental Toxins and Breast Cancer on Long Island: II. Organo - chlorine Compound Levels in Blood,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 11 (2002): 686-97.
80 breast cancer in Long Island women and pesticide use: S. L. Teitelbaum et al., “Reported Residential Pesticide Use and Breast Cancer Risk on Long Island, New York,” AJE 165 (2007): 643-51.
81 breast cancer in Long Island women with signs of DNA damage: These are known as DNA adducts. M. D. Gammon et al., “Environmental Toxins and Breast Cancer on Long Island: I. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon DNA Adducts,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 11 (2002): 677-85; J. G. Brody and R. A. Rudell, “Environmental Pollutants and Breast Cancer: The Evidence from Animal and Human Studies,” Breast Diseases: A Year Book Quarterly 19 (2008): 17-19.
81 history of the Upper Cape: S. Rolbein, The Enemy Within: The Struggle to Clean Up Cape Cod’s Military Superfund Site (Orleans, MA: Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod, 1995).
81 cancer rates in the Upper Cape: MDPH, Cancer Incidence in Massachusetts, 1982-90 (Boston: MDPH, 1993).
81 1991 study: A. Aschengrau and D. M. Ozonoff, Upper Cape Cancer Incidence Study. Final Report (Boston: Mass. Depts. of Public Health and Environmental Protection, 1991).
82 Silent Spring Institute: J. G. Brody et al., “Mapping Out a Search for Environmental Causes of Breast Cancer,” Public Health Reports 111 (1996): 495-507; “Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study Overview” (Newton, MA: Silent Spring Institute, July 12, 1995).
82 Cape Cod studies: V. Viera et al., “Spatial Analysis of Lung, Colorectal, and Breast Cancer on Cape Cod: An Application of Generalized Additive Models to Case-Control Data,” Environmental Health 4 (2005): 11; W. McKelvey et al., “Association between Residence on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Breast Cancer,” Annals of Epidemiology 14 (2004): 89-94; L. D. Standley et al., “Wastewater-Contaminated Groundwater as a Source of Endogenous Hormones and Pharmaceuticals to Surface Water Ecosystems,” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 27 (2008): 2457-68; J. Brody et al., “Breast Cancer Risk and Drinking Water Contaminated by Wastewater: A Case-Control Study,” Environmental Health 5 (2006): 28.
83 quote from 1991 study: Aschengrau and Ozonoff, Upper Cape, ix.
83 Cape Cod water pipes: A. Aschengrau et al., “Cancer Risk and Tetrachloroethylene-Contaminated Drinking Water in Massachusetts,” AEH 48 (1993): 284-92; T. Webster and H. S. Brown, “Exposure to Tetrachloroethylene via Contaminated Drinking Water Pipes in Massachusetts: A Predictive Model,” AEH 48 (1993): 293-97.
84 dry cleaners: N. S. Weiss, “Cancer in Relation to Occupational Exposure to Perchloroethylene,” Cancer Causes and Control 6 (1995): 257-66.
84 1983 study: C. D. Larsen et al., “Tetrachloroethylene Leached from Lined Asbestos-Cement Pipe into Drinking Water,” Journal of the American Water Works Association 75 (1983): 184-88.
85 quote from 1993 study: Aschengrau, “Tetrachloroethylene-Contaminated,” 291.
85 Normandale: T. L. Aldous, “State to Probe Cancer in Normandale,” PDT, 4 Oct. 1991, A-2; T. L. Aldous, “Study: No Cancer Cluster,” PDT, 6 Mar. 1992, A-1, A-12.
86 newspaper investigation of death certificates: Ibid.
87 quote from Normandale widower: Aldous, “Area Cancer Rates Normal.”

five: war

90 World War II in Silent Spring: R. Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962). (See especially Chapters 2 and 3.)
91 all life was caught in the crossfire: Ibid., 8.
91 trends in chemical production: Graphs from International Trade Commission, Washington, DC.; R. C. Thompson et al., “Our Plastic Age,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (2009): 1973-76.
92 petroleum as the source for most synthetic chemicals: About 90 percent of synthetic chemicals now in use are petrochemicals. E. Grossman, Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009).
94 life cycle of PVC: S. Steingraber, “The Pirates of Illiopolis—Why Your Kitchen Floor May Pose a Threat to National Security,” Orion, May/June 2005, 16-27.
94 collect in tissues high in fat: J. D. Sherman, Chemical Exposure and Disease: Diagnostic and Investigative Techniques (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Scientific Publishing, 1994); L. S. Welch, “Organic Solvents,” in M. Paul (ed.), Occupational and Environmental Reproductive Hazards: A Guide for Clinicians (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1993).
95 chloroform: ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Chloroform (Atlanta: USDHHS, ATSDR, 1997).
95 DDT in World War II: E. P. Russell III, “‘Speaking of Annihilation’: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945,” Journal of American History 82 (1996): 1505-29; T. R. Dunlap, DT: Scientists, Citizens, Public Policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 61-62; J. Whorton, Before Silent Spring: Pesticides and Public Health in Pre-DDT America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 248-55.
96 Hitler’s head: This ad appeared in the trade magazine Soap and Sanitary Chemicals in April 1944 and is reprinted in Russell, “‘Speaking of Annihilation.’”
96 phenoxy herbicides: D. E. Lilienfeld and M. A. Gallo, “2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, and 2,3,7,8-TCDD: An Overview,” Epidemiologic Reviews 11 (1989): 28-58.
96 parathion and other organophosphates: Sherman, Chemical Exposure and Disease, 24; H. W. Chambers, “Organophosphorous Compounds: An Overview,” in J. E. Chambers and P. E. Levi (eds.), Organophosphates: Chemistry, Fate, and Effects (San Diego: Academic Press, 1992).
96 mechanisms of action: L. J. Fuortes et al., “Cholinesterase-Inhibiting Insecticide Toxicity,” American Family Physician 47 (1993): 1613-20; F. Matsumura, Toxicology of Insecticides, 2nd ed. (New York: Plenum, 1985), 111-202.
96 organophosphates as German nerve gas: Sherman, Chemical Exposure and Disease, 161; J. Borkin, The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 722-23.
96 phenoxy herbicides in war: P. F. Cecil, Herbicidal Warfare: The Ranch Hand Project in Vietnam (New York: Praeger, 1986); A. Ihde, The Development of Modern Chemistry (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 722-23.
97 by 1960, 2,4-D accounted for half: Lilienfeld and Gallo, “2,4-D, 2,4,5-T.”
97 For more on the rise of herbicide use in the United States, see NRC, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1993), 15.
97 graphs of pesticide use: W. J. Hayes Jr. and E. R. Laws (eds.), Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology, vol.1, General Principles (New York: Academic Press, 1991), 22.
97 capturing 90 percent of the market: NRC, Pesticides in the Diets, 15.
97 trends in pesticide use: About half of pesticides used in U.S. agriculture are herbicides. Insecticides and fungicides and others make up the remainder. Some indirect evidence suggests that herbicide use has peaked and insecticide use is declining, but exact figures are not available because, at this writing, pesticide use data have not been released by the EPA for eight years. S. K. Ritter, “Pinpointing Trends in Pesticide Use—Limited Data Indicate that Pesticide Use Has Dropped Since the 1970s,” Chemical and Engineering News 87 (2009).
97 household pesticide use: T. Kiely et al., Pesticides—Industry Sales and Usage, 2000 and 2001 Market Estimates (Washington, DC: U.S. EPA Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, 2004).
97 pesticides in carpet fibers: R. G. Lewis et al., “Evaluation of Methods for Monitoring the Potential Exposure of Small Children to Pesticides in the Residential Environment,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 26 (1994): 37-46; M. Moses et al., “Environmental Equity and Pesticide Exposure,” Toxicology and Industrial Health 9 (1993): 913-59.
97 HUD study of kitchen floors: D. M. Stout et al., “American Healthy Homes Survey: A National Study of Residential Pesticides Measured from Floor Wipes,” Environmental Science and Technology 43 (2009): 4294-4300.
98 childhood cancers and household pesticide use: C. Infante-Rivard and S. Weichenthal, “Pesticide and Childhood Cancer: An Update of Zahm and Ward’s 1998 Review,” Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B 10 (2007): 81-99; X. Ma et al., “Critical Windows of Exposure to Household Pesticides and Risk of Childhood Leukemia,” EHP 110 (2002): 955-60; C. Metayer and P. A. Buffler, “Residential Exposures to Pesticides and Childhood Leukemia,” Radiation Protection Dosimetry 132 (2008): 212-19; A. L. Rosso et al., “A Case-Control Study of Childhood Brain Tumors and Fathers’ Hobbies: A Children’s Oncology Group Study,” Cancer Causes and Control 19 (2008): 1201-7; J. Rudant et al., “Household Exposure to Pesticides and Risk of Hematopoietic Malignancies: The ESCALE Study (SFCE),” EHP 115 (2007): 1787-93; O. P. Soldin et al., “Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Exposure to Pesticides,” Therapeutic Drug Monitoring 32 (2009): 495-501.
98 rise of petrochemicals: R. F. Sawyer, “Trends in Auto Emissions and Gasoline Composition,” EHP 101 (1993, S-6): 5-12; Ihde, Modern Chemistry.
99 Germany’s artificial fertilizer: Ihde, Modern Chemistry, 680-81.
99 chlorine gas and chlorinated solvents: International Programme on Chemical Safety, WHO, “Chlorine and Hydrogen Chloride,” Environmental Health Criteria 21 (1982): 54-60; Dr. Edmund Russell III, personal communication.
99 after the war ended: A. Thackary et al., Chemistry in America, 1876- 1976 (Dordecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1985).
99 by the 1930s: Ihde, Modern Chemistry.
99 all-out assaults of World War II: Ibid.
99 fear of national leaders: Dr. Edmund Russell III, personal communication.
99 quote by Aaron Ihde: Ihde, Modern Chemistry, 674.
99 transformation from a carbohydrate-based economy to a petrochemical-based one: D. Morris and I. Ahmed, The Carbohydrate Economy: Making Chemicals and Industrial Materials from Plant Matter (Washington, DC: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1992). For an entertaining history of plant-derived plastics and their replacement by petrochemical plastics, see S. Fenichell, Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century (New York: Harper-Business, 1996).
100 plastics consume 8 percent of world oil: 4 percent is used for feedstock and the other 4 percent to provide energy for their manufacture. About one-third of the annual production of plastic is for disposable packaging. Plastics account for 10 percent by weight of the municipal waste stream. Annual growth of plastic production is about 9 percent. R. C. Thompson et al., “Our Plastic Age,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 364 (2009): 1973-76; R. C. Thompson et al., “Plastics, the Environment, and Human Health: Current Consensus and Future Trends,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 364 (2009): 2153-66.
100 formaldehyde: L. E. Beane Freeman et al., “Mortality from Lymphohematopoietic Malignancies Among Workers in Formaldehyde Industries: The National Cancer Institute Cohort,” JNCI, 101 (2009): 751-61; NCI, “Fact Sheet: Formaldehyde and Cancer Risk,” May 2009; NTP, “Formaldehyde,” Report on Carcinogens, 11th ed. (USDHHS, Public Health Service, 2005).
100 formaldehyde in foam insulation: IDPH, “Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation” (pamphlet) (Springfield, IL: IDPH, 1992).
100 formaldehyde as an indoor air pollutant: M. C. Marbury and R. A. Krieger, “Formaldehyde,” in J. M. Samet and J. D. Spengler (eds.), Indoor Air Pollution: A Health Perspective (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).
100 headlines about formaldehyde in trailers: For example, M. Engel, “Fuming over Formaldehyde,” Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2008.
100 embalmers: “Formaldehyde,” NTP, Report on Carcinogens, 11th ed. (USDHHS, Public Health Service, 2005).
101 soybeans as a formaldehyde predecessor: Morris and Ahmed, Carbohydrate Economy.
101 other oil-based plants: Ibid.
101 synthetic cutting fluids in machine shops: Y. T. Fan, “N-Nitrosodiethanolamine in Synthetic Cutting Fluids: A Part-per-Hundred Impurity,” Science 196 (1977): 70-71.
101 contaminants in cutting fluids: NTP, Seventh Annual Report, 282.
101 quote from cutting-fluid study: Fan, “N-Nitrosodiethanolamine,” 71.
101 fall 2009 announcement: K. Zito, “EPA Wants More Oversight on Chemicals,” San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Sept. 2009.
101 flaws of TSCA: My analysis is based on the following sources: A. Daemmrich, “Risk Frameworks and Biomonitoring: Distributed Regulation of Synthetic Chemicals in Humans,” Environmental History 13 (2008): 684-95; M. Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007); U.S. GAO, Chemical Regulation: Options Exist to Improve EPA’s Ability to Assess Health Risks and Manage Its Chemical Review Program (U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-05-458, June 2005); M. P. Wilson et al., Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation (University of California, California Policy Research Center, 2006); M. P. Wilson and M. R. Schwartzman, Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Sustainable California (Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Jan. 2008).
103 FFDCA and FIFRA: For a thoughtful discussion of the loopholes and shortcomings of both of these laws, see J. Wargo, Our Children’s Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996); and GAO, Food Safety: Changes Needed to Minimize Unsafe Chemicals in Food, Report to the Chairman, Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee, Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, GAP/RCED-94-192, Sept. 1994.
103 issuing everyone a driver’s license: D. Ozonoff, “Taking the Handle off the Chlorine Pump” (presentation at the public health forum “Environmental and Occupational Health Problems Posed by Chlorinated Organic Chemicals,” Boston University School of Public Health, 5 Oct. 1993).
103 history of right-to-know laws: The EPCRA legislation was a response to citizen activism at the state and local levels, as well as a direct reaction to the 1984 chemical disaster in Bhopal, India, which occurred when a feedstock for pesticide manufacture escaped from a Union Carbide plant and killed many thousands of sleeping residents in their homes. Emergency medical efforts were frustrated by the fact that no one knew what the chemical was. A similar chemical release occurred at a sister plant in West Virginia. Shortly thereafter, Congress voted EPCRA into law. Key parts of this legislation passed by a one-vote margin. B. A. Goldman, “Is TRI Useful in the Environmental Justice Movement?” (presentation to the Toxics Release Inventory Data Use Conference, Boston, 6 Dec. 1994), reprinted in EPA Proceedings: Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Data Use Conference, Building TRI and Pollution Prevention Partnerships, EPA 749-R-95-001 (Washington, DC: EPA, 1995), 133-37; and Paul Orum, Working Group on Community-Right-to-Know, personal communication.
104 description of TRI: Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Taking Stock: 2005 North American Pollutant Releases and Transfers (Montreal: CEC, 2009).
104 disappearance of right-to-know data under homeland security: B. Allen, “Environment, Health, and Missing Information,” Environmental History 13 (2008): 659-66.
104 falling number of facilities reporting: Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Taking Stock.
104 reversal of changes: OMB Watch, “The Toxics Release Inventory Is Back,” press release, 24 Mar. 2009.
104 phantom reductions: Working Group on Community Right-to-Know, “New Toxics Data Show Little Progress in Source Reduction,” press release, Washington, DC, 27 Mar. 1995.
105 declines in releases not tethered to decline in production: Inform, Inc., Toxics Watch 1995 (New York: Inform, Inc., 1995).
105 impact of the TRI report: J. H. Cushman, “Efficient Pollution Rule under Attack,” New York Times, 28 June 1995, A-16; K. Schneider, “For Communities, Knowledge of Polluters Is Power,” New York Times, 24 Mar. 1991, A-5.
105 quotes from chemical industry representatives: Reprinted in Working Notes on Community-Right-to-Know (Washington, DC: Working Group on Community Right-to-Know, May-June 1995), 3.
105 most recent TRI figures: Carcinogens are as defined by OSHA. TRI Explorer, “Releases—Chemical Report for Release Year 2007” (EPA, 2009). Available at www.epa.gov/triexplorer/chemical.htm.
106 data for the whole continent: Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Taking Stock: 2005 North American Pollutant Releases and Transfers (Montreal: CEC, 2009).
106 hazardous waste landfill in Peoria: T. Bibo, “Peoria County Climbs Toxic Rankings,” PJS, 26 April 2009; Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Taking Stock.
108 hydrologist’s description: L. Hoburg et al., Groundwater in the Peoria Region, Cooperative Research Bulletin 39 (Urbana, IL: ISGWS, 1950), 53.
108 history of Pekin: Pekin, Illinois, Sesquicentennial (1824-1974): A History (Pekin, IL: Pekin Chamber of Commerce, 1974).
108 one of Pekin’s distilleries: Midwest Grain Products, 1994 Annual Report.
109 “Cats” in the war: P. A. Letourneau (ed.), Caterpillar Military Tractors, vol.1. (Minneapolis: Iconografix, 1994).
109 sugar-beet fields and starch explosion: Pekin, Illinois, Sesquicentennial , 68.
109 TRI releases from Aventine: Carcinogens are as defined by OSHA. TRI Explorer, “Releases—Chemical Report for Release Year 2007” (EPA, 2009). Available at www.epa.gov/triexplorer/chemical.htm.
109 pollution from Powerton: “Pekin Edison Plant Named Worst Pollutor,” Bloomington Daily Pantagraph, 10 Aug. 1974; J. Simpson, “Conservationist Blasts Pekin Energy Plant,” Bloomington Daily Pantagraph, 30 July 1971.
110 Keystone: E. Hopkins, “Keystone Plans Costly Cleanup,” PJS, 3 July 1993, A-1; E. Hopkins, “Region Awash in Toxic Chemicals: Study,” PJS, 25 July 1993, A-2.
111 quote from toxicologist and newspaper’s conclusion: E. Hopkins, “Emissions List Ranks Region 13th,” PJS, 19 Mar. 1995, A-1, A-22.
111 statistics on toxic emissions in the Pekin-Peoria: From TRI. See also Hopkins, “Region Awash.”
111 Captan: EPA, Suspended, Cancelled, and Restricted Pesticides, 20T- 1002 (Washington, DC: EPA, 1990).
111 documents: From the Right-to-Know Network’s copies of EPA’s TRI, PCS, and FINDS databases. These searches were conducted by Kathy Grandfield on 1 Jan. 1995. Additional data for Tazewell County were provided by Joe Goodner, TRI coordinator at the IEPA in Springfield.
112 Tazewell doubled the amount of hazardous waste: IEPA, Summary of Annual Reports on Hazardous Waste in Illinois for 1991 and 1992: Generation, Treatment, Storage, Disposal, and Recovery, IEPA/BOL/94-155 (Springfield, IL: IEPA, 1994), 61.
112 received four times more waste than it produced: IEPA, Illinois Non-hazardous Special Waste Annual Report for 1991 (Springfield, IL: IEPA, 1993), table K.
112 spill report: The report is part of the Tazewell County, Illinois, Area Report taken from the Right-to-Know Network’s copy of EPA’s ERNS database.
112 methyl chloride: ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Chloromethane (Atlanta: USDHHS, ATSDR, 1998).
113 estrogenicity of postwar chemicals: D. M. Klotz et al., “Identification of Environmental Chemicals with Estrogenic Activity Using a Combination of In Vitro Assays,” EHP 104 (1996): 1084-89; “Masculinity at Risk” (editorial), Nature 375 (1995): 522; R. M. Sharpe, “Another DDT Connection,” Nature 375 (1995): 538-39; “Male Reproductive Health and Environmental Oestrogens” (editorial), Lancet 345 (1995): 933- 35; Institute for Environment and Health, Environmental Oestrogens: Consequences to Human Health and Wildlife (Leicester, England: University of Leicester, 1995); J. Raloff, “Beyond Estrogens: Why Unmasking Hormone-Mimicking Pollutants Proves So Challenging,” Science News 148 (1995): 44-46.
113 DDE: W. R. Kelce et al., “Persistent DDT Metabolite p,p’-DDE is a Potent Androgen Receptor Antagonist,” Nature 375 (1995): 581-85.
113 testicular dysgenesis syndrome: N. E. Skakkebaek et al., “Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome: An Increasingly Common Developmental Disorder with Environmental Aspects,” Human Reproduction 16 (2001): 972-78; S. E. Talsness et al., “Components of Plastic: Experimental Studies in Animals and Relevance for Human Health,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 364 (2009): 2079-96.
114 dangers of phthalates to male development: National Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, “Expert Panel Review of Phthalates,” final report, National Toxicology Center, 2000.
114 baby study: S. H. Swan et al., “Decrease in Anogenital Distance Among Male Infants with Prenatal Phthalate Exposure,” EHP 113 (2005): 1056-61.
114 adult study: S. M. Duty, “The Relationship Between Environmental Exposures to Phthalates and DNA Damage in Human Sperm,” EHP 111 (2003): 1164-69.
114 phthalates in people: CDC, Second Annual Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (NCEH Pub. No. 02-0716, 2003); B. C. Blount et al., “Levels of Seven Urinary Phthalate Metabolites in a Human Reference Population,” EHP 108 (2000): 979-82.
114 description of organochlorines: J. Thornton, Pandora’s Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000).
115 PCBs reducing testosterone: A. Goncharov et al., “Lower Serum Testosterone Associated with Elevated Polychlorinated Biphenyl Concentrations in Native American Men,” EHP 117 (2009): 1454-60.
117 Canadian bans on cosmetic use of pesticides: Hudson, Quebec, became the first Canadian town to pass a bylaw disallowing nonagricultural pesticide use on public and private lands. In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Hudson’s law and, in 2005, dismissed a chemical industry challenge to Toronto’s bylaw. L. Armstrong et al., Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic (Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Press, 2007); CBC News, “Cancer Society Pushes for B.C. Pesticide Ban,” 5 April 2009; “Canadian Activists Win Pesticide Bylaws,” Global Pesticide Campaigner 14 (2004); N. Arya, “Pesticides and Human Health: Why Public Health Officials Should Support a Ban on NonEssential Residential Use,” Canadian Journal of Public Health 96 (2005): 89-92.
118 Ontario College of Physicians: K. L. Bassil et al., “Cancer Health Effects of Pesticides, Systematic Review,” Canadian Family Physician 53 (2007): 1704-11.
118 tourism magazine quote: G. Deacon, “Green Dream,” Toronto, 2009.
119 REACH: For example, H. Foth and A. Hayes, “Concept of REACH and Impact on Evaluation of Chemicals,” Human and Experimental Toxicology 27 (2008): 5-21. For a highly readable lay summary comparing and contrasting U.S. and E.U. toxics policies, see M. Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007).
119 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants: United Nations Environment Programme, “Ridding the World of POPs: A Guide to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,” April 2005. Available at http://chm.pops.int/. At this writing, the United States is not a party to this treaty. The citizen watchdog group for REACH is the International Chemical Secretariat in Sweden: www.chemsec.org. See also C. Hogue, “Persistent Organic Pollutants—Treaty Now Includes PFOS and Brominated Flame Retardants,” Chemical and Engineering News 87 (2009): 9.
120 number of cancer survivors: ACS, Cancer Facts and Figures—2008 (Atlanta: ACS, 2008).
120 green chemistry: P. Anastas and J. Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Grossman, Chasing Molecules; W. McDonough and M. Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (New York: North Point Press, 2002).
120 twelve basic principles of green chemistry: Elizabeth Grossman’s book Chasing Molecules describes each in clear detail and provides wonderful examples of green chemistry’s principles in action. Here they are as an unannotated list: prevent waste; design safer chemicals and products; design less hazardous chemical syntheses; use renewable feedstocks; use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents; avoid chemical derivatives; maximize atom efficiency; use safer solvents and reaction conditions; increase energy efficiency; design chemicals and products to degrade after use; analyze in real time to prevent pollution; minimize the potential for accidents (from P. Anastas and J. Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice [New York: Oxford University Press, 1998]).
121 soy-based adhesive wins award: Grossman, Chasing Molecules.
121 obstacles to the mainstreaming of green chemistry: Ibid.; Joseph Guth, personal communication; M. P. Wilson et al., Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation (University of California, California Policy Research Center, 2006); M. P. Wilson and M. R. Schwartzman, Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Sustainable California (Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Jan. 2008).

six: animals

124 additive effect of estrogen mimics: A. M. Soto et al., “The E-SCREEN Assay as a Tool to Identify Estrogens: An Update on Estrogenic Environmental Pollutants,” EHP 103 (1995, S-7): 113-22. See also A. M. Soto et al., “The Pesticides Endosulfan, Toxaphene, and Dieldrin Have Estrogenic Effects on Human Estrogen-Sensitive Cells,” EHP 102 (1994): 380-83.
124 endosulfan: ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Endosulfan (USDHHS, 2000); J. Sass et al., “We Call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Ban Endosulfan” (open letter to Stephen Johnson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 19 May 2008); US EPA Endosulfan Updated Risk Assessment, Federal Register 72 (16 Nov. 2007), docket ID HQ-OPP-2002-0262-0067; V. Wilson et al., “Endosulfan Elevates Testosterone Biotransformation and Clearance in CD-1 Mice,” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 148 (1998): 158-68.
125 endosulfan in California: T. M. Ole et al., Water Woes: An Analysis of Pesticide Concentrations in California Surface Water (San Francisco, CA: California Public Interest Research Group and the Pesticide Action Network Regional Center, 2000).
125 quote from ATSDR: ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Endosulfan.
125 immortality of cancer cell lines: G. B. Dermer, The Immortal Cell: Why Cancer Research Fails (Garden City Park, NY: Avery, 1994).
126 names of breast cancer cell lines: A. Leibovitz, “Cell Lines from Human Breast,” in R. J. Hay et al. (eds.), Atlas of Human Tumor Cell Lines (New York: Academic Press, 1994); Dr. Carlos Sonnenschein, personal communication.
126 origins of MCF-7: J. Ricci, “One Nun’s Living Legacy,” Detroit Free Press, 30 Sept. 1984, F-1, F-4; H. D. Soule, “A Human Cell Line from a Pleural Effusion Derived from a Breast Carcinoma,” JNCI 51 (1973): 1409-16.
127 description of rodent bioassays and work of IARC and NTP: S. M. Snedeker, “Perspectives on Approaches to Identify Cancer Hazards,” The Ribbon [newsletter of the Cornell University Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors] 13 (2008): 1-2.
128 estimates of carcinogens in commerce: V. A. Fung et al., “The Carcinogenesis Bioassay in Perspective: Application in Identifying Human Cancer Hazards,” EHP 103 (1995): 680-83.
128 scientists asking to move on: J. Huff et al., “The Limits of the Two-Year Bioassay Exposure Regimens for Identifying Chemical Carcinogens,” EHP 116 (2008): 1439-42.
129 calls for high-throughput assays: B. E. Erickson, “Next-Generation Risk Assessment—EPA’s Plan to Adopt In Vitro Methods for Toxicity Testing Gets Mixed Reviews from Stakeholders,” Chemical and Engineering News 87 (2009): 30-33; National Research Council, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007).
130 1938 dog studies: W. C. Hueper et al., “Experimental Production of Bladder Tumors in Dogs by Administration of beta-Naphthylamine,” Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology 20 (1938): 46-84. As a result of this and other studies, Wilhelm Hueper endured industry harassment, firings, and attempts to defund his research. The story of his dog experiments and their political aftermath is brilliantly narrated by Devra Davis in The Secret History of the War on Cancer (New York: Basic Books, 2007). Science historian Robert Proctor also provides an excellent overview of Wilhelm Hueper’s struggles in Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know and Don’t Know about Cancer (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 36-48.
130 coincident rise of synthetic dyes and bladder cancer among textile workers: E. K. Weisburger, “General Principles of Chemical Carcinogenesis,” in M. P. Waalkes and J. M. Ward (eds.), Carcinogenesis (New York: Raven Press, 1994); NIOSH, Special Occupational Hazard Review for Benzidene-Based Dyes, DHEW (NIOSH) Pub. 80-109 (Cincinnati: NIOSH, 1980).
131 bladder cancer among workers in rubber and metal industries: P. Vineis and S. Di Prima, “Cutting Oils and Bladder Cancer,” Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health 9 (1983): 449-50; R. R. Monson and K. Nakano, “Mortality among Rubber Workers: I. White Male Union Employees in Akron, Ohio,” AJE 103 (1976): 284-96; P. Cole et al., “Occupation and Cancer of the Lower Urinary Tract,” Cancer 29 (1972): 1250-60.
131 cancer in dogs: L. Marconato et al., “Association Between Waste Management and Cancer in Companion Animals,” Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 23 (2009): 564-69; L. T. Glickman et al., “Herbicide Exposure and the Risk of Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder in Scottish Terriers,” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 224 (2004): 1290-97; L. T. Glickman et al., “Epidemiologic Study of Insecticide Exposures, Obesity, and Risk of Bladder Cancer in Household Dogs,” JTEH 28 (1989): 407-14; H. M. Hayes, “Bladder Cancer in Pet Dogs: A Sentinel for Environmental Cancer?” AJE 114 (1981): 229-33.
132 description of breast development: C. W. Daniel and G. B. Silverstein, “Postnatal Development of the Rodent Mammary Gland,” in M. C. Neville and C. W. Daniel (eds.), The Mammary Gland: Development, Regulation, and Function (New York: Plenum, 1987); J. Russo and I. H. Russo, “Development of the Human Mammary Gland,” in ibid.; S. Z. Haslam, “Role of Sex Steroid Hormones in Normal Mammary Gland Function,” in ibid.
132 terminal end buds: L. S. Birnbaum and S. E. Fenton, “Cancer and Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disrupters,” EHP 111 (2003): 389-94; S. E. Fenton, “The Mammary Gland: A Tissue Sensitive to Environmental Exposures,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, Indianapolis, IN, 21 Oct. 2008; S. E. Fenton, “Endocrine Disrupting Compounds and Mammary Gland Development: Early Exposure and Later Life Consequences,” Endocrinology 147 (supplement): S18- S24; A. Kortenkamp, “Breast Cancer, Oestrogens, and Environmental Pollutants: A Re-evaluation from a Mixtures Perspective,” International Journal of Andrology 29 (2006): 193-98.
132 atrazine’s effects on breast development: L. S. Birnbaum and S. E. Fenton, “Cancer and Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disrupters,” EHP 111 (2003): 389-94; R. R. Enoch et al., “Mammary Gland Development as a Sensitive End Point After Acute Prenatal Exposure to an Atrazine Metabolite Mixture in Female Long-Evans Rats,” EHP 115 (2007): 541-47; J. L. Rayner et al., “Adverse Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Atrazine During a Critical Period of Mammary Gland Growth,” Toxicological Science 87 (2005): 255-66.
133 relevance to humans of atrazine and breast cancer studies in rats: Reviewed in R. A. Rudel et al., “Chemicals Causing Mammary Gland Tumors in Animals Signal New Directions for Epidemiology, Chemicals Testing, and Risk Assessment for Breast Cancer Prevention,” Cancer 109 (2007): 2635-66. See also California Breast Cancer Research Program, Identifying Gaps in Breast Cancer Research: Addressing Disparities and the Roles of the Physical and Social Environment (Oakland, CA: University of California Office of the President, California Breast Cancer Research Program, 2007), draft report.
133 decision of the EPA to allow atrazine: The rationale was, “It is unlikely that the mechanism by which atrazine induces mammary gland tumors in female SD rats could be operational in humans.” EPA, Decision Documents for Atrazine: Atrazine IRED (January 2003).
133 bladder cancer in whales and smelter workers: P. Béland, “About Carcinogens and Tumors,” Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 45 (1988): 1855-56; D. Martineau et al., “Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder in a Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas),” Journal of Wildlife Diseases 22 (1985): 289-94.
134 1988 study: D. Martineau et al., “Pathology of Stranded Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Québec, Canada,” Journal of Comparative Pathology 98 (1988): 287-311.
134 1994 autopsy reports: S. de Guise et al., “Tumors in St. Lawrence Beluga Whales,” Veterinary Pathology 31 (1994): 444-49.
135 cancers in the beluga to date: C. Cirard et al., “Adenocarcinoma of the Salivary Gland in a Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas),” Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 3 (1991): 264-65; D. Martineau et al., “Cancer in Wildlife, a Case Study: Beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Quebec, Canada,” EHP 110 (2002): 285-92; D. Martineau, “Intestinal Adenocarcinomas in Two Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Estuary of the St. Lawrence River,” Canadian Veterinary Journal 36 (1995): 563-65; D. McAloose and A. L. Newton, “Wildlife Cancer: A Conservation Perspective,” Nature Reviews 9 (2009): 517-26; D. E. Sargent and W. Hoek, “An Update of the Status of White Whales Delphinapterus leucas in the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada,” in J. Prescott and M. Gauquelin (eds.), Proceedings of the International Forum for the Future of the Beluga (Sillery, Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, 1990).
135 St. Lawrence whales have shorter life spans: McAloose and Newton, “Wildlife Cancer.”
135 quote about belugas: Martineau et al., “Cancer in Wildlife.”
135 belugas not reproducing: Martineau et al., “Cancer in Wildlife.” See also S. de Guise et al., “Possible Mechanisms of Action of Environmental Contaminants on St. Lawrence Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas),” EHP 103, S-4 (1995): 73-77; A. Motluk, “Deadlier Than the Harpoon?” New Scientist, 1 July 1995, 12-13; D. Martineau et al., “Levels of Organochlorine Chemicals in Tissues of Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Québec, Canada,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 16 (1987): 137-47; R. Masse et al., “Concentrations and Chromatographic Profile of DDT Metabolites and Polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) Residues in Stranded Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 15 (1986): 567-79.
135 free-swimming live whales: K. E. Hobbs et al., “PCBs and Organochlorine Pesticides in Blubber Biopsies from Free-Ranging St. Lawrence River Estuary Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas), 1994-1998,” Environmental Pollution 122 (2003): 291-302.
135 airborne deposition of chlordane and toxaphene: D. Muir, “Levels and Possible Effects of PCBs and Other Organochlorine Contaminants and St. Lawrence Belugas,” in Prescott and Gauquelin, Future of the Beluga.
135 eels, whales, and mirex: P. Béland et al., “Toxic Compounds and Health and Reproductive Effects in St. Lawrence Beluga Whales,” Journal of Great Lakes Research 19 (1993): 766-75; T. Colborn, Great Lakes, Great Legacy? (Washington, DC: Conservation Foundation, 1990), 140.
136 life history of eels: R. Carson, Under the Sea Wind (New York: Penguin Books, 1941), 209-72; comparison to willow leaves, 265.
136 quote from Ezra Pound: “Portrait d’une Femme,” Personae (New York: New Directions, 1926).
137 benzo[a]pyrene and St. Lawrence belugas: P. Béland, “The Beluga Whales of the St. Lawrence River,” Scientific American, May 1996, 74- 81; D. Martineau et al., “St Lawrence Beluga Whales, the River Sweepers?” EHP 110 (2002): A562-A64; McAloose and Newton, “Wildlife Cancer.”
137 chemistry and carcinogenicity of benzo[a]pyrene: NTP, Report on Carcinogens, 11th ed. (USDHHS, Public Health Service, 2005)—Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.
138 mechanism of action: M. E. Hahn and J. J. Stegeman, “The Role of Biotransformation in the Toxicity of Marine Pollutants,” in Prescott and Gauquelin, Future of the Beluga.
138 whale and DNA adducts: D. Martineau et al., “Pathology and Toxicology of Beluga Whales from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Québec, Canada: Past, Present and Future,” Science of the Total Environment 154 (1994): 201-15; L. R. Shugart and C. Theodorakis, “Environmental Toxicology: Probing the Underlying Mechanisms,” EHP 102, S-12 (1994): 13-17; L. R. Shugart et al., “Detection and Quantitation of Benzo[a]pyrene-DNA Adducts in Brain and Liver Tissues of Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the St. Lawrence and Mackenzie Estuaries,” in Prescott and Gauquelin, Future of the Beluga.
139 quote by Leone Pippard: L. Pippard, “Ailing Whales, Water and Marine Management Systems: An Urgency for Fresh, New Approaches,” in Prescott and Gauquelin, Future of the Beluga.
139 Clyde Dawe’s discovery: J. C. Harshbarger, “Introduction to Session on Pathology and Epizootiology,” EHP 90 (1991): 5.
139 Registry of Tumors in Lower Animals: J. C. Harshbarger, “Role of the Registry of Tumors in Lower Animals in the Study of Environmental Carcinogenesis in Aquatic Animals,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 298 (1977): 280-89; J. C. Harshbarger, “The Registry of Tumors in Lower Animals,” in Neoplasia and Related Disorders in Invertebrates and Lower Vertebrate Animals,” NCI Monograph 31 (1969); J. C. Wolf et al., “Updating the Registry of Tumors in Lower Animals,” 28th Annual Eastern Fish Health Workshop, April 2003.
140 tumors associated with contaminated sediments: McAloose and Newton, “Wildlife Cancer”; M. J. Moore and M. S. Myers, “Pathobiology of Chemical-Associated Neoplasia in Fish,” in D. C. Malins and G. K. Ostrander (eds.), Aquatic Toxicology: Molecular, Biochemical and Cellular Perspectives (Boca Raton, FL: Lewis, 1994).
140 laboratory experiments with contaminated sediments: J. C. Harshbarger and J. B. Clark, “Epizootiology of Neoplasms in Bony Fish of North America,” Science of the Total Environment 94 (1990): 1-32; Dr. William Hawkins, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, personal communication.
141 Fox River in Illinois: J. A. Couch and J. C. Harshbarger, “Effects of Carcinogenic Agents on Aquatic Animals: An Environmental and Experimental Overview,” Environmental Carcinogenesis Reviews 3 (1985): 63-105; E. R. Brown et al., “Frequency of Fish Tumors Found in a Polluted Watershed as Compared to Nonpolluted Canadian Waters,” Canada Research 33 (1973): 189-98.
141 earth mounds on Buffalo Rock: D. C. McGill, Michael Heizer: Effigy Tumuli: The Reemergence of Ancient Mound Building (New York: Abrams, 1990). Susan Post of the INHS informs me that hikers are no longer allowed to walk on the mounds, which are eroding.

seven: earth

144 number of farms in Illinois: 1960: 159,000; 2008: 75,900. IFB, Farm and Food Facts, 2008. Available at www.ilfb.org.
144 number of cows and chickens: Ibid.
145 changes in farming: J. Bender, Future Harvest: Pesticide-Free Farming (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 2; IDENR, The Changing Illinois Environment: Critical Trends, Summary Report, IDENR/ RE-EA-94/05 (Springfield, IL: IDENR, 1994), 54-55.
145 corn and beans are 90 percent of cash receipts: IFB, Farm and Food Facts, 2008.
146 postwar changes in agricultural economy: F. Kirschenmann, “Scale—Does It Matter?” in A. Kimbrell (ed.), Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture (Washington, DC: Foundation for Deep Ecology and Island Press, 2002); A. Rosenfeld et al., Agrichemicals in America: Farmers’ Reliance on Pesticides and Fertilizers, A Study of Trends over the Last 25 Years (Washington, DC: Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, 1993); Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University, personal communication.
146 crop rotation: Bender, Future Harvest.
146 alfalfa: Ibid.
146 natural history of soybeans: American Soybean Association, Soy Stats: A Reference Guide to Important Soybean Facts and Figures (St. Louis: American Soybean Association, 1994); S. L. Post, “Miracle Bean,” The Nature of Illinois (Fall 1993), 1, 3; Illinois Soybean Association, Soybeans: The Gold That Grows (pamphlet) (Bloomington, IL: Illinois Soybean Association, n.d.).
147 natural history of corn: The Nature of Corn (pamphlet) (Springfield: Illinois State Board of Education, 1996).
149 Illinois is a protein production machine: L. L. Jackson, “Who ‘Designs’ the Agricultural Landscape?” Landscape Journal 27 (2008): 23-40.
150 years of peak livestock production: IDA, Facts About Illinois Agriculture—Economic History. Available at www.agr.state.il.us/about.
150 livestock raised time zones away: 99 percent of all U.S. hogs, turkeys, and cattle are produced in confinement facilities. Most beef cattle spend some time on pasture. Jackson, “Who ‘Designs’ the Agricultural Landscape?” 23-40.
150 industrial food system: See ibid.
150 loud critics: My personal favorites are Wendell Berry, Terra Brockman, Kamyar Enshayan, Wes Jackson, Laura Jackson, Barbara Kingsolver, Fred Kirschenmann, and Michael Pollan.
151 2006 spinach scare: D. G. Maki, “Don’t Eat the Spinach—Controlling Foodborne Infectious Disease,” NEJM 355 (2006): 1952-55.
151 mustard greens: IFB, Farm and Food Facts, 2008.
151 Terra Brockman in the Chicago Tribune: B. Mahany, “Dirty Stories,” Chicago Tribune, 24 Sept. 2006. Reiterated in her book, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm (Evanston, IL: Agate Surrey, 2009).
151 the public health argument: D. S. Ludwig and H. A. Pollack. “Obesity and the Economy: From Crisis to Opportunity,” JAMA 301 (2009): 533-35.
151 statistics on obesity trends and 2009 report on obesity: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health, F Is for Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, July 2009.
153 how obesity contributes to cancer: F. Osorio et al., “Epidemiological and Molecular Mechanisms Aspects Linking Obesity and Cancer,” Arquivos Brasileiros de Endocrinologia e Metabologia 53 (2009): 219-26.
153 ethanol: Illinois leads the nation in ethanol production. IFB, Farm and Food Facts, 2008. My conclusions on the net energy balance of ethanol follow those of environmental engineer Kamyar Enshayan at Northern Iowa University. K. Enshayan, Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card (Cedar Falls, IA: UNI Local Food Project, 2005).
154 pesticides used on corn and soy: R. Gilliom et al., Pesticides in the Nation’s Streams and Ground Water, 1992-2001 (USGS, Circular 1291, 2006).
154 Illinois weeds: IDENR, The Changing Illinois Environment: Critical Trends, vol. 3, IDENR/RE-EA-94/05 (Springfield, IL: IDENR, 1994), 84; R. L. Zimdahl, Fundamentals of Weed Science (San Diego: Academic Press, 1993); M. J. Chrispeels and D. Sadava, Plants, Food, and People (San Francisco: Freeman, 1977), 163-64.
155 density of seedbank: F. Forcella et al., “Weed Seedbanks of the U.S. Corn Belt: Magnitude, Variation, Emergence, and Application,” Weed Science 40 (1992): 636-44.
155 direction of weed control research: D. D. Buhler et al., “Integrated Weed Management Techniques to Reduce Herbicide Inputs in Soybeans,” Agronomy Journal 84 (1992): 973-78.
155 GMO corn: D. Coursey, Illinois Without Atrazine: Who Pays? Economic Implications of an Atrazine Ban in the State of Illinois (University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy Working Paper, 2007).
155 poisoning mechanisms of herbicides: A. Cobb, Herbicides and Plant Physiology (New York: Chapman & Hall, 1992).
155 2,4-D in Illinois: IASS, Agricultural Fertilizer and Chemical Usage: Corn—1993 and Agricultural Fertilizer and Chemical Usage: Soybeans—1993.
156 Weed Science Society of America: www.weedscience.org/In.asp
156 herbicide-resistant weeds: C. A. Edwards, “Impact of Pesticides on the Environment,” in D. Pimentel and H. Lehman (eds.), The Pesticide Question: Environment, Economics, and Ethics (New York: Routledge, 1993); S. B. Powles and J. A. M. Holtum, Herbicide Resistance in Plants: Biology and Biochemistry (Boca Raton, FL: Lewis, 1994), 2.
156 poisoning mechanism: J. W. Gronwald, “Resistance to Photo-System II Inhibiting Enzymes,” in Powles and Holtum, Herbicide Resistance in Plants; M. D. Devine et al., Physiology of Herbicide Action (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), 113-40.
157 maps of atrazine: For example, R. Gilliom et al., Pesticides in the Nation’s Streams and Ground Water, 1992-2001 (USGS, Circular 1291, 2006).
157 atrazine in water: Gilliom et al., The Quality of Our Nation’s Water; Wu et al., Poisoning the Well: How the EPA Is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in Surface and Drinking Water in the Central United States (New York: NRDC, 2009); EPA, The Triazine Herbicides, Atrazine, Simazine, and Cyanazine: Position Document 1, Initiation of Special Review, OPP-30000-60, FRL-4919-5 (Washington, DC: EPA, 1994).
157 atrazine a proven endocrine disruptor: R. L. Cooper et al., “Atrazine and Reproductive Function: Mode and Mechanism of Action Studies,” Birth Defects Research, Part B 80 (2007): 98-112.
157 atrazine and ovulation: R. L. Cooper et al., “Atrazine Disrupts the Hypothalamic Control of Pituitary-Ovarian Function,” Toxicological Sciences 53 (2000): 297-307.
157 atrazine and frogs: T. B. Hayes, “There Is No Denying This: Defusing the Confusion About Atrazine,” Bioscience 54 (2004): 1138-49.
157 atrazine and human cancers: D. A. Crain, et al., “Female Reproductive Disorders: The Roles of Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds and Developmental Timing,” Fertility and Sterility 90 (2008): 911-40; A. Donna et al., “Triazine Herbicides and Ovarian Cancer Neoplasms,” Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health 15 (1989): 47-53; J. A. Rusiecki et al., “Cancer Incidence Among Pesticide Applicators Exposed to Atrazine in the Agricultural Health Study,” JNCI 96 (2004): 1375-82; H. A. Young et al., “Triazine Herbicides and Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Risk in Central California,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 47 (2005): 1148-56.
158 atrazine in the urine of farmers: B. Bakke et al., “Exposure to Atrazine and Selected Non-Persistent Pesticides Among Corn Farmers During a Growing Season,” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 19 (2009): 544-54.
158 atrazine’s intracellular effects: L. Albanito et al., “G-Protein-Coupled Receptor 30 and Estrogen Receptor-α Are Involved in the Proliferative Effects Induced by Atrazine in Ovarian Cancer Cells,” EHP 116 (2008): 1648-55; W. Fan et al., “Atrazine-Induced Aromatase Expression Is SF-1 Dependent: Implications for Endocrine Disruption in Wildlife and Reproductive Cancers in Humans,” EHP (2007): 720-27; T. Hayes, “The One Stop Shop; Chemical Causes and Cures for Cancer,” white paper submitted to the President’s Cancer Panel, Indianapolis, IN, 21 Oct. 2008; M. Suzawa and H. A. Ingraham, “The Herbicide Atrazine Activates Endocrine Gene Networks via Non-Steroidal NR5A Nuclear Receptors in Fish and Mammalian Cells,” PLoS ONE 3 (2008): e2117.
159 atrazine and obesity: S. Lim et al., “Chronic Exposure to the Herbicide, Atrazine, Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Insulin Resistance,” PLoS ONE 4 (2009): e5186.
159 ecological effects of nitrogen: S. Fields, “Global Nitrogen: Cycling out of Control,” EHP 112 (2004): A556-63.
160 anhydrous as fertilizer: J. M. Shutske, “Using Anhydrous Ammonia Safely on the Farm,” University of Minnesota Extension, FO-02326, 2005.
160 anhydrous and methamphetamine: S. Simstad and D. Jeppsen, “Preventing Theft of Anhydrous Ammonia,” Ohio State University: OSU Extension Fact Sheet, AEX-594.1
160 nitrogen fixation by lightning: R. D. Hill et al., “Atmospheric Nitrogen Fixation by Lightning,” Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 37 (1980): 179-92.
161 nitrosomo compounds in urine: S. S. Mirvish et al., “N-nitrosoproline Excretion by Rural Nebraskans Drinking Water of Varied Nitrate Content,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 1 (1992): 455-61.
161 IARC on nitrates: Y. Grosse et al., “Carcinogenicity of Nitrate, Nitrite, and Cyanobacterial Peptide Toxins,” Lancet Oncology 7 (2008): 628-29.
161 mixed results of human studies: M. H. Ward, “Too Much of a Good Thing? Nitrate from Nitrogen Fertilizers and Cancer,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, Indianapolis, IN, 21 Oct. 2008.
161 nitrates and bladder cancer: M. H. Ward et al., “Nitrate in Public Water Supplies and Risk of Bladder Cancer,” Epidemiology 14 (2003): 183-90.
162 yields on organic farms: I. G. Malkina-Pykh and Y. A. Pykh, Sustainable Food and Agriculture (Southampton, UK: WIT Press, 2003), 205- 07; P. Mader et al., “Soil Fertility and Biodiversity in Organic Farming,” Science 296 (2002): 1694-97.
162 Rodale field trials: D. Pimentel et al., “Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems,” Bioscience 55 (2005): 573-82.
162 other studies: T. Gomiero et al., “Energy and Environmental Issues in Organic and Conventional Agriculture,” Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 27 (2008): 239-54; R. Welsh, The Economics of Organic Grain and Soybean Production in the Midwestern United States (Greenbelt, MD: Henry A. Wallace Institute, 1999).
163 externalized costs of pesticides: D. Pimentel, “Environmental and Economic Costs of the Application of Pesticides Primarily in the United States,” Environment, Development and Sustainability 7 (2005): 229-52.
164 carcinogenic pesticides used in California: Peggy Reynolds, “Agricultural Exposures and Children’s Cancer,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, Indianapolis, IN, 21 Oct. 2008.
164 pesticide drift: L. Lu et al., “Pesticide Exposure of Children in an Agricultural Community: Evidence of Household Proximity to Farmland and Take Home Exposure Pathways,” Environmental Research 84 (2000): 290-302.
164 farmworkers exposed to pesticides: A. Bradman et al., Pesticides and Their Metabolites in the Homes and Urine of Farmworker Children Living in the Salinas Valley, CA,” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 2006. Three-quarters of U.S. farmworkers are born in Mexico. U.S. Department of Labor, Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), 2001-2002: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farm Workers (USDL, May 2005).
164 pesticide registry: California Department of Pesticide Registration, Pesticide Use Reporting: An Overview of California’s Unique Full Reporting System (Sacramento, CA: California Department of Pesticide Regulation, 2000). Available at www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/pur/purmain.htm.
164 cancers in high-pesticide areas in California: Reynolds, “Agricultural Exposures and Children’s Cancer.”
164 California breast cancers not related to pesticide use: P. Reynolds et al., “Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticide Use and Incidence of Breast Cancer in California, 1988-1997,” EHP 113 (2005): 993-1000.
165 breast cancer among women farmworkers: P. K. Mills, “Breast Cancer Risk in Hispanic Agricultural Workers in California,” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 11 (2005): 123-31.
165 quote by Joan Flocks: “Pesticide Policy and Farmworker Health,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, Indianapolis, IN, 21 Oct. 2008.
166 Carson’s remark: R. Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).
166 The Land Connection: Described in Brockman, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm. See also www.thelandconnection.org.
166 Black Hawk County: K. Enshayan, Northern Iowa University, personal communication.
167 Illinois acreage under organic production: IFB, Farm and Food Facts, 2008.
167 Laura Jackson: Jackson, “Who ‘Designs’ the Agricultural Landscape?” 23-40.
167 2007 study forecasts dire consequences: Coursey, Illinois Without Atrazine.

eight: air

172 Paracelsus: M P. Hall, The Secret Teaching of All Ages (Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1988), 107-108.
173 DDT and PCBs in Hubbard Brook: W. H. Smith et al., “Trace Organochlorine Contamination of the Forest Floor of the White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire,” Environmental Science and Technology 27 (1993): 2244-46; “DDT and PCBs, Long Banned in the U.S., Found in Remote Forest, Suggesting Global Distribution via the Atmosphere” (Yale University press release, 14 Dec. 1993).
173 rain-fed bogs: R. A. Rapaport et al., “‘New’ DDT Inputs to North America: Atmospheric Deposition,” Chemosphere 14 (1985): 1167-73.
173 world’s trees: S. L. Simonich and R. A. Hites, “Global Distribution of Persistent Organochlorine Compounds,” Science 269 (1995); 1851-54.
174 the Arctic Paradox: M. Cone, Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic (New York: Grove Press, 2005).
174 global distillation: J. Raloff, “The Pesticide Shuffle, Science News 149: 174-75; B. G. Loganathan and K. Kannon, “Global Organochlorine Contamination Trends: An Overview,” Ambio 23 (1994): 187-91; F. Wania and D. Mackay, “Global Fractionation and Cold Condensation of Low Volatility Organochlorine Compounds in Polar Regions,” Ambio 22 (1993): 10-18.
174 Lake Laberge: K. A. Kidd et al., “High Concentrations of Toxaphene in Fishes from a Subarctic Lake,” Science 269 (1995): 240-42. See also J. Raloff, “Fishy Clues to a Toxaphene Puzzle,” Science News 148 (1995): 38-39.
174 carcinogens into air: EPA, 2007 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Public Data Release Report (EPA 260-R-09-001, Mar. 2009) and www.rtk.net.org/db/tri.
175 airborne carcinogens: A. Pintér et al., “Mutagenicity of Emission and Immission Samples around Industrial Areas,” in H. Vainio et al. (eds.), Complex Mixtures and Cancer Risk, IARC Scientific Pub. 104 (Lyon, France: IARC, 1990).
175 60 percent live with bad air: 61.7 percent of Americans are exposed to either ozone or particulate matter above levels considered healthful. American Lung Association, State of the Air, 2009 (Washington, DC: American Lung Association, 2009).
175 actual contribution elusive: G. Pershagen, “Air Pollution and Cancer,” in Vainio, Complex Mixtures.
175 fluidity of air: F. E. Speizer and J. M. Samet, “Air Pollution and Lung Cancer,” in J. M. Samet (ed.), Epidemiology of Lung Cancer (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1994); K. Hemminki, “Measurement and Monitoring of Individual Exposures,” in L. Tomatis (ed.), Air Pollution and Human Cancer (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990).
176 ultrafine particles: American Lung Association, State of the Air, 2009 (Washington, DC: ALA, 2009); J. Raloff, “Bad Breath: Studies are Homing In on Which Particles Polluting the Air Are Most Sickening—And Why,” Science News 176 (2009): 26.
176 transmutational quality of air: L. Fishbein, “Sources, Nature, and Levels of Air Pollutants,” in Tomatis, Air Pollution; L. Lewtas, “Experimental Evidence for Carcinogenicity of Air Pollutants,” in ibid.
177 air pollutants that may morph into carcinogens: “OSU to Study Air Pollutant’s Impact on Chinese, U.S. Health,” press release, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 28 Apr. 2009.
177 ozone: K. Breslin, “The Impact of Ozone,” EHP 103 (1995): 660-64; G. J. Jakab et al., “The Effects of Ozone on Immune Function,” EHP 103, S-2 (1995): 77-89.
178 National Air Toxics Assessment: In June 2009, the EPA released the results of its 2002 assessment. EPA, 2002 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (Washington, DC: EPA, 2009). Available at www.epa.gov/nata2002/.
178 five-year survival rate: M. P. Spitz et al., “Cancer of the Lung,” in D. Schottenfeld and J. F. Fraumeni (eds.), Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention , 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
178 guilt and blame: “Lung Cancer: Dying in Disgrace?” Harvard Health Letter 20 (1995): 4-6.
179 primacy of tobacco: Spitz et al., “Cancer of the Lung.”
179 lung cancer among nonsmokers the sixth most common cancer death: Between seventeen thousand and twenty-six thousand deaths each year are caused by lung cancer in people who are not active cigarette smokers. Of these, fifteen thousand deaths occur among lifelong nonsmokers. M. J. Thun et al., “Lung Cancer Deaths in Lifelong Non-smokers,” JNCI 98 (2006): 691-99.
179 lung cancer among nonsmokers: T. Reynolds, “EPA Finds Passive Smoking Causes Lung Cancer,” JNCI 85 (1993): 179-80; Spitz et al., “Cancer of the Lung.”
179 unavoidable and interactive effects of air pollution: K. Hemminki and G. Pershagen, “Cancer Risk of Air Pollution: Epidemiological Evidence,” EHP 102 (1994): 187-92.
179 adenocarcinoma: A. Charioux et al., “The Increasing Incidence of Lung Adenocarcinoma: Reality or Artefact? A Review of the Epidemiology of Lung Adenocarcinoma,” International Journal of Epidemiology 26 (1997): 14-23.
179 urban factors in lung cancer: A. J. Cohen, “Outdoor Air Pollution and Lung Cancer,” EHP 108 (2000, S-4): 743-50; R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005- 2007,” Reviews on Environmental Health 23 (2008): 1-36; P. Vineis and K. Husgafvel-Pursiainen, “Air Pollution and Cancer: Biomarker Studies in Human Populations,” Carcinogenesis 26 (2005): 1846-55.
179 other epidemiological studies: American Lung Association, State of the Air, 2009; W. J. Blot and J. F. Fraumeni Jr., “Geographic Patterns of Lung Cancer: Industrial Correlations,” AJE 103 (1976): 539-50; D. W. Dockery, “An Association Between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities,” NEJM 329 (1993): 1753-59; P. Gustavsson et al., “Excess Mortality Among Swedish Chimney Sweeps,” British Journal of Industrial Medicine 44 (1987): 738-43; Hemminki and Pershagen, “Cancer Risk of Air Pollution,” 187-92; D. Krewski et al., Extended Follow-Up and Spatial Analysis of the American Cancer Society Study Linking Particulate Air Pollution and Mortality (Boston: Health Effects Institute, Report 140, 2009); J. M. Samet and A. J. Cohen, “Air Pollution,” in Schottenfeld and Fraumeni, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.
180 breast cancer and air pollution: J. G. Brody et al., “Environmental Pollutants and Breast Cancer: Epidemiologic Studies,” Cancer 109 (2007, S12): 2667-2711; N. M. Perry et al., “Exposure to Traffic Emissions Throughout Life and Risk of Breast Cancer,” Cancer Causes and Control 19 (2008): 435; J. M. Melius et al., Residence near Industries and High Traffic Areas and the Risk of Breast Cancer on Long Island (Albany: New York State Dept. of Health, 1994); J. E. Vena, “Lung, Breast, Bladder and Rectal Cancer: Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution and Water Pollution,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, Charleston, SC, 4 Dec. 2008. See also M. Spencer, “Overlooking Evidence: Media Ignore Environmental Connections to Breast Cancer,” Extra! (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Feb. 2009).
180 benzo[a]pyrene and breast cancer: J. J. Morris and E. Seifter, “The Role of Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Genesis of Breast Cancer,” Medical Hypotheses 38 (1992): 177-84.
180 bladder cancer and air pollution: C. C. Liu et al., “Ambient Exposure to Criteria Air Pollutants and Risk of Death from Bladder Cancer in Taiwan,” Inhalation Toxicology 21 (2009): 48-54; B. J. Pan et al., “Excess Cancer Mortality Among Children and Adolescents in Residential Districts Polluted by Petrochemical Manufacturing Plants in Taiwan,” JTEH 43 (1994): 117-29; D. Trichopoulos and F. Petridou, “Epidemiologic Studies and Cancer Etiology in Humans,” Medicine, Exercise, Nutrition, and Health 3 (1994): 206-25; S. S. Tsai et al., “Association of Bladder Cancer with Residential Exposure to Petrochemical Air Pollutant Emissions in Taiwan,” Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part A 72 (2009): 53-59.
181 nitrogen dioxide and lung tumors: K. A. Fackelmann, “Air Pollution Boosts Cancer Spread,” Science News 137 (1990): 221; A. Richters, “Effects of Nitrogen Oxide and Ozone on Blood-Borne Cancer Cell Colonization of the Lungs,” JTEH 25 (1988): 383-90.
181 spread of cancer to lungs: E. Ruoslahti, “How Cancer Spreads,” Scientific American, Sept. 1996, 72-77.
181 quote by Richters: Fackelmann, “Air Pollution Boosts,” 221.
182 Quotations are from, in the order of presentation, the following sources: A. Biggeri, “Air Pollution and Lung Cancer in Trieste, Italy: Spatial Analysis of Risk as a Function of Distance from Sources,” EHP 104 (1996) 750-54; G. Pershagen and L. Simonato, “Epidemiological Evidence on Air Pollution and Cancer,” in Tomatis, Air Pollution; ibid.; C. W. Sweet and S. J. Vermette, Toxic Volatile Organic Chemicals in Urban Air in Illinois, HWRIC RR-057 (Champaign, IL: Hazardous Waste Research and Information Center, 1991), 1; Hemminki and Pershagen, “Cancer Risk of Air Pollution”; and Lewtas, “Experimental Evidence.”
183 the miasma theory: S. N. Tesh, Hidden Arguments: Political Ideology and Disease Prevention Policy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988), 825-32.

nine: water

187 photograph of mussel gatherers: L. M. Talkington, The Illinois River: Working for Our State, Misc. Pub. 128 (Champaign, IL: ISWS, 1991), 11.
187 demise of button factories: Ibid., 10-11.
188 demise of diving ducks: H. B. Mills, Man’s Effect on the Fish and Wildlife of the Illinois River, Biological Notes 57 (Urbana, IL: INHS, 1966).
188 demise of scaups and fingernail clams: F. C. Bellrose et al., Waterfowl Populations and the Changing Environment of the Illinois River Valley, Bulletin 32 (Urbana, IL: INHS, 1979); Mills, Man’s Effect.
188 quotes on bird identification: From D. L. Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds, Eastern Region (Boston: Little, Brown, 1996); National Geographic Society, Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1987); C. S. Robbins et al., Birds of North America (New York: Golden Press, 1966).
188 demise of dabbling ducks and aquatic plants: E. Hopkins, “Pollution Keeps Preying on Plants in Illinois River,” PJS, 25 July 1993, A-2; Mills, Man’s Effect.
188 fishing industry on the Illinois River: P. Ross and R. Sparks, Identification of Toxic Substances in the Upper Illinois River, Report 283 (Urbana, IL: INHS, 1989).
189 geology and ecology of the Illinois River: M. Runkle, “Plight of the Illinois: A River in Transition,” Illinois Audubon 236 (1991): 2-7; Talkington, Illinois River; Bellrose et al., Waterfowl Populations; Doug Blodgett, INHS, personal communication.
189 S&S Canal: Talkington, Illinois River; Bellrose et al., Waterfowl Populations.
189 photograph of Illinois fish: Mills, Man’s Effect.
189 improvement after 1972: IDENR, The Changing Illinois Environment: Critical Trends, summary report, ILENR/RE/-EA-94/05 (SR) 20M (Springfield, IL: IDENR, 1994), 16-17.
190 advisories: Illinois 1994 Fishing Information (Springfield, IL: IDC, 1994).
190 impact of barges and tugs: T. A. Butts and D. B. Shackleford, Impacts of Commercial Navigation on Water Quality in the Illinois River Channel , Research Report 122 (Champaign, IL: ISWS, 1992); R. M. Sparks, “River Watch: The Surveys Look After Illinois’ Aquatic Resources,” The Nature of Illinois (Winter 1992): 1-4; W. J. Tucker, An Intensive Survey of the Illinois River and Its Tributaries: A Comparison Study of the 1967 and 1978 Stream Conditions (Springfield, IL: IEPA, n.d.); Runkle, “Plight of the Illinois.”
190 toxic spills: M. Demissie and L. Keefer, Preliminary Evaluation of the Risk of Accidental Spills of Hazardous Materials in Illinois Waterways, HWRIC RR-055 (Champaign, IL: Hazardous Waste Research and Information Center, 1991); Talkington, Illinois River, 14; “The Illinois River: Its History, Its Uses, Its Problems,” Currents 5 (Champaign, IL: ISWS, Jan.-Feb. 1993), 1-12; Blodgett, personal communication.
190 routine industrial discharges: E. Hopkins, “New Rules, Industry Initiatives May Cut Toxic Dumping in River,” PJS, 19 Mar. 1995, A-23.
191 disappearance of fish, amphibians, crayfish, mussels: IDENR, The Changing Illinois Environment, 19-22; J. H. Cushman, “Freshwater Mussels Facing Mass Extinction,” New York Times, 3 Oct. 1995, C-1, C-7.
191 poem by Robert Frost: “The Oven Bird,” in E. C. Lathem (ed.), The Poetry of Robert Frost (New York: Henry Holt, 1969).
191 drinking water contaminants: U.S. EPA, Ground Water and Drinking Water: Frequently Asked Questions [Web page]. Available at www.epa .gov/safewater/faq/faq.html. USEPA, Drinking Water Contaminants [Web page]. Available at www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/index.html. See also U.S. EPA, Water on Tap: What You Need to Know (Washington, DC: EPA, 2003, 816-K-03-2007).
193 32 of 216 mammary carcinogens in water: The 12 mammary gland carcinogens regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act are acrylamide, the triazine herbicides atrazine and symazine, DBCP, 1,2 dibromoethane, 1,2-dichloropropane, 1,2-dichloroethane, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 3,3-dimethyoxybenzidine, styrene, and vinyl chloride. R. A. Rudel et al., “Chemicals Causing Mammary Gland Tumors in Animals Signal New Directions for Epidemiology, Chemicals Testing, and Risk Assessment for Breast Cancer Prevention,” Cancer 109 (2007, S-12): 2635-66.
193 personal care products unregulated: D. W. Kolpin et al., “Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams, 1999-2000: A National Reconnaissance,” Environmental Science and Technology 36 (2002): 1202-11; H. M. Kuch and K. Ballschmiter, “Determination of Endocrine-disrupting Phenolic Compounds and Estrogens in Surface and Drinking Water by HRGC- (NCI)-MS in the Picogram Per Liter Range,” Environmental Science and Technology 35 (2001): 3201-06; P. E. Stackelberg et al., “Persistence of Pharmaceutical Compounds and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in a Conventional Drinking-Water Treatment Plant,” Science of the Total Environment 329 (2004): 99-113.
193 regulation of nitrates: M. H. Ward et al., Workgroup Report: Drinking-water Nitrate and Health—Recent Findings and Research Needs,” EHP 113 (2005): 1607-14.
193 nitrates and cancer: evidence reviewed in K. P. Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants,” in D. Schottenfeld and J. F. Fraumeni (eds.), Cancer Prevention and Epidemiology, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
193 1995 study of herbicides in drinking water: B. Cohen et al., Weed Killers by the Glass: A Citizens’ Tap Water Monitoring Project in 29 Cities (Washington, DC: Environmental Working Group, 1995).
194 2009 study of atrazine in drinking water: M. Wu et al., Poisoning the Well: How the EPA Is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in Surface and Drinking Water in the Central United States (New York: NRDC, 2009).
194 dermal and inhalation routes of exposure: S. M. Gordon et al., “Changes in Breath Trihalomethane Levels Resulting from Household Water-Use Activities,” EHP 114 (2006): 514-21; C. Howard and R. L. Corsi, “Volatilization of Chemicals from Drinking Water to Indoor Air: The Role of Residential Washing Machines,” Journal of Air and Waste Management Association 48 (1998): 907-14; J. R. Nuckols et al., “Influence of Tap Water Quality and Household Water Use Activities on Indoor Air and Internal Dose Level of Trihalomethanes,” EHP 113 (2005): 863-70; S. D. Richardson, “Water Analysis: Emerging Contaminants and Current Issues,” Analytical Chemistry 79 (2007): 4295-4323.
195 danger to women and infants: C. W. Forrest and R. Olshansky, Groundwater Protection by Local Government (Springfield, IL: IDENR and IEPA, 1993), 16.
195 bathing and showering: S. M. Gordon et al., “Changes in Breath Trihalomethane Levels Resulting from Household Water-Use Activities, EHP 114 (2006): 514-21; C. P. Weisel and W. K. Jo, “Ingestion, Inhalation, and Dermal Exposures to Chloroform and Trichloroethene from Tap Water,” EHP 104 (1996): 48-51.
195 southeastern Rockford Superfund site: J. E. Keller and S. W. Metcalf, Exposure Study of Volatile Organic Compounds in Southeast Rockford (Springfield, IL: IDPH, Division of Epidemiologic Studies, 1991, Epidemiologic Report Series 91:3).
196 bladder cancer cluster in Rockford: K. Mallin, “Investigation of a Bladder Cancer Cluster in Northwestern Illinois,” AJE 132 (1990, S-1): S96-106.
196 the 1918 survey form: IEPA, Pilot Groundwater Protection Program Needs Assessment for Pekin Public Water Supply Facility Number 1795040 (Springfield, IL: IEPA, Division of Public Water Supplies, 1992), appendix C.
197 lengthy report on Pekin’s groundwater: IEPA, Pilot Groundwater Protection.
197 city’s response: T. L. Aldous, “Committee Examines Aquifer Protection,” PDT, 11 Dec. 1993, A-1, A-12.
197 quote by mayor: Ibid.
198 review by Kenneth Cantor: Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants.”
198 Camp Lejeune: “Key Events in Camp Lejeune’s Water Contamination,” Associated Press, 20 June 2009; “Hagan Wants a Conclusion to the Ongoing Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Issue,” press release, Kay R. Hagan, U.S. Senator, North Carolina, 16 June 2009; A. Aschengrau et al., “Statement in Response to the National Research Council Report on Camp Lejeune,” letter by scientists to the U.S. Agency on Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, June 2009 [full disclosure: I am one of the signatories of this letter]; R. Beamish, “False Comfort: US Pulls Report That Minimized Cancer Risk from Toxic Water at Marine Base,” Associated Press, 20 June 2009; W. R. Levesque, “More Vets Report Cancer,” St. Petersburg Times, 3 July 2009; NRC, Committee on Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune, Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune—Assessing Potential Health Effects (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009); M. Quillan, “Marine Battles over Contaminated LeJeune Water, The News and Observer, 31 May 2009. A Web site entitled The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten has been established by former Marines to serve as a clearinghouse of information about water contamination at the base and as a registry for former Marines and their family members who lived on the base during the three-decade period of water contamination: www.tftptf.com.
199 ecologic studies of drinking water and cancer: L. D. Budnick et al., “Cancer and Birth Defects near the Drake Superfund Site, Pennsylvania,” AEH 39 (1984): 409-13; A. Aschengrau et al., “Cancer Risk and Tetrachloroethylene-Contaminated Drinking Water in Massachusetts,” AEH 48 (1993): 284-92; Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants”; J. Fagliano et al., “Drinking Water Contamination and the Incidence of Leukemia: An Ecologic Study,” AJPH 80 (1990): 1209-12; J. Griffith et al., “Cancer Mortality in U.S. Counties with Hazardous Waste Sites and Ground Water Pollution,” AEH 44 (1989): 69-74; W. Hoffmann et al., “Radium-226-Contaminated Drinking Water: Hypothesis on an Exposure Pathway in a Population with Elevated Childhood Leukemias,” EHP 101 (1993, S-3): 113-15; S. W. Lagakos et al., “An Analysis of Contaminated Well Water and Health Effects in Woburn, Massachusetts,” Journal of the American Statistical Association 395 (1986): 583-96; P. Lampi et al., “Cancer Incidence following Chlorophenol Exposure in a Community in Southern Finland,” AEH 47 (1992): 167-75; J. S. Osborne et al., “Epidemiologic Analysis of a Reported Cancer Cluster in a Small Rural Population,” AJE 132 (1990, S-1): 87-95.
201 history of water chlorination: R. D. Morris et al., “Chlorination, Chlorination By-Products, and Cancer: A Meta-analysis,” AJPH 82 (1992): 955-63; S. Zierler, “Bladder Cancer in Massachusetts Related to Chlorinated and Chloraminated Drinking Water: A Case-Control Study,” AEH 43 (1988): 195-200; R. L. Jolley et al. (eds.), Water Chlorination: Chemistry, Environmental Impact, and Health Effects, vol. 5 (Chelsea, MI: Lewis, 1985).
201 link between water chlorination and bladder and other cancers: Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants”; K. P. Cantor, “Water Chlorination, Mutagenicity, and Cancer Epidemiology” (editorial), AJPH 84 (1994): 1211-13.
202 six hundred different disinfection by-products: This number refers to all products of disinfection, not just the ones produced by chlorination. H. S. Weinberg et al., Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) of Health Concern in Drinking Water: Results of a Nationwide DBP Occurrence Study (Athens, GA: EPA Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory, 2002, EPA/600/R-02/068). For a comprehensive discussion about the evidence linking disinfection by-products in drinking water to breast cancer risk, see California Breast Cancer Research Program, Identifying Gaps in Breast Cancer Research: Addressing Disparities and the Roles of the Physical and Social Environment (Oakland, CA: CBCRP, 2007), draft report.
202 MX: T. A. McDonald et al., “Carcinogenicity of the Chlorination Disinfection By-Product MX,” Journal of Environmental Science and Health C: Environmental Carcinogenicity and Ecotoxicology Review 23 (2005): 163-214; R. A. Rudel et al., “Chemicals Causing Mammary Gland Tumors in Animals Signal New Directions for Epidemiology, Chemicals Testing, and Risk Assessment for Breast Cancer Prevention,” Cancer 109 (2007, S-12): 2635-66.
202 two groups of regulated disinfection byproducts: Trihalomethanes were first identified in drinking water in the 1970s. In the 1990s, researchers discovered the second group of volatile disinfection by-products: the haloacetic acids (Ronnie Levin, EPA, personal communication). For a fascinating history of the EPA’s decision-making process regarding the regulation of disinfection byproducts, see R. Morris, The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster and the Water We Drink (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), 163-77.
202 EPA table of drinking-water standards: EPA, “List of Drinking Water Contaminants and Their MCLs.” Available at www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/.
203 Kenneth Cantor’s study: K. P. Cantor et al., “Bladder Cancer, Drinking Water Source, and Tap Water Consumption: A Case-Control Study,” JNCI 79 (1987): 1269-79.
203 corroborating studies on bladder cancer and disinfection by-products: V. Bhardwaj, “Disinfection By-Products,” Journal of Environmental Health 68 (2006): 61-63; Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants”; C. M. Villanueva et al., “Meta-analysis of Studies on Individual Consumption of Chlorinated Drinking Water and Bladder Cancer,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57 (2003): 166-73.
203 alternatives to chlorination: None of these alternatives alone provides a perfect solution. Moving chlorination to the end of the process, for example, decreases its killing time and so may increase the numbers of microorganisms in finished drinking water. There is no technological substitute for watershed protection. Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants”; B. A. Cohen and E. D. Olsen, Victorian Water Treatment Enters the 21st Century: Public Health Threats from Water Utilities’ Ancient Treatment and Distribution Systems (New York: NRDC, 1994).
203 ozonation more effective against Cryptosporidium: J. E. Simmons, “Development of a Research Strategy for Integrated Technology-Based Toxicological and Chemical Evaluation of Complex Mixtures of Drinking Water Disinfection Byproducts,” EHP 110 (2002, S-6): 1013-24.
203 Susan Richardson: See, for example, S. D. Richardon et al., “Integrated Disinfection Byproducts Mixtures Research: Comprehensive Characterization of Water Concentrates Prepared from Chlorinated and Ozonated/Postchlorinated Drinking Water,” Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A 71 (2008): 1165-86; S. D. Richardson, “Water Analysis: Emerging Contaminants and Current Issues,” Analytical Chemistry 79 (2007): 4295-24.
204 quote by Kenneth Cantor: Cantor et al., “Water Contaminants.” This sentiment is also echoed by Robert Morris, another leading researcher in the field of drinking water and health: “If we do not protect and preserve our waterways, the most advanced filter will not protect us. . . . If we do not take on the stewardship of our planet with evangelistic fervor, we will accumulate an ecological budget deficit that future generations can never repay.” Morris, The Blue Death, 292.
205 New Jersey court examiner: K. P. Cantor, “Water Chlorination, Mutagenicity, and Cancer Epidemiology [editorial], AJPH 84 (1994): 1211-13.
206 Sankoty Aquifer: W. H. Walker et al., Preliminary Report on the Groundwater Resources of the Havana Region in West-Central Illinois, Cooperative Groundwater Report 3 (Urbana, IL: ISGWS, 1965); L. Horberg et al., Groundwater in the Peoria Region, Cooperative Bulletin 39 (Urbana, IL: ISGWS, 1950).
207 types of aquifers: Horberg et al., Groundwater in the Peoria Region, 16; “Surveying Groundwater,” The Nature of Illinois (Winter 1992): 9-12.
207 1989 survey: IEPA, Illinois American Water Company, Pekin, Facility Number 1795040 Well Site Survey Report (Springfield, IL: IEPA, 1989).
207 Creve Coeur advisory: S. L. Burch and D. J. Kelly, Peoria-Pekin Regional Ground-Water Quality Assessment, Research Report 124 (Champaign, IL: ISWS, 1993).
207 contaminants in North Pekin wells: Ibid.
208 quote from 1993 assessment: Burch and Kelly, Peoria-Pekin Regional Ground-Water, 56.
208 recharge areas: IEPA, A Primer Regarding Certain Provisions of the Illinois Groundwater Protection Act (Springfield, IL: IEPA, 1988); ISGS, Ground-Water Contamination: Problems and Remedial Action, Environmental Geology Notes 81 (Champaign, IL: ISGS, 1977).
208 difficulty of remediation: W. T. Piver, “Contamination and Restoration of Groundwater Aquifers,” EHP 100 (1992): 237-47; IDPH, Chlorinated Solvents in Drinking Water (Springfield, IL: IDPH, n.d.); ISGS, Ground-Water Contamination.
209 Pekin’s ordinance: City of Pekin Groundwater Protection Area Ordinance.
209 growing public awareness: D. Rheingold, “Pekin Readies Water Watch,” PDT, 17 Jan. 1994, A-1, A-12.
209 quote by gas station owner: Ibid.
209 observation by superintendent: Kevin W. Caveny, personal communication.
210 ongoing detections in Pekin’s wells: Ibid.; Interagency Coordinating Committee on Groundwater, Illinois Groundwater Protection Program, vols. 1 and 2, Biennial Technical Appendices Report (Springfield, IL: IEPA, 1994). Since 2004, twenty-seven chemicals have been detected in Perkin’s drinking water wels, and fourteen of these exceeded health-based limits. Two pollutants (perchloroethylene and nitrates) have exceeded legal limits. To investigate drinking water contaminates in your zip code, see the Drinking Water Quality Report at www.ewg.org.
210 sooner or later: contaminants in groundwater typically move between one inch and one foot each year. The contaminants we drink now may be those spilled onto the ground decades ago.
210 40 percent drink water from aquifers: S. S. Hutson et al., Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 (Denver, CO: USGS Information Services, 2004, circular 1268).
210 observation by Rachel Carson: R. Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 42.
210 Illinois groundwater report: Interagency Coordinating Committee on Groundwater, Illinois Groundwater Protection Program Biennial Comprehensive Status and Self-Assessment Report (Springfield, IL: Illinois EPA, 2008, IEPA/BOW/08-001).
210 USGS report: L. A. DeSimone et al., Quality of Water from Domestic Wells in Principal Aquifers of the United States, 1991-2004—Overview of Major Findings (USGS Circular 1332, 2009).
211 My imaginary description of subterranean Illinois is inspired by old Tazewell County drilling logs, as well as by geological background information provided in M. A. Marino and R. J. Shicts, Groundwater Levels and Pumpage in the Peoria-Pekin Area, Illinois, 1890-1966 (Urbana, IL: ISWS, 1969), and in Horberg et al., Groundwater in the Peoria Region.

ten: fire

213 Epigraph is from John Knoepfle, Poems from the Sangamon (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985).
214 the plan: T. L. Aldous, “Developer Proposes a Site for Burner,” PDT, 22 July 1992, A-1, A-12.
215 recycling competes with incinerators: K. Schneider, “Burning Trash for Energy: Is It an Endangered Species?” New York Times, 11 Oct. 1994, C-18.
215 Columbus incinerator: Ibid.; S. Powers, “From Trash Burner to Cash Burner,” Columbus Dispatch, 4 Sept. 1994, B-6; S. Powers, “Board Votes to Close Trash Plant,” Columbus Dispatch, 2 Nov. 1994, A-1.
215 Albany incinerator: K. Nelis and R. Pitlyk, “Snow, Then Soot: ANSWERS Fallout a Blizzard of Blackness,” Albany Times Union, 11 Jan. 1994, B-1.
215 incinerators release dioxin: D. R. Zook and C. Rappe, “Environmental Sources, Distribution and Fate of Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins, Dibenzofurans, and Related Organochlorines,” in A. Schecter (ed.), Dioxins and Health (New York: Plenum, 1994).
215 dioxin harmful in trace amounts: T. Webster and B. Commoner, “Overview: The Dioxin Debate,” in Schecter, Dioxins and Health.
215 draft reassessment: EPA, Estimating Exposure to Dioxin-Like Compounds , vols. 1-3, EPA/600/6-88/005Ca,b,c (Washington, DC: EPA, 1994); EPA, Health Assessment Document for 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) and Related Compounds, vol. 1-3, EPA/600/BP-92/ 001a,b,c (Washington, DC: EPA, 1994).
215 case against dioxin has been strengthened: IARC, IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans—Polychlorinated Dibenzo-para-Dioxins and Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans, vol. 69 (Lyon, France: WHO, IARC, 1997); NTP, Report on Carcinogens, 11th ed. (Washington, DC: USDHHS Public Health Service, 2005).
216 dioxin the most potent carcinogen: Based on its ability to induce cancer in animals at vanishingly low concentrations. S. Jenkins et al., “Prenatal TCDD Exposure Predisposes for Mammary Cancer in Rats,” Reproductive Toxicology 23 (2007): 391-96.
216 suggested rewrites: NAS, Health Risks from Dioxin and Related Compounds: Evaluation of the EPA Reassessment (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2006). Available at www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11688.
216 waxing and waning of incinerator popularity: Schneider, “Burning Trash for Energy.”
217 incinerator in Rutland, Vermont: S. Hemingway, “Report: Trash-to-Energy Plants Pose Environmental Hazard,” Burlington Free Press, 15 June 2009.
217 incinerator in Detroit: D. Ciplet, An Industry Blowing Smoke: 10 Reasons Why Gasification, Pyrolysis, and Plasma Incineration are Not “Green Solutions” (Berkeley, CA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance, June 2009).
217 incinerators repackaged as a source of renewable energy: Ibid.
217 trends in dioxin emissions: Dioxin was first reportable to the Toxics Release Inventory in 2000. Available at www.epa.gov/triexplorer/.
218 if 1,800 tons go in, 1,800 tons come out: Actually, the final mass exceeds the mass of the material the incinerator is stoked with. Because oxygen combines with fuel in the process of burning, total combustion emissions—ash plus smoke plus vapors—are somewhat heavier than the solid ingredients fed into the incinerator initially.
218 John Kirby’s demonstration: T. L. Aldous, “Hearing Has Havana Humming,” PDT, 23 Oct. 1993, A-1, A-10.
218 toxicity of incinerator ash: P. Connett and E. Connett, “Municipal Waste Incineration: Wrong Question, Wrong Answer,” The Ecologist 24 (1994): 14-20; K. Schneider, “In the Humble Ashes of a Lone Incinerator, the Makings of a Law,” New York Times, 18 Mar. 1994, A-22.
218 18 boxcars produce 10 truckloads: The 18:10 ratio was part of the Pekin incinerator proposal.
219 formation of fly ash: Connett and Connett, “Municipal Waste Incineration”; T. G. Brna and J. D. Kilgore, “The Impact of Particulate Emissions Control on the Control of Other MWC Air Emissions,” Journal of Air and Waste Management Association 40 (1990): 1324-29.
219 types of dioxins and furans: M. J. Devito and L. S. Birnbaum, “Toxicology of Dioxins and Related Compounds,” in Schecter, Dioxins and Health.
219 TCDD: “NTP Technical Report on the Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) (CAS No. 1746-01-6) in Female Harlan Sprague-Dawley Rats (Gavage Studies),” National Toxicology Program Report Service 521 (2006): 4-232.
220 incineration not the only source: Municipal water incinerators are now ranked third. Backyard burn barrels are now presumed the leading source. EPA, The Inventory of Sources and Environmental Releases of Dioxin-like Compounds in the United States: The Year 2000 Update (Washington, DC: EPA, National Center for Environmental Assessment; EPA/600/P-03/002A, 2005). Available from National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA, and online at http://epa.gov/ncea.
220 PVC plastic: Polyvinyl chloride, 59 percent chlorine by weight, is the dominant source of organically bound chlorine in hospital waste, where it takes the form of IV-bags, gloves, bedpans, tubing, and packaging. Much of this waste is incinerated. Indeed, medical waste incineration was identified in the EPA’s 1994 reassessment as the single largest known source of dioxin generation in the United States. See J. Thorton et al., Pandora’s Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000).
221 vote of the Havana city council: T. L. Aldous, “Siting Battle Begins,” PDT, 27 Oct. 1993, A-1, A-12.
222 excerpt from testimony: C. West-Williams, “State Board Decision on Hold for Now,” PDT, 7 Apr. 1994, A-1, A-12.
223 food as a source of dioxin: ATSDR, TOXFAQs for Chlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins (CDDs), Feb. 1999. Available at www.atsdr.coc.gov/tfacts104.html.
223 dioxin in cow’s milk near incinerators: A. K. D. Liem et al., “Occurrence of Dioxin in Cow’s Milk in the Vicinity of Municipal Waste Incinerators and a Metal Reclamation Plant in the Netherlands, Chemosphere 23 (1991): 1675-84; P. Connett and T. Webster, “An Estimation of the Relative Human Exposure to 2,3,7,8-TCDD Emissions via Inhalation and Ingestion of Cow’s Milk,” Chemosphere 16 (1987): 2079-84.
223 dioxin in rivers, fish, soil, and crops: B. Paigen, “What Is Dioxin?” in Gibbs, Dying from Dioxin.
224 public health threats of incinerators: NRC, Committee on the Health Effects of Waste Incineration, Waste Incineration and Public Health (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2000). See also D. Porta et al., “Systemic Review of Epidemiological Studies on Health Effects Associated with Management of Municipal Solid Waste,” Environmental Health 8 (2009): 60.
224 clues from animals: M. J. DeVito et al., “Comparisons of Estimated Human Body Burdens of Dioxinlike Chemicals and TCDD Body Burdens in Experimentally Exposed Animals,” EHP 103 (1995): 820-31.
224 quote from James Huff: J. Huff, “Dioxins and Mammalian Carcinogenesis,” in Schecter, Dioxins and Health.
224 dioxin and liver cancer: A. M. Tritscher et al., “Dose-Response Relationships from Chronic Exposure to 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p -dioxin in a Rat Tumor Promotion Model: Quantification and Immunolocalization of CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 in the Liver,” Cancer Research 52 (1992): 3436-42.
224 dioxin and lung cancer: G. W. Lucier et al., “Receptor Mechanisms and Dose-Response Models for the Effects of Dioxin,” EHP 101 (1993): 36-44.
224 dioxin’s effects on hormones and growth factors: M. La Merill, “Mouse Breast Cancer Model-Dependent Changes in Metabolic Syndrome-Associated Phenotypes Caused by Maternal Dioxin Exposure and Dietary Fat,” American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism 296 (2009): E203-10; A. Schecter et al., “Dioxins: An Overview,” Environmental Research 101 (2006): 419-28.
224 dioxin as a developmental toxicant: L. S. Birnbaum and S. E. Fenton, “Cancer and Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors,” EHP 111 (2003): 389-94; S. Jenkins et al., “Prenatal TCDD Exposure Predisposes for Mammary Cancer in Rats,” Reproductive Toxicology 23 (2007): 391-96; B. J. Lew et al., “Activiation of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) during Different Critical Windows in Pregnancy Alters Mammary Epithelial Cell Proliferation and Differentiation,” Toxicological Sciences 111 (2009): 151-62; B. A. Vorderstrasse et al., “A Novel Effect of Dioxin: Exposure During Pregnancy Severely Impairs Mammary Gland Differentiation,” Toxicological Science 78 (2004): 248-57.
225 human studies: Summarized in NRC, Committee on the Health Effects of Waste Incineration, Waste Incineration and Public Health (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2000). See also H. Becher et al., “Cancer Mortality in German Male Workers Exposed to Phenoxy Herbicides and Dioxin,” Cancer Causes and Control 7 (1996): 312-21; L. Hardell et al., “Cancer Epidemiology,” in Schecter, Dioxins and Health; M. A. Fingerhut et al., “Cancer Mortality in Workers Exposed to 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-diozin,” NEJM 324 (1991): 212-18; J. H. Leem et al., “Risk Factors Affecting Blood PCDD’s and PCDF’s in Residents Living Near an Industrial Incinerator in Korea,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 51 (2006): 478-84; A. Manz et al., “Cancer Mortality Among Workers in a Chemical Plant Contaminated with Dioxin,” Lancet 338 (1991): 959-64; A. Zober et al., “Thirty-four-year Mortality Follow-up of BASF Employees Exposed to 2,3,7,8-TCDD after the 1953 Accident,” International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 62 (1990): 139-57.
226 early studies from Seveso: P. A. Bertazzi and A. di Domenico, “Chemical, Environmental, and Health Aspects of the Seveso, Italy, Accident,” in Schecter, Dioxins and Health; P. A. Bertazzi et al., “Cancer Incidence in a Population Accidentally Exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzoparadioxin,” Epidemiology 4 (1993): 398-406; R. Stone, “New Seveso Findings Point to Cancer,” Science 261 (1993): 1383.
226 Seveso updates: A. Baccarelli et al., “Immunologic Effects of Dioxin: New Results from Seveso and Comparison with Other Studies,” EHP 110 (2002): 1169-73; D. Consonni et al., “Mortality in a Population Exposed to Dioxin After the Seveso, Italy, Accident in 1976: 25 Years of Follow-Up,” AJE 167 (2008): 847-58; M. Warner et al., “Serum Dioxin Concentrations and Breast Cancer Risk in the Seveso Women’s Health Study,” EHP 110 (2002): 625-28.
227 Michigan study: The half-life of TCDD is 9-15 years in surface soil and 25-100 years in subsurface soil. D. Dai and T. J. Oyana, “Spatial Variations in the Incidence of Breast Cancer and Potential Risks Associated with Soil Dioxin Contamination in Midland, Saginaw, and Bay Counties, Michigan, USA,” Environmental Health 7 (2008): 49.
227 Havana’s feasibility study: T. L. Aldous, “Study: Trash Burner a Boon,” PDT, 20 May 1992, A-1, A-12.
228 the first rebuttal: T. Webster, “Comments on ‘A Feasibility Study of Operating a Waste-to-Energy Facility in Mason County Near Havana, Illinois’” (unpub. Ms., 7 Oct. 1992, 4 pp.).
228 second rebuttal: T. L. Aldous, “Farm Bureau Members Oppose New Incinerator,” PDT, 24 July 1992, A-1; S. Iyengar, “Farm Bureau: SIU Study Skewed,” PDT, 8 Oct. 1992, A-1, A-12.
228 popcorn threat: Dr. Dorothy Anderson, personal communication.
228 Fourth of July: K. McDermott, “Havana Incinerator Backers Hot about ‘Devil Burns’ Parade Float,” SSJR, 1 July 1992, 1.
228 letter to the editor in Havana: A. Robertson, Mason City Banner Times, 10 June 1992, 11.
229 letter to the editor in Forrest: C. Kaisner, “Suddenly in Forrest, Greed Has Become No. 1 Attitude,” Bloomington Daily Pantagraph, 6 Aug. 1994.
229 letter about Kirby’s smoking habits: R. Hankins, letter to the editor, Mason County Democrat, 3 June 1992, 2.
229 endorsement of risk: “Editorial,” Fairbury Blade, 20 July 1994, 2.
230 condemnation of risk: “Dioxin Findings Raise New Fears” (editorial), Jacksonville Journal-Courier, 15 Sept. 1994, 10.
230 P450 enzymes and Ah receptors: Webster and Commoner, “Dioxin Debate”; G. Lucier et al., “Receptor Model and Dose-Response Model for the Effects of Dioxin,” EHP 101 (1993): 36-44; T. R. Sutter et al., “Targets for Dioxin: Genes for Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-2 and Interleukein-1B,” Science 254 (1991): 415-18.
230 Ah receptor: K. Steenland et al., “Dioxin Revisited: Developments Since the 1997 IARC Classification of Dioxin as a Human Carcinogen,” EHP 112 (2004): 1265-68.
231 John Kirby’s career: T. L. Aldous, “Kirby Sees Havana Opportunity, Opposition,” PDT, 22 Oct. 1993, A-1, A-12; A. Lindstrom, “Sherman Horse Track Sure Bet—Promoters,” SSJR, 9 Oct. 1973; J. O’Dell, “Hens with Glasses a Barnyard Spectacle,” SSJR, 27 Aug. 1973; K. Watson, “John Kirby Eyes Candidacy,” SSJR, 8 Aug. 1968; K. Watson, “Page Names Kirby,” SSJR, 7 Jan. 1963.
232 quotes by Kirby: Aldous, “Kirby sees Havana.”
235 trends in percent of waste incinerated: In 2007, on average, each person in the United States generated each day 4.62 pounds of garbage. About 1.54 pounds of that was recycled, and .58 pounds per person per day was incinerated. US EPA, Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures (Washington, DC: EPA, 2008). Available at www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw07-rpt.pdf.
235 Zero Waste: Ciplet, An Industry Blowing Smoke. See also Zero Waste International Alliance. www.zwia.org.
235 fish of the Vermilion: IDEPA, Illinois Water Quality Report, 1992-93, vol. 1, IEPA/WPC/94-160 (Springfield, IL: IEPA, 1994).
236 quote by John Kirby: J. Knauer, “Incinerator’s Future Smoldering after ‘No’ Vote,” Fairbury Blade, 16 Nov. 1994, 1, 3.
236 appellate court decision: E. Hopkins, “Court Backs Pollution Board’s Incinerator Ruling,” PJS, 13 Sept. 1995, B-5.
236 repeal of retail rate law: R. B. Dold, “Clearing the Air,” Chicago Tribune , 12 Jan. 1996.
236 Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer of the membranes surrounding the lungs. Mesothelioma is caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos.
237 The Land Connection: This organization is headquartered in Evanston, IL. www.thelandconnection.org.

eleven: our bodies, inscribed

239 tree-ring analysis: R. Phipps and M. Bolin, “Tree Rings—Nature’s Signposts to the Past,” Illinois Steward (Summer 1993): 18-21.
240 autopsy results: B. G. Loganathan et al., “Temporal Trends of Persistent Organochlorine Residues in Human Adipose Tissue from Japan, 1928-1985,” Environmental Pollution 81 (1993): 31-39.
241 biomonitoring for chemical exposure: K. Sexton et al., “Human Biomonitoring of Environmental Chemicals,” American Scientist 92 (2004): 38. CDC biomonitoring program: www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring. At this writing the most recent report was released in 2005: CDC, Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (Washington, DC: CDC, 2005). The CDC ran an earlier biomonitoring program from 1967 to 1990 called the National Human Biomonitoring Program, which included measuring organochlorine chemicals in fat samples as part of the National Human Adipose Tissue Survey. Cornell University’s Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors, “Questions and Answers: Biomonitoring and Environmental Monitoring,” Oct. 2005. Available at http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/learning/biomonitor/biomonfaq.cfm.
242 flame retardants: A. Sjodin et al., “Concentrations of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) and Polybrominated Biphenyl (PBB) in the United States Population: 2003-2004,” Environmental Science and Technology 42 (2008): 1377-84.
242 bisphenol A: A. M. Calafat et al., “Exposure of the U.S. Population to Bisphenol A and 4-tertiary-Octylphenol: 2003-2004,” EHP 116 (2008): 39-44.
242 falling levels of POPs in pregnant women: R. Y. Wang et al., “Serum Concentrations of Selected Persistent Organic Pollutants in a Sample of Pregnant Females and Changes in Their Concentrations During Gestation,” EHP 117 (2009): 1244-49. POPs are also now falling in Swedish breast milk: S. Lignell et al., “Persistent Organochlorine and Organobromine Compounds in Mother’s Milk from Sweden 1996-2006: Compound-Specific Temporal Trends,” Environmental Research 109 (2009): 760-67.
242 shift to monitoring people: R. Morello-Forsch et al., “Toxic Ignorance and Right-to-Know in Biomonitoring Results Communication: A Survey of Scientists and Study Participants,” Environmental Health 8 (2009): 6-18.
242 Silent Spring Institute: Ibid.
243 state-based biomonitoring programs: J. W. Nelson et al., “A New Spin on Research Translation: The Boston Consensus Conference on Human Biomonitoring,” EHP 117 (2009): 495-99.
243 limitations of biomonitoring: NRC, Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2006).
243 bisphenol A: Studies conducted in nursery schools found bisphenol A in most food items eaten by preschoolers. Research from laboratories revealed that bisphenol A leaches from polycarbonate baby bottles as well as from the epoxy lining of food cans. Together, these studies point to food as an important route of exposure to this particular contaminant. In other laboratories, bisphenol A exposure induced precancerous lesions to form in the mammary glands of young female rats. In young male rats, exposure provoked similar change in their prostate glands. Together, these studies suggest that bisphenol A may imprint hormonal-sensitive tissues in early life in ways that raise the risk for subsequent cancers. M. Durando et al., “Prenatal Bisphenol A Exposure Induces Preneoplastic Lesions in the Mammary Gland in Wistar Rats,” EHP 115 (2007): 80-86; S.-M. Ho et al., “Developmental Exposure to Estradiol and Bisphenol A Increases Susceptibility to Prostate Carcinogenesis and Epigenetically Regulates Phosphodiesterase Type 4 Variant 4,” Cancer Research 66 (2006): 5624-32; S. Snedeker, “Environmental Estrogens: Effects on Puberty and Cancer Risk,” The Ribbon [newsletter of Cornell University’s Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors] 12 (2007): 5-7; N. K. Wilson et al., “An Observational Study of the Potential Exposures of Preschool Children to Pentachlorophenol, Bisphenol-A, and nonylphenol at Home and Day-care,” Environmental Research 103 (2007): 9-20.
243 Korean study: M. S. Lee et al., “Seasonal and Regional Contributors of 1-Hydroypyrene Among Children Near a Steel Mill,” Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 18 (2009): 96-101.
245 purposefulness: Robert Millikan, personal communication. See also S. B. Nuland, How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter (New York: Random House, 1993), 202-21.
245 behavior of cancer cells: A. E. Erson and E. M. Petty, “Molecular and Genetic Events in Neoplastic Transformation,” in D. Schottenfeld and J. F. Fraumeni (eds.), Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 47-64; D. Hanahan and R. A. Weinberg, “The Hallmarks of Cancer,” Cell 100 (2000): 57-70; J. E. Klaunig and L. M. Kamendulis, “Chemical Carcinogenesis,” in C. D. Klaassen (ed.), Casarett & Doull’s Toxicology, 7th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2008); R. A. Weinberg, “How Cancer Arises,” Scientific American, Sept. 1996, 62-70.
246 oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes: Erson and Petty, “Molecular and Genetic Events in Neoplastic Transformation.”
246 three hundred cancer-related genes: Ibid.
247 nature of p53 damage indicates carcinogen responsible: F. P. Perera, “Uncovering New Clues to Cancer Risk,” Scientific American, May 1996, 54-62.
247 benzo[a]pyrene and DNA adducts: Ibid.
248 description of carcinogenesis: R. W. Clapp et al., “Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence 2005-2007,” Reviews on Environmental Health 23 (2008): 1-37; J. E. Klaunig and L. M. Kamendulis, “Chemical Carcinogenesis,” in C. D. Klaassen (ed.), Casarett & Doull’s Toxicology, 7th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2008); R. A. Weinberg, The Biology of Cancer (London: Garland Science, 2006).
249 tissue architecture: See, for example, C. Sonnenschein and A. M. Soto, “Somatic Mutation Theory of Carcinogenesis: Why It Should Be Dropped and Replaced,” Molecular Carcinogenesis 29 (2000): 205-11.
250 cancer and developmental toxicants: L. S. Birnbaum and S. E. Fenton, “Cancer and Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors,” EHP 111 (2003): 389-94.
251 cancer and inflammation: O. Bottasso et al., “Chronic Inflammation as a Manifestation of Defects in Immunoregulatory Networks: Implications for Novel Therapies Based on Microbial Products,” Inflammopharmacology 17 (2009): 193-203; R. E. Harris, “Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and the Inflammogenesis of Cancer,” in R. E. Harris (ed.), Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Chronic Diseases (New York: Springer, 2007); G. Stix, “A Malignant Flame,” Scientific American 297 (2007): 60-67; R. A. Weinberg, The Biology of Cancer.
252 quote on epigenetics: J. Qiu, “Epigenetics: Unfinished Symphony,” Nature 441 (2006): 143-45.
253 environmental epigenetics: I. Amato, “Orchestrating Genetic Expression,” Chemical and Engineering News 87 (2009); D. L. Foley, “Prospects for Epigenetic Epidemiology,” AJE 15 (2009): 389-400; Klaunig and Kamendulis, “Chemical Carcinogenesis”; Qiu, “Epigenetics: Unfinished Symphony”; S. M. Reamon-Buettner and J. Borlak, “A New Paradigm in Toxicology and Teratology: Altering Gene Activity in the Absence of DNA Sequence Variation,” Reproductive Toxicology 24 (2007) 2-30.
254 biological markers: S. Anderson et al., “Genetic and Molecular Ecotoxicology: A Research Framework,” EHP 102 (1994, S-12): 3-8; M. Eubanks, “Biological Markers: The Clues to Genetic Susceptibility,” EHP 102 (1994): 50-56; F. Veglai et al., “DNA Adducts and Cancer Risk in Prospective Studies: A Pooled Analysis and a Meta-Analysis,” Carcinogenesis 29 (2008): 932-36.
254 epigenetic biomarkers: P. Vineis and F. Perera, “Molecular Epidemiology and Biomarkers in Etiologic Cancer Research: The New in Light of the Old,” Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention 16 (2007): 1954-65.
255 Spanish study on pesticides and gene expression in breast cancer: P. F. Valerón et al., “Differential Effects Exerted on Human Mammary Epithelial Cells by Environmental Relevant Organochlorine Pesticides Either Individually or in Combination,” Chemico-Biological Interactions 180 (2009): 485-91.
255 decreased methylation among Greenlandic Inuit: J. A. Rusiecki et al., “Global DNA Hypomethylation is Associated with High Serum Persistent Organic Pollutants in Greenlandic Inuit,” EHP 116 (2008): 1547-52.
255 Polish study: Perera, “Uncovering New Clues to Cancer Risk”; F. P. Perera et al., “Molecular and Genetic Damage in Humans from Environmental Pollution in Poland,” Nature 360 (1992): 256-58S. See also Øvrebø et al., “Biological Monitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure in a Highly Polluted Area of Poland,” EHP 103 (1995): 838-43; K. Hemminki et al., “DNA Adducts in Humans Environmentally Exposed to Aromatic Compounds in an Industrial Area of Poland,” Carcinogenesis 11 (1990): 1229-31.
257 cancer among adoptees: T. I. A. Sørensen et al., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Premature Death in Adult Adoptees,” NEJM 318 (1988): 727-32.
258 1974 breast cancer blip: ACS, Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 1996 (Atlanta: ACS, 1995), fig. 2.

twelve: ecological roots

261 twin study: M. F. Fraga et al., “Epigenetic Differences Arise During the Lifetime of Monozygotic Twins,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (2005): 10604-609. This study is beautifully described in J. Qui, “Epigenetics: Unfinished Symphony,” Nature 441 (2006): 143-45.
262 adoptee study: T. I. Sørensen et al., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Premature Death in Adult Adoptees,” NEJM 24 (1988): 727-32.
262 adoptees the most powerful design: N. J. Risch and A. S. Whittemore, “Genetic Concepts and Methods in Epidemiologic Research,” in D. Schottenfeld and J. F. Fraumeni eds., Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention , 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
262 twin study: Some cancers had stronger heritable influences than others. Stomach, colon, lung, breast, and prostate cancer showed the strongest concordance, but for none did genetics explain more than 42 percent of the risk. P. Lichenstein, “Environmental and Heritable Factors in the Causation of Cancer—Analysis of Cohorts of Twins from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland,” NEJM 343 (2000): 78-85.
263 Human Genome Project: www.genomics.energy.gov.
263 complexity of cancer causation: A. E. Erson and E. M. Petty, “Molecular and Genetic Events in Neoplastic Transformation,” in Schottenfeld and Fraumeni, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention; J. Qiu, “Unfinished Symphony,” Nature 44 (2006): 143-45; J. R. Weidman et al., “Cancer Susceptibility: Epigenetic Manifestation of Environmental Exposure,” Cancer Journal 13 (2007): 9-16.
264 familial cancers in Sweden: K. Hemminki et al., “How Common Is Familial Cancer?” Annals of Oncology 19 (2008): 163-67.
264 BRCA 1 and 2 carriers: M. C. King et al., “Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Due to Inherited Mutations in BRCA 1 and BRCA 2,” Science 302 (2003): 643-46; A. Kortenkamp, “Breast Cancer and Exposure to Hormonally Active Chemicals: An Appraisal of the Scientific Evidence,” a briefing paper for CHEM Trust, Jan. 2008; Risch and Whittemore, “Genetic Concepts and Methods in Epidemiologic Research.”
264 pancreatic cancer: T. P. Yeo, et al., “Assessment of ‘Gene-Environment’ Interaction in Cases of Familial and Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer,” Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery 13 (2009): 1487-94.
266 1983 study: R. A. Weinberg, “A Molecular Basis of Cancer,” Scientific American, Nov. 1983, 126-42.
267 genetic changes involved in bladder cancer: I. Orlow et al., “Deletion of the p16 and p15 Genes in Human Bladder Tumors,” JNCI 87 (1995): 1524-29; S. H. Kroft and R. Oyasu, “Urinary Bladder Cancer: Mechanisms of Development and Progression,” Laboratory Investigation 71 (1994): 158-74; P. Lipponen and M. Eskelinen, “Expression of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in Bladder Cancer as Related to Established Prognostic Factors, Oncoprotein Expression and Long-Term Prognosis,” British Journal of Cancer 69 (1994): 1120-25.
268 aromatic amines and DNA adducts: D. Lin et al., “Analysis of 4-Aminobiophenyl-DNA Adducts in Human Urinary Bladder and Lung by Alkaline Hydrolysis and Negative Ion Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry,” EHP 102 (1994, S-1): 11-16; P. L. Skipper and S. R. Tannenbaum, “Molecular Dosimetry of Aromatic Amines in Human Populations,” EHP 102 (1994, S-6): 17-21; S. M. Cohen and L. B. Ellwein, EHP 101 (1994, S-5): 111-14.
268 new knowledge about bladder cancer: Variations in genes are called polymorphisms. A. S. Andrew et al., “DNA Repair Genotype Interacts with Arsenic Exposure to Increase Bladder Cancer Risk,” Toxicology Letters 187 (2009): 10-14; J. D. Figueroa et al., “Genetic Variation in the Base Excision Repair Pathway and Bladder Cancer,” Human Genetics 121 (2007): 233-42; M. Franekova et al., “Gene Polymorphisms in Bladder Cancer,” Urologic Oncology 26 (2008): 1-8; P. Greenwald and B. K. Dunn, “Landmarks in the History of Cancer Epidemiology,” Cancer Research 69 (2009); R. J. Hung et al., “GST, NAT, SULT1A1, CYP1B1 Genetic Polymorphisms, Interactions with Environmental Exposures and Bladder Cancer Risk in a High-Risk Population,” International Journal of Cancer 110 (2004): 598-604; A. E. Kilte, “Molecular Epidemiology of DNA Repair Genes in Bladder Cancer,” Methods in Molecular Biology 472 (2009): 281-306; C. Li et al., “DNA Repair Phenotype and Cancer Susceptibility—A Mini Review,” International Journal of Cancer 124 (2009): 999-1007; P. D. Negraes et al., “DNA Methylation Patterns in Bladder Cancer and Washing Cell Sediments: A Perspective for Tumor Recurrence Detection,” BMC Cancer 8 (2008): 238; X. Wu et al., “Bladder Cancer Predisposition: A Multigenic Approach to DNA-Repair and Cell-Cycle—Control Genes,” American Journal of Human Genetics 78 (2006): 464-79; X. Wu et al., “Genetic Polymorphisms in Bladder Cancer,” Frontiers in Bioscience 12 (2007): 192-213; Y. Ye et al., “Genetic Variants in Cell Cycle Control Pathway Confer Susceptibility to Bladder Cancer,” Cancer 112 (2008): 2467-74.
268 slow and fast acetylators: P. Vineis and G. Ronco, “Interindividual Variation in Carcinogen Metabolism and Bladder Cancer Risk,” EHP 98 (1992): 95-99.
269 trends in bladder cancer incidence and mortality: M. J. Horner et al. (eds.), SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2006 (Bethesda, MD: NCI, 2009). Available at http://seer.cancer.gov/.
269 o-toluidine releases in 1992: EPA, 1992 Toxics Release Inventory: Public Data Release, EPA 745-R-001 (Washington, DC: EPA, 1994), 79.
269 o-toluidine releases in 2007: EPA, Toxics Release Inventory—2007 data. Available at www.epa.gov.triexplorer.
270 bladder carcinogens continue to be made and used: One researcher offers the following reflection on the bladder cancer situation in England: “The continued use of known carcinogenic substances in British industry for many years after their identification, the wide range of industries with a known or suspected increased risk of bladder cancer, and our ignorance of the carcinogenic potential of many materials used in current manufacturing should be a cause for continuing concern.” R. R. Hall, “Superficial Bladder Cancer,” British Medical Journal 308 (1994): 910-13.
270 rankings and recurrence of bladder cancer: S. P. Lerner et al., eds., Textbook of Bladder Cancer (London: Taylor and Francis, 2006).
270 bladder cancer expensive to treat: B. K. Hollenbeck et al., “Provider Treatment Intensity and Outcomes for Patients with Early-Stage Bladder Cancer,” JNCI 101 (2009): 571-80; E. B. Avritscher et al., “Clinical Model of Lifetime Cost of Treating Bladder Cancer and Associated Complication,” Urology 68 (2006): 549-53.
270 2008 incidence and mortality statistics on bladder cancer: American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures—2008.
271 pink and blue brochure: “Cancer Prevention” (pamphlet) (Bethesda, MD: USDHHS, n.d.).
271 genetics textbook: G. Edlin, Human Genetics: A Modern Synthesis, 2nd ed. (Boston: Jones & Bartlett, 1990). Quotes are from 184-204.
273 lifestyle factors and cholera: C. E. Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), 1-60.
274 quotes from American Cancer Society materials: From the ACS Cancer Reference Information: www.cancer.org. The ACS did not discuss environmental factors in its 1995 report on cancer prevention, ACS, Cancer Risk Report: Prevention and Control, 1995. The ACS devotes 1.5 pages to the environment in its most recent, 72-page report Cancer Facts and Figures—2008.
274 removal of pesticides from the shelf: C. Porter, “Bugs, Cornstarch Replace Pesticides Today,” Toronto Star, 22 April 2009.
275 Paris Appeal: available on the Web site of the Association pour la Recherche Therapeutique Anti-Cancereuse: www.artac.info/.
275 pie chart: R. Doll and R. Peto, “The Causes of Cancer: Quantitative Estimates of Avoidable Risks of Cancer in the United States Today,” JNCI 66 (1981): 1191-1308. Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, “Harvard Report on Cancer Prevention,” Cancer Causes and Control 7 (1996-S1): 3-59. Contemporary critique of the pie chart is provided in Collaborative on Health and Environment, “Consensus Statement on Cancer and the Environment: Creating a National Strategy to Prevent Environmental Factors in Cancer Causation,” Oct. 2008. The pie chart was not without its critics when it first was published. See, for example, S. S. Epstein and J. B. Swartz, “Fallacies of Lifestyle Cancer Theories,” Nature 289 (1981): 127-30.
276 quote from Illinois cancer report: IDPH, Cancer Incidence in Illinois by County, 1985-87, Supplemental Report (Springfield, IL: IDPH, 1990), 7-8.
277 critique by Dominique Belpomme and Richard Clapp: P. Irigaray et al., “Lifestyle-Related Factors and Environmental Agents Causing Cancer: An Overview,” Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 61 (2007): 640-58; R. W. Clapp, “Industrial Carcinogens: A Need for Action,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, East Brunswick, NJ, 16 Sept. 2008.
277 complex web of causation: F. Mazzocchi, “Complexity in Biology,” European Molecular Biology Organization Reports 9 (2008): 10-14; Collaborative on Health and the Environment, “Consensus Statement on Cancer and the Environment: Creating a National Strategy to Prevent Environmental Factors in Cancer Causation,” submitted to the President’s Cancer Panel, Oct. 2008.
278 Rachel Carson on environmental human rights: Senate testimony hearings before the Subcommittee on Reorganization and International Organizations of the Committee on Government Operations, “Interagency Coordination in Environmental Hazards (Pesticides),” U.S. Senate, 88th Congress, 1st session, 4 June 1962.
278 Carson’s belief: Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 277-78.
279 biomonitoring as autobiography: See for example, N. Baker, The Body Toxic (New York: North Point Press, 2008) and R. Smith and B. Lourie, Slow Death by Rubber Duck (New York: Knopf, 2009). The Environmental Working Group has also conducted biomonitoring on individuals, including (through the use of umbilical cord blood) U.S. infants. See www.ewg.org.
280 we do not all bear equal risks: National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Cumulative Risks/Impacts Work Group, “Ensuring Risk Reduction in Communities with Multiple Stressors: Environmental Justice and Cumulative Risks/Impacts,” report to the U.S. EPA, December 2004; ACS, Cancer Facts and Figures—2008.
280 6 percent is 33,600: ACS, Cancer Facts and Figures—2008.
281 2007 releases of carcinogens: EPA, Toxics Release Inventory, Chemical Report—2007. Available at www.epa.gov/triexplorer/.
281 cancer as homicide: The environmental analysts Paul Merrell and Carol Van Strum have argued that the concept of acceptable risk is tolerated only because of the anonymity of its intended victims. See P. Merrell and C. Van Strum, “Negligible Risk: Premeditated Murder?” Journal of Pesticide Reform 10 (1990): 20-22. Likewise, the molecular biologist and physician John Gofman has argued, “If you pollute when you DO NOT KNOW if there is any safe dose (threshold), you are performing improper experimentation on people without their informed consent. . . . If you pollute when you DO KNOW that there is no safe dose with respect to causing extra cases of deadly cancers, then you are committing premeditated random murder” (J. W. Gofman, memorandum to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 21 May 1994).
281 Rachel Carson’s observation: Silent Spring, 248. See also M. J. Kane, “Promoting Political Rights to Protect the Environment,” Yale Journal of International Law 18 (1993): 389-411.
281 precautionary principle: European Environment Agency, Late Lessons from Early Warnings: The Precautionary Principles 1886-2000 (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001); N. J. Myers and C. R. Raffensperger, Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005).
282 reactionary approach: D. Kriebel, “Cancer Prevention Through a Precautionary Approach to Environmental Chemicals,” presentation before the President’s Cancer Panel, East Brunswick, NJ, 16 Sept. 2008.
282 pollution as the result of outmoded technology: S. Chau, “Eight Bits of Green Wisdom for World Environment Day,” China Daily, 30 May 2009.
284 mammary gland carcinogens: R. Rudel, “Chemicals Causing Mammary Gland Tumors and Animals Signal New Directions for Epidemiology, Chemicals Testing, and Risk Assessment for Breast Cancer Prevention,” Cancer 109 (2007, S-12): 2635-66.
284 need for vision and courage: P. Grandjean, “Seven Deadly Sins of Environmental Epidemiology and the Virtues of Precaution,” Epidemiology 19 (2008): 158-62.
284 quote by Bradford Hill: A. B. Hill, “The Environment and Disease: Association or Causation?” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 58 (1965): 295-300.
284 abnormal changes in juvenile rats: M-H. Li and L. G. Hansen, “Enzyme Induction and Acute Endocrine Effects in Prepubertal Female Rats Receiving Environmental PCB/PCDF/PCDD Mixtures,” EHP 104 (1996): 712-22.