They poisoned the world : life and death in the age of forever chemicals / Mariah Blake.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blake, Mariah, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental health--New York (State)--Hoosick Falls--Case studies.

Environmental health.

Chemical industry--Environmental aspects--New York (State)--Hoosick Falls--Case studies.

Chemical industry.

Perfluorinated chemicals--Health aspects--New York (State)--Hoosick Falls--Case studies.

Perfluorinated chemicals.

Water--Pollution--Toxicology--New York (State)--Hoosick Falls--Case studies.

Water.

Contamination (Technology)--Case studies.

Contamination (Technology).

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 296 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Crown, [2025]

Summary:

"A landmark investigation of the chemical industry's decades-long campaign to hide the devastating effects of "forever chemicals," told through the story of a small town on the frontline of an epic public health crisis"-- Provided by publisher.

"In 2014, after losing several friends and relatives to cancer, an unassuming insurance underwriter in Hoosick Falls, New York, began to suspect that the local water supply was polluted. When he tested his tap water, he discovered dangerous levels of forever chemicals. This set off a chain of events that led to 100 million Americans learning their drinking water was tainted. Although the discovery came as a shock to most, the U.S. government and the manufacturers of these toxic chemicals--used in everything from lipstick and cookware to children's clothing--had known about their hazards for decades. In They Poisoned the World, investigative journalist Mariah Blake tells the astonishing story of this cover-up, tracing its roots back to the Manhattan Project and through the postwar years, as industry scientists discovered that these chemicals refused to break down and were saturating the blood of virtually every human being. By the 1980s, manufacturers were secretly testing their workers and finding links to birth defects, cancer, and other serious diseases. At every step, the industry's deceptions were aided by our government's appallingly lax regulatory system--a system that has made us all guinea pigs in a vast, uncontrolled chemistry experiment. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and tens of thousands of documents, Blake interweaves the secret history of forever chemicals with the moving story of how a lone village took on the chemical giants--and won. From the beloved local doctor to the young mother who took her fight all the way to the nation's capital, citizen activists in Hoosick Falls and beyond have ignited the most powerful grassroots environmental movement since Silent Spring. Humane and revelatory, this book will provoke outrage--and hopefully inspire the change we need to protect the health of every American for generations to come."-- Jacket.

Contents:

Author's note

Preface

A bump in the road

Teflon town

Lucifer's gas

Exile to Devil's Island

Catch-22

Biological dynamite

Blood secrets

The tipping point

Welcome to beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia

A rock in the machine

"They poisoned the world"

The reckoning

Cloud nine

Dirty water, dirty deal

Accidental activists

What-ifs and worst-case scenarios

Wall of resistance

Victory

To the ends of the world

Epilogue

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-280) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Blake, Mariah They poisoned the world

ISBN:

9781524760090

1524760099

OCLC:

1463507789

Publisher Number:

90101959680