Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy

by Joseph Thornton

Pandora's Poison presents a solution to one of the most insidious environmentalproblems of our the global build-up of toxic chemicals. Everywhere on the planet, hundreds ofindustrial chemicals called organochlorines are accumulating in the environment, the food supply,and our bodies. These substances--such infamous pollutants as dioxins, PCBs, and DDT, along withthousands of lesser-known hazards--are produced when chlorine gas is used to make plastics, paper,pesticides, and many industrial chemicals. In a thorough and accessible analysis, biologist JoeThornton shows how global organochlorine pollution is already contributing to infertility, immunesuppression, cancer, and developmental disorders in humans and wildlife.Thornton proposes a majorshift in environmental science and policy. He shows that the current framework radicallyoverestimates the ability of science and technology to address the complex global hazards ofchemical mixtures. And he reveals how the "sound science" that dominates environmental regulationsdisguises political biases that protect polluters and gamble with public health.Articulatingprinciples for a new environmental strategy, Thornton shows that the only practical solution is totake global action on broad classes of hazardous chemicals and the processes that produce them,starting with organochlorines. He lays out a democratically controlled program to replace theproduction and use of chlorine gas and its derivatives with safer, effective, and economicallyfeasible alternatives, which are already available for the majority of chlorine uses. With aninnovative interdisiciplinary approach, Pandora's Poison promises to revolutionize the debate overpollution, health, and the role of science in public policy.

Genres: Environment, Science

611 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2000

Reviews

[Lydia Utami · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overarching account on chlorine, the source of many persistent organic pollutants we now must deal with.

[Elizabeth]

As seen in Nature .