Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES

by Nancy Langston

In 1941 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of diethylstilbestrol (DES), the first synthetic chemical to be marketed as an estrogen and one of the first to be identified as a hormone disruptor—a chemical that mimics hormones. Although researchers knew that DES caused cancer and disrupted sexual development, doctors prescribed it for millions of women, initially for menopause and then for miscarriage, while farmers gave cattle the hormone to promote rapid weight gain. Its residues, and those of other chemicals, in the American food supply are changing the internal ecosystems of human, livestock, and wildlife bodies in increasingly troubling ways. In this gripping exploration, Nancy Langston shows how these chemicals have penetrated into every aspect of our bodies and ecosystems, yet the U.S. government has largely failed to regulate them and has skillfully manipulated scientific uncertainty to delay regulation. Personally affected by endocrine disruptors, Langston argues that the FDA needs to institute proper regulation of these commonly produced synthetic chemicals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academic, History, Science, School, Health

233 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Nancy Langston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book to understand why our environment has become saturated with synthetic chemicals that disrupt hormones, and to ask what we can do to protect human and environmental health. In Toxic Bodies, I show that the industry and the federal government knew as early as the 1940s that these chemicals caused cancer and disrupted sexual development. Yet they were approved by regulatory agencies and widely marketed to producers and consumers.

John Wargo of Yale University writes: "Nancy Langston has given us a deeply disturbing analysis of government neglect of synthetic hormones. By taking us back to the beginning of the twentieth century, she traces the failure of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to protect society from hormonally active drugs, growth stimulants fed to livestock, and chemical ingredients in plastics. This is a wonderful history, woven together by deep insight into both public health and ecology, one with many lessons for modern precautionary policy.You owe it to your children and future generations to pay attention to this book. And we all owe Langston a debt of gratitude for illuminating a global hormonal chemical experiment that is wildly out of control."

Kent Curtis of Eckerd College writes: "I've just finished reading _Toxic Bodies_ and I have to commend Nancy Langston on a superb and desperately needed new book. Wow! The story (and stories) she tells are staggering and informative and written in an accessible style. This is a landmark study in environmental health and safety. It's also one of the finest combinations of the themes of gender, science, and the environment that I've seen in quite some time."

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never voluntarily pick up non-fiction books, mostly because I want to be entertained in my free time. This time was no exception; I read this book for a research paper in environmental history. I expected it to be dry and boring. I mean, I can easily name more interesting-sounding topics than "hormone disruptors" and whatever "diethylstilbestrol" is. But this book was good. Like, REALLY good.

Nancy Langston gives an incredibly accessible and engaging account of our bodies and the ways in which they are affected by our environments. She discusses how various industries and products that disrupt the hormonal balance in our bodies have been sold to consumers as cures for various physical/social ills (for example menopause), with harmful consequences. But this book is not just about science and the health of our bodies. Langston also provides readers with fascinating (and infuriating) insights into the messy and inefficient workings of American bureaucracies. She includes multiple interesting discussions about the sexism that pervades various institutions and practices and even discusses at length the biological and cultural foundations of sex and gender differences (my favourite topic!). I'm no expert on hormones or toxins, and the book may well contain some factual errors that I am not aware of. But I walked away from this book feeling like I really learnt something new, and that doesn't happen every day. Well done.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent analysis. Compelling and easy to read. It's fascinating the parallels that link w/ the meat industry today, BPA, pharmaceuticals in our water supply, and a desire for an easy way out w/ pre-term babies, instead of facing the real issues.

The framework was set up over 1/2 a century ago, w/ the formation of the FDA and the early cases & attempts to regulate industry. The FDA was weak then, and it either wasn't willing or wasn't able to stand up to industry. Now that the precursors are well into place, and industry has been able to get its way for so long, as well as perfect its methods for resisting regulation, it makes the job really hard on regulators now to change the paradigm into one of precaution.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Langston is an environmental historian at UW-Madison, and this book reports on her archival research at FDA/USDA, which showed (of course) that the agencies knew DES was harmful way back in the 1930s, but
continued to allow its use. She draws analogies to BPA, and ends with two terrific chapters arguing for a new sexual ecology of health, and the PP. Argues that the FDA actually started with a form of the PP
(they called it the "conservative principle" back then), but how it was corrupted by politics and industry.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Langston issues a compendious, acute evaluation of the FDA's failure to maintain responsible regulatory oversight and the deadly ramifications of unregulated DES administration and use in the most vulnerable demographics of patients. Her writing proves lucid and painstaking in the magnitude of its conformity to accuracy and relevance to our modern situation. The FDA and USDA continue to allow political lobbyists and external industry pressure to govern their practices, lamentable blunders that expose these agencies (which were established with the mission of ensuring that health of the public remains its key priority) as misguided, mismanaged bastions of corruption and circumlocutory justification regarding its most deleterious policies.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Toxic Bodies, Nancy Langston describing the history of DES and other endocrine disruptors stands as an heir apparent to Rachel Carson. In less than 170 pages, Langston details the history of endocrine disruptors and how they fall outside the scope of what traditional toxicology and risk assessment can cover. This is a book everyone should read, but particularly women, as you will learn many ways in which industry and government have not only neglected the health of women and their children, but some ways in which they've outright used them as guinea pigs for profit.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very interesting and well researched. Quite a quick read for how heavy the subject matter. Lots of food for thought. It certainly doesn't seem to me to be a coincidence that these unscrupulous trials took place first and foremost on women. There are a lot of tie ins here with ideas of slow violence, as well as the ways power and privilege shape our health and security, or lack thereof. It begs the question of whether ethical behavior is to be expected (or even possible) within capitalism.

[Emylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the science stuff went over my head, but it's really rage inducing to hear about how much bad shit went/goes into our bodies and the environment. It's really funny too that DES was for two slightly related conditions (menopause and pregnancy) and then veered way aways to grain feeding. Like ???? okay???? That doesn't seem right.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely reads more like a book for historians than the public, but engaging and startling despite that. Lest we forget all the powdery gunk, insidiously floating around.

[Olivia Dougherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book, one of my favorite reads from this semester. I will need to reread this with more time to truly digest all of this information, but I am excited to do so!