Toxins for Fun and Profit

But this book is essentially a history of how corporatists — big corporate oligopolies, ‘bought’ politicians and meek ‘regulatory’ agencies — have colluded for over two centuries to poison workers and consumers with products and processes deadly to human health and the environment, and keep them ignorant of those dangers, all in the interest of profit. In the process, perfectly safe and environment-friendly alternatives have been suppressed and belittled by advertisers. And information on the dead, diseased, poisoned, injured and ruined people and communities as a result of these toxins in the air, water, soil and food has been ruthlessly suppressed.

The emphasis in the book is on workplace toxins, because that is where the cause-and-effect connection between contact with these chemicals and health problems is possible to establish, despite the hundreds of denials, cover-ups, and transfers to anonymous numbered companies to reduce corporate liability. Public disasters like Bhopal, Chernobyl, Minamata and Exxon Valdez are just the tip of the iceberg. What the book can only suggest is the chronic effect of these chemicals in our homes and the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. We know that the corporatists have caused the massive suffering that these chronic diseases have inflicted on billions of people, but we also know it will never stand up in court.

The list of products connected to chronic diseases runs the gamut of virtually everything we have in our homes and offices, including substantially all man-made chemicals and plastics. For example:

• Adhesives: glues, cements, furniture adhesives
• Automotive Products: fuel additives, rubber
• Cleaning Products: dry cleaning products, soaps and detergents, turpentine, ammonia, bromine and chlorine bleaches, muriatic acid, fumigants, phosphates, formaldehyde
• Coatings: paints, dyes, wood preservatives (creosote, aresenides etc.), varnishes, sealants, tars, latex, leather sprays
• Food Additives and packaging: preservatives, colourings, flavourings, dietary supplements, cellophane, microwave popcorn, microwave containers
• Garden and Agricultural Products: fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, DDT, 2-4-D, 2-4-5-T,
• Fibres: acetate, asbestos, viscose, rayon, vinyl, cellulose wool, flame retardants, polypropylene, neoprene
• Industrial Chemicals: mercury, benzene, resins, cellulose derivatives, brass, zinc, cadmium and manganese products, cyanides, coal combustion wastes, cotton dust, photographic chemicals, welding gases, electroplating and galvanizing chemicals, hydrochloric acid, radium and other radioactive trace elements, potash, manganese-treated steel, toluene, sulphuric acid
• Other Household Products: aerosols, refrigerants, artificial leather, rubber products (balloons etc.), heating briquets and oils, products containing lead, polyurethane, insulation, PVC and other plastic containers
• Other Products: animal euthanasia products, chemotherapy substances, explosives
• Personal Care Products: artificial nails, nail polishes and polish removers, condoms
• Pharmaceuticals: antibiotics, anaesthetics

The list of diseases these poisons are associated with is almost as long, and includes just about all chronic and non-infectious diseases (and even some infectious diseases such as tuberculosis are aggravated by poor working environments):

• Respiratory diseases: sick building syndrome, asthma, inhalation fever, asbestosis, silicosis, lung diseases
• Neurological diseases: parkinson’s disease, ALS
• Organ diseases: skin diseases, allergies, kidney diseases, cirrhosis of the liver, cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases, tuberculosis, hemochromatosis
• Cancers: all types, notably angiosarcoma, leukemia
• Blood diseases: anemia, lead poisoning
• Mental illnesses: dementias

And of course environmental toxins are also suspected in the spiraling epidemic of 40+ autoimmune diseases.

Kind of a sad story about industrial society, isn’t it? This is what ‘our troops’ are fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan — the corporatist interests and the Bushies and Harpers in their back pockets, who need oil to continue to poison our world and sell us toxic junk that kills us and causes devastating chronic illnesses.

Blanc’s depressing stories are accompanied by an edgy explanation of how the corporatists have pulled off this scam so successfully for so long. He identifies eight strategies:

1. “More data are needed”: Characterizing scientific evidence about the dangers of these products and processes as limited, exaggerated, insubstantial, or inconclusive, as Big Oil has done hiring Lomborgian pseudo-scientists to produce junk science as propaganda to counter damaging legitimate research
2. “It must have been used incorrectly”: Blaming the victim
3. “We can self-regulate as needed”: Arguing that regulation is overly costly and ineffectual
4. “The Precautionary Principle would bring the economy to a grinding halt”: Labeling opponents as unrealistic, idealistic, or reactionary
5. “We stopped CFCs when they were proved dangerous; workplace safety is in employers’ interests too”: Insisting the ‘market’ will intervene to require any corrections to corporate behaviour that may be necessary
6. “We still haven’t had what we consider a fair hearing”: Foot-dragging using armies of lawyers, as with Exxon who still haven’t paid for the Valdez disaster
7. “We settled, without acknowledging fault”: As Koch Industries has repeatedly done, bargaining with political friends for slap on the wrist penalties while continuing to poison workers and the Earth
8. “We want an industry-friendly rep running that Agency”: Twisting the arms of politicians to have regulators run by those who simply refuse to enforce the law against corporatist wrongdoing

They’ve been doing this for centuries, and it’s still going on. They’re still getting away with murder.

PS: Today, a coalition of health and labour groups issued a report saying Ontario is steeped in chemicals and the province needs to take immediate action in reducing toxic emissions and cancer-causingsubstances in the environment. Yeah, like that’s going to happen.