Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health

306 Pages·2009·2.08 MB·English

by  Rick Smith

Praise for
SLOW DEATH BY RUBBER DUCK:
HOW THE TOXIC CHEMISTRY OF EVERYDAY LIFE AFFECTS OUR HEALTH
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Quill & Quire Book of the Year
“A powerful reminder that what we do to Mother Earth, we do directly to ourselves. Read it to
see why we have to change the way we live and get off our destructive path.” David Suzuki
“A fascinating and frightening read…. Slow Death by Rubber Duck is an important and timely
antidote.” The Globe and Mail
“Using narrative, humour and real-life scenarios, Slow Death by Rubber Duck has restored my
faith in the environmental movement’s ability to make compelling points about toxins in our
world, without beating us to death with a wagging finger.” rabble.ca
“Indispensable and unputdownable, Smith and Lourie take our—and their—toxic temperature.
As scary as it all is, the really surprising part is how easily we can start cleaning up our act.”
Ann-Marie MacDonald, author of The Way the Crow Flies and Fall On Your Knees
“The latest green lit bible.” Toronto Life
“Fascinating read! … Alarming, engrossing and just plain loony at times, their experiments
drive home just how mundanely day-to-day our mass chemical poisoning has become.” Adria
Vasil, author of Ecoholic
“Shows how easy it can be to detoxify. Smith and Lourie explore how much we are exposed
and provide attainable solutions to protecting ourselves.” Zoomer magazine
“A call to action for both governments and all Canadian citizens, but especially for us mothers,
who are necessary for real social change.” Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau
“Slow Death … gives a passionate survey of the argument. I read it and threw out my Teflon
frying pans.” The Lawyers Weekly
“What really stands out is the solid writing. Though chock full of Canadian and international
statistics, the book never sounds preachy or dense. Considering how undeniably depressing
their findings are, the authors manage to stay this side of apocalyptic without sounding
flippant. Not only is the book scary, it’s hard to put down…. Excellent.” Quill & Quire
“Open this book and you’ll never look at a rubber duck the same way again…. The success of
Slow Death is that it goes beyond scare tactics to solutions that we can all apply to our daily
lives.” Green Living
“One of the best-named books of all time.” The Huffington Post

For our families
CONTENTS
Foreword by Theo Colborn
Acknowledgments
Introduction
ONE: POLLUTION THEN AND NOW
TWO: RUBBER DUCK WARS
THREE: THE WORLD’S SLIPPERIEST SUBSTANCE
FOUR: THE NEW PCBS
FIVE: QUICKSILVER, SLOW DEATH
SIX: GERMOPHOBIA
SEVEN: RISKY BUSINESS: 2,4-D AND THE SOUND OF SCIENCE
EIGHT: MOTHERS KNOW BEST
NINE: DETOX
Afterword
Resource Guide/Further Reading
Notes
Credits
FOREWORD
Our Stolen Future
BY THEO COLBORN, COAUTHOR OF
Slow Death by Rubber Duck takes you right to the core of one of the most
alarming disasters facing us today—the invasion of manmade chemicals into
every corner of our world, including our own bodies. Back in 1991, a gathering
of international experts first warned us about chemicals that have the potential to
dis rupt the hormone systems of animals and humans. They estimated with
confidence that “unless the environmental load of synthetic hormone disruptors
is abated and controlled, large scale dysfunction at the population level is
possible.” A few years later, Pete Myers, Dianne Dumanoski, and I wrote Our
Stolen Future, which foretold of the widespread influence of toxic chemicals on
animal and human life. This early work ignited a critically important public and
political debate that is still raging and to which Slow Death by Rubber Duck
makes a substantial contribution.
When one considers that almost all of the common hormone-disrupting
chemicals are derived from oil and natural gas, one can begin to understand why
the public does not know the nature of these toxic chemicals, their source, and
how and where they have entered our lives. The wealthiest energy corporations
have long put their bottom lines before public health. So, as fossil fuel use
increased, an increasing variety of chemicals were deliberately created for more
and more purposes and in greater and greater volumes, and additional dollars
were quietly spent to keep the public in the dark as to any problems.
As the debate surrounding climate change continues to intensify, it is
important that the links between greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants
be put into proper context. Hormone disruption, like climate change, is a spin-off
from society’s addiction to fossil fuels. The damaging effects of hormone-
disrupting chemicals on fertility, the brain and behaviour quite possibly make
them a more imminent threat to humankind than climate change.
We are now into the fourth generation of people exposed to toxic chemicals
from before conception through to adulthood, and statistics tell us that
humankind is under siege. As a result of corporate influence over governments
we now find the northern hemisphere in the midst of a pandemic of hormone-
disrupting afflictions that are reaching into homes, stretching beyond the
breaking point family and social service dollars, and undermining the global
economy and security. A child born today faces high odds of developing at least
one or more of the following ailments: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, diabetes, obesity, childhood and
pubertal cancers, abnormal genitalia development, and infertility. Even breast
and prostate cancers, and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases, have joined the
above list of disorders that have been linked with prenatal exposure to toxic
chemicals.
Efforts have been made to ban the sale of products for children that contain
toxic chemicals. Additional steps are being taken to ban the use and continued
production of specific toxic chemicals, like those the authors deliberately chose
to expose themselves to and write about in this book. And government programs
have been established and billions of dollars have been spent to find cures or
treatments for irreversible hormone-related (chemically induced) health
problems. But little or no attention has been given to the energy corporations
who sell their toxic byproducts for feedstock to the companies that make the
hormone-disrupting chemicals. Slow Death by Rubber Duck is not going to make
these powerful vested interests very happy.
The most effective way to strike at the heart of the problem is to switch as
soon as possible to alternative, non-fossil fuel sources of energy to reduce the
availability of the basic, elemental precursors of hormone-disrupting chemicals.
As an example, benzene, a toxic chemical found in coal, natural gas, and crude
oil, is a key molecular building block for vast tons of hormone disruptors such as
bisphenol A, phthalates, triclosan, PCBs, PBDEs, etc.—many of which are the
focus of this book. The primary source of mercury (examined in Chapter 5) in
the environment (and in our bodies) is the emissions from coal-burning power
plants. At whatever level climate change is being dealt with—community, state
or province, regional, national, or international—it should be understood that
reliance on fossil fuels includes more risks than have been put on the table.
In the meantime, citizens need to be informed about the pollutants that are
residing in their bodies and learn how to protect their health and the health of
their families. This is where Slow Death by Rubber Duck can play a big role. It
will take an educated citizenry to provide the necessary support and
encouragement for the bold and intelligent political leadership that we so
desperately need to finally put an end to pollution of all sorts.
You will find Slow Death by Rubber Duck difficult to put down. It is easy to
read and has an aura about it that is typically Canadian—to the point, and full of
common sense. It outlines, in a very entertaining way, the challenges that we
face and the steps that we need to take to protect our environment and health.
Slow Death by Rubber Duck may soon be referred to as “that Canadian book,”
but, it is surely going to become an international bestseller.
Theo Colborn
Paonia, Colorado
January 2009
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
, this unusual project would not have been possible were it not for the
FIRST AND FOREMOST
support and love of our families. Rick would like to thank his wife, Jennifer
Story, for her patience, wise counsel and duck-themed book title idea; his two
little boys, Zachary and Owain, for making him bust a gut laughing and
reminding him what’s truly important in life; and Dave Lavigne, for his
mentorship and for passing on the liberating insight that you can begin sentences
with “And.” Bruce thanks Biz, Ellen and Claire, who missed more than a few
home-cooked meals throughout the writing process, and the Ivey Foundation.
Sarah would like to thank David Noble.
The inspiration for this book arose from Environmental Defence Canada’s
groundbreaking Toxic Nation campaign. This multi year effort was made
possible through the dedication of the staff and Board of Environmental
Defence, especially Jennifer Foulds, Aaron Freeman, Kapil Khatter, Jana
Neumann, Cassandra Polyzou, and Sarah Winterton.
We would like to thank the many people who gave generously of their time to
review our experimental protocols and manuscript: Katherine Ashenburg, Åke
Bergman, Craig Butt, Ken Cook, Susan Duty, Coreen Hamilton, Jamey Heath,
Jane Houlihan, Pat Hunt, Stuart Levy, Marc Lucotte, Scott Mabury, Mike
Matisko, Burkhard Mausberg, Pete Myers, Janet Nudelman, Gail Prins, Deborah
Rice, Ted Schettler, Heather Stapleton, Shanna Swan, Cathy Vakil, Fred vom
Saal, Julia Taylor and Tom Webster. The leadership of Pete Myers and of the
Environmental Working Group, in particular, has shaped our thinking regarding
toxic chemicals and their place in our lives. Any deficiencies in the text of the
book are entirely our own, not theirs.
Invaluable research assistance was provided by Louise Pilfold, and Lorraine
Johnson provided important advice. Our gratitude to Louise Dennys for
believing in this project, to our editor Michael Schellenberg for his
understanding as we juggled the book and our day jobs, to Kathryn Dean for
some dynamite copy editing and to Michelle MacAleese for helping keep things
on the rails.
Karee Dryden, nurse extraordinaire, drew a mean blood sample. Accu-Chem
Laboratories (Richardson, Texas), Axys Analytical Services (Sidney, British
Columbia), Brooks Rand Labs (Seattle, Washington) and STAT Analysis
Corporation (Chicago, Illinois) analyzed our blood, urine and toy samples in
record time, and we thank them for their efficiency and professionalism.
Finally, we want to acknowledge the many enlightened public officials,
journalists, scientific researchers, community leaders, parents and other engaged
citizens who—often in the face of very long odds—take action every day to
protect our environment and health. Of particular note is Dr. Sheila Basrur, who
died of cancer in 2008 and was never afraid to step out and lead efforts to protect
public health.
Together, we are winning.