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    Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things
    Unavailable
    Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things
    Unavailable
    Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things
    Ebook489 pages7 hours

    Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things

    By Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A look at the chemicals surrounding us that’s “hard-hitting . . . yet also instills hope for a future in which consumers make safer, more informed choices” (The Washington Post).
     
    Pollution is no longer just about belching smokestacks and ugly sewer pipes—now, it’s personal.
     
    The most dangerous pollution, it turns out, comes from commonplace items in our homes and workplaces. To prove this point, for one week Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie ingested and inhaled a host of things that surround all of us. Using their own bodies as the reference point to tell the story of pollution in our modern world, they expose the corporate giants who manufacture the toxins, the government officials who let it happen, and the effects on people and families across the globe.
     
    This book—the testimony of their experience—also exposes the extent to which we are poisoned every day of our lives, from the simple household dust that is polluting our blood to the toxins in our urine that are created by run-of-the-mill shampoos and toothpaste. Ultimately hopeful, the book empowers readers with some simple ideas for protecting themselves and their families, and changing things for the better.
     
    “Undertaking a cheeky experiment in self-contamination, professional Canadian environmentalists Smith and Lourie expose themselves to hazardous everyday substances, then measure the consequences . . . Throughout, the duo weave scientific data and recent political history into an amusing but unnerving narrative, refusing to sugarcoat any of the data while maintaining a welcome sense of humor.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateDec 10, 2009
    ISBN9781582436760
    Unavailable
    Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things
    Author

    Rick Smith

    RICK SMITH is a prominent Canadian author and environmentalist. He is executive director of the Broadbent Institute and was the executive director of Environmental Defence for almost 10 years. He is the co-author of Toxin Toxout.

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    Reviews for Slow Death by Rubber Duck

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      3.75 starsThe subtitle of this book, How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects our Health, pretty much tells you what this is about. The authors, both environmentalists, mostly look at “invisible” chemicals, often in our homes, that affect most of us. They look at plastics, flame retardants, Teflon, mercury, antibacterials, pesticides... and more. We get a history and the authors even do tests on themselves after exposing themselves to these chemicals, in amounts that most people would be exposed to without even thinking about it. I found this quite interesting, and a bit scary, as well, as I try to limit my contact with chemicals - if I know about them, anyway. I liked that, in the last chapter, they provide ways to help people at least try to avoid some of these chemicals, and they also suggest other “action items”.
    • 4/5
      A few chemicals reviewed, but thoroughly (phthalates; PFCs - Teflon; PBDEs - fire resistants; Mercury; Triclosan - antibacterial, such as Microban; Pesticides; Bisphenol A - in plactics)
    • 4/5
      This is one of those books that is so hard to rate because I just don't know what would be appropriate. The writing itself was very conversational for such a hard topic as chemical awareness. The book could have easily been an essay in a medical journal filled with terms only a trained professional could understand, but instead as it followed the experiments and work of the authors it read more like a diary or a letter to a friend. The amount of toxins in everyday items is actually shocking when you think about it in terms of the products you buy and keep in your home; but what is even more shocking is the action (or non-action in most cases) of the companies who make these products they know full well to be toxic. Many simply ignore the issue, while others make an active fight to show all evidence proving them to be dangerous to be lies.I will definitely be checking labels and ingredients more vigilantly before I make my next purchases, that is for certain.
    • 4/5
      This books contains good information about all the toxic chemicals contained in everyday household items, in beauty products, and food. I found it hard to read for one reason only, it's scary. I felt paralysed at times, debating whether to cook my eggs in my non-stick frying pan the morning after reading about Dupont and their Teflon coatings. Then I would go out for sushi and wonder how much mercury I was ingesting in that serving and try to calculate how many more times I could eat that type of food that month. And of course, my favourite shampoo, was full of suspect ingredients, some straight out bad for me type ingredients. So in the end I got over my fears, changed my shampoo, threw out some frying pans and starting eating yam tempura rolls instead of sashimi. Ignorance in bliss, but I'm glad I read this book.