Synopses & Reviews
The first book to tell the incredible story of two men behind the bitter thirty-year fight to protect children from lead
Clair Patterson, a geochemist, traveled from Greenland to New Zealand to measure the composition of rock, ice, and rain. Herbert Needleman, a psychiatrist, measured childrens performance in poor urban schools. By the 1960s and 1970s their work revealed that mankind was filling the world with lead, a toxic substance that was doing irreparable harm to children.
Patterson and Needlemans discoveries and their willingness to take on the lead industry helped bring about the banning of lead from paint, gasoline, and food packaging, beginning in the late 1970s. Getting the lead out took another decade, and it still lurks in old paint, soil, and foreign-made toys. But by the 1990s the average Americans lead level had dropped 90 percent, an achievement that ranks as one of the great public health success stories of the twentieth century.
In Toxic Truth, journalist Lydia Denworth tells both mens fascinating stories while also documenting the lead industrys well-funded efforts to discredit and silence them. Ultimately, science prevailed. But along the way, these two men and their allies redefined how we conceive of disease, contaminants, and public safety. Their courageous fight offers a lesson on the dangers of choosing corporate interests over public health.
"In Toxic Truth, Lydia Denworth has pulled off a rare feat: she's written a true page-turner, animated by a fascinating medical mystery, that's also a nuanced and immensely thoughtful look at how good ideas can overthrow orthodoxy -- and ultimately make the world a better place." Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map
About the Author
Lydia Denworth is a former Newsweek reporter and People bureau chief. Her writing on science, education, and other social issues has appeared in the New York Times, Redbook, Health, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three sons.