Biocidal by Ted Dracos

Read chapter 8: "PCBs, Breast Cancer, and Hidden Agendas" from Biocidal: Confronting the Poisonous Legacy of PCBs (http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?SKU=0632).

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were first manufactured in 1920 for the electronics industry. This highly toxic group of substances was then put to widespread military and domestic use, and were soon found even in the remotest corners of the earth. Since PCBs were outlawed in 1976, most people think the problem has been solved. However, over thirty years later, PCBs still reside in oceans, the atmosphere, and the tissues of every human being ever tested.

In Biocidal, investigative journalist Ted Dracos explores the science behind how PCBs pose a grim threat to Earth’s biodiversity. He also draws on extensive research to document the connection between PCBs and catastrophic human illness. For decades, the chemical industry manipulated regulatory agencies and scientific findings to continue to reap huge profits, despite their knowledge of the threats posed by their products. Dracos presents the latest science on the heated controversy that surrounds the continued health impacts of PCBs, ranging from cancer to immunosuppression and reproductive abnormalities.

Yet Biocidal optimistically leaves readers with a simple blueprint for steps that can be and are being taken to reduce the impacts of PCBs and other industrial chemicals.