Exposed by Mark Schapiro
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I changed servers for my website, and had technological challenges getting the blog migrated.
I just finished reading Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power by Mark Schapiro (Chelsea Green, September, 2007) and would recommend it to others. Schapiro not only looks at how chemicals are affecting our health, but also how the United States’ failure to maintain our world leadership in the environmental arena is now costing us economically as well. In particular, he looks at how the Eurpean Union’s environmental initiatives are changing the world stage and impacting the decision making at key US industries, including electronics, chemical production, and consumer products manufacturers.
Schapiro also looks at how our head-in-the-sand approach to environmental protection is now leaving us vulnerable to becoming the world’s dumping ground for seriously nasty chemicals that are outlawed in other countries. For example, he points to data that shows China "exports five hundred million dollars a year of processed wood to the United States that has been treated with formaldehyde, a binder in plywood and other home- and office-construction materials. Formaldehyde is a 'known carcinogen,' according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and a contributor to asthma in young children and respiratory problems in adults, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. In the spring of 2006 a timber company in Oregon, Columbia Forest Products, conducted tests on imported Chinese birch planks that it purchased at a Home Depot (such tests are not done by the U.S. government, thus our primary information on such matters comes from the private sector or NGOs [nongovernmental organizations, or nonprofits]). The company discovered levels of formaldehyde far in excess of the permissible levels in Europe or Japan."
He makes a pervasive argument that "US economic influence is quietly fading as its political and corporate leaders fall out of step with the forces of global integration that they once avidly pressed upon the world."
In spite of tougher regulations, the twelve-member Eurozone (the historic core of the EU) is outpacing us economically. The Eurozone 2.7% growth in 2006 compared to our own 2.2% growth. We need leaders who will help keep us safe, and by doing so, help protect our economic status and world leadership.
I just finished reading Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power by Mark Schapiro (Chelsea Green, September, 2007) and would recommend it to others. Schapiro not only looks at how chemicals are affecting our health, but also how the United States’ failure to maintain our world leadership in the environmental arena is now costing us economically as well. In particular, he looks at how the Eurpean Union’s environmental initiatives are changing the world stage and impacting the decision making at key US industries, including electronics, chemical production, and consumer products manufacturers.
Schapiro also looks at how our head-in-the-sand approach to environmental protection is now leaving us vulnerable to becoming the world’s dumping ground for seriously nasty chemicals that are outlawed in other countries. For example, he points to data that shows China "exports five hundred million dollars a year of processed wood to the United States that has been treated with formaldehyde, a binder in plywood and other home- and office-construction materials. Formaldehyde is a 'known carcinogen,' according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and a contributor to asthma in young children and respiratory problems in adults, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. In the spring of 2006 a timber company in Oregon, Columbia Forest Products, conducted tests on imported Chinese birch planks that it purchased at a Home Depot (such tests are not done by the U.S. government, thus our primary information on such matters comes from the private sector or NGOs [nongovernmental organizations, or nonprofits]). The company discovered levels of formaldehyde far in excess of the permissible levels in Europe or Japan."
He makes a pervasive argument that "US economic influence is quietly fading as its political and corporate leaders fall out of step with the forces of global integration that they once avidly pressed upon the world."
In spite of tougher regulations, the twelve-member Eurozone (the historic core of the EU) is outpacing us economically. The Eurozone 2.7% growth in 2006 compared to our own 2.2% growth. We need leaders who will help keep us safe, and by doing so, help protect our economic status and world leadership.
Labels: book review, Mark Schapiro, US becoming dumping ground
posted by Carol Ekarius @ 9:42 AM
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