Playing with Fire: Chemical companies, Big Tobacco and the toxic products in your home by The Chicago Tribute staff is a collection of investigative journalism pieces looking into the health risks and consumer safety issues surrounding the corporate industry's push towards the use of chemically toxic flame retardants in common household items, free courtesy of publisher Agate's Digital imprint.
This is a repeat from mid-2013.
Currently free @
B&N &
Amazon (not available to Canadians). This should also show up in a DRM-free PDF available worldwide
direct from the publisher's website after a couple of days, if it follows the pattern of their other recent freebies.
Description
The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes, and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. How could it possibly be in the US that children are already contaminated at birth with such disturbingly high levels of toxic chemicals? The truth lies in the greed and deception of two powerful industries—Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers.
In a groundbreaking piece of investigative journalism by the Chicago Tribune, Playing with Fire exposes the realities about the ineffectiveness and potential health risks caused by the flame retardants that are pervasive in American homes. Big Tobacco and large chemical companies used fear, exaggerated scientific claims, and shady deal-making to serve their own interests at the expense of consumer safety.
Playing with Fire is an extremely significant, revelatory piece of watchdog journalism that is a must-read for anyone with small children and for citizens who demand responsibility of big businesses and their governments. The investigation, launched in May 2012, prompted two US Senate hearings, and the US Environmental Protection Agency announced it would launch an investigation of flame retardants. Also, California’s governor said the state would scrap the rule responsible for flame retardants’ presence in furniture.