Dying From Dioxin

'Now everyone has an opportunity to learn about dioxin and the issues surrounding it, in this well-presented, multifaceted book.' Theo Colborn, Senior Program Scientist, World Wildlife Fund (USA)In Dying From Dioxin, Lois Marie Gibbs and other scientists and activists describe the alarming details of the public health crisis surrounding dioxin, and explain how citizens can organize against this toxic threat.

Gibbs, one of the original activists from the contaminated neighborhoods at Love Canal, explains what dioxin is and describes how it affects human health, summarizing the September 1994 EPA draft report on dioxin and important reports published since the EPA report. She reviews the politics surrounding the history of dioxin, and offers step-by-step instructions for grass-roots organizing, creating a coalition, identifying sources of contamination in the community, and shutting down an incinerator. Contains appendices on the chemistry of dioxin, conversion charts, sample ordinances, agreements and resolutions, and a declaration of principles of environmental justice. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Investigates the scientific, legal, and moral issues raised by the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

The Chemical Scythe is the first book in a projected series to be published by Plenum Press in association with the International Disaster Institute. The aim of the series, Disaster Research in Practice, is to provide scientific and readable accounts on the most urgent areas of disaster research. It is fitting, therefore, that Dr. Hay's investigation into the nature and effects of dioxins heralds the new series. The problem of chemical hazards is one that we will have to learn to live with in future decades. Dr. Hay's book is an authoritative account of the chemistry and proven and potential effects of dioxins, and of the impli cations for safety planning. He concludes with a cautious, yet optimistic note-that indeed we can learn to live with such hazards, providing that we are prepared to understand and plan for the unexpected. The accident at Seveso in 1976 alerted the world to an imperfectly un derstood but immensely alarming environmental hazard. Public debate and argument as to the implications of dioxins and, indeed, the use of herbicides as aggressive weapons in Vietnam, rage on. And yet it is only through the painstaking research exemplified in this book that it will eventually be pos sible to promote the vital accountability on the part of industrialists and governments.

Dioxin – Environmental Fate and Health/Ecological Consequences offers a unique, and comprehensive coverage of dioxins and their congeners once they are released to the environment. The book provides readers with a systematic understanding of past and emerging sources of dioxins, current dioxins inventories and historical trends, fate and long-range transboundary atmospheric transport, human health, and ecological risk and regulatory perspective. Providing an excellent analysis of dioxin exposure through the food chain and impact on human health, it also documents the environmental implications of dioxins on ecological flora and fauna. The book offers readers a holistic understanding about dioxins, their atmospheric fate and transport, distribution in various environmental matrices and various routes and exposure pathways through which human beings are exposed to this persistent organic pollutant. It further offers an insight into the toxicological profile and mechanistic analysis of the onset of cancer, remediation technologies, and existing regulatory framework to deal with the problems associated with dioxins. The book will serve as an excellent resource to environmental professionals, particularly environmental toxicologists, environmental health professionals, remediation engineers, environmental regulatory agencies, policymakers, and environmental law professionals.

Autophagy is a cellular process of “self-eating,” which involves the digestion of cytoplasmic components via the lysosomal pathway as resources during starvation or other limiting conditions. However, many studies have indicated that autophagy may represent a cellular response to stress conditions. As a consequence, autophagy can directly induce cell death or act as a mechanism of cell survival. It is well established that 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) may promote a multiplicity of toxic effects in mammalian cells. In particular, kidney anomalies are correlated with dioxin exposure by inducing augmented renal immune complex deposition, glomerulonephritis, and hydronephrosis. In Madin–Darby Bovine Kidney (MDBK), a kidney epithelial cell line, our group demonstrated that TCDD provokes cell proliferation and impairs cellular iron homeostasis, leading to changes in the extent of the labile iron pool. These processes could be associated with neoplastic transformation of the bovine kidney cell. Analysis of MDBK cell morphology revealed some death alterations in a large number of exposed cells where signs of neither apoptosis nor necrosis were detected, but we found that dioxin activated cell death with autophagy. Our data establish the requirement for autophagy in the maintenance of MDBK cells exposed to dioxin, as well as providing evidence suggesting that autophagy protects against proliferative effects induced by non-genotoxic compounds such as TCDD. Indeed, multiple evidences indicate that autophagy plays a critical role in kidney maintenance, diseases, and aging. Generally, autophagy serves as a protective mechanism, but persistent activation of autophagy can result in cell death, mainly after exposure to toxic agents.

Good,No Highlights,No Markup,all pages are intact, Slight Shelfwear,may have the corners slightly dented, may have slight color changes/slightly damaged spine.

"I died in Vietnam, but I didn’t even know it," said a young Vietnam vet on the Today Show one morning in 1978, shocking viewers across the country. Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange—the first book ever written on the effects of Agent Orange—tells this young vet’s story and that of hundreds of thousands of other former American servicemen. During the war, the US sprayed an estimated 12 million gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam, in order to defoliate close to 5 million acres of its land. "Had anyone predicted that millions of human beings exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin would get sick and die," scholar Fred A. Wilcox writes in the new introduction to his seminal book, "their warnings would have been dismissed as sci-fi fantasy or apocalyptic nonsense." Told in a gripping and compassionate narrative style that travels from the war in Vietnam to the war at home, and through portraits of many of the affected survivors, their families, and the doctors and scientists whose clinical experience and research gave the lie to the government whitewash, Waiting for an Army to Die tells a story that, thirty years later, continues to create new twists and turns for Americans still waiting for justice and an honest account of what happened to them. Vietnam has chosen August 10—the day that the US began spraying Agent Orange on Vietnam—as Agent Orange Day, to commemorate all its citizens who were affected by the deadly chemical. The new second edition of Waiting for an Army to Die will be released upon the third anniversary of this day, in honor of all those whose families have suffered, and continue to suffer, from this tragedy.

“A galvanizing exposé” of America’s trash problem from plastic in the ocean to “wasteful packaging, bogus recycling, and flawed landfills and incinerators” (Booklist, starred review). Eat a take-out meal, buy a pair of shoes, or read a newspaper, and you’re soon faced with a bewildering amount of garbage. The United States is the planet’s number-one producer of trash. Each American throws out 4.5 pounds daily. But garbage is also a global problem. Today, the Pacific Ocean contains six times more plastic waste than zooplankton. How did we end up with this much rubbish, and where does it all go? Journalist and filmmaker Heather Rogers answers these questions by taking readers on a grisly and fascinating tour through the underworld of garbage. Gone Tomorrow excavates the history of rubbish handling from the nineteenth century to the present, pinpointing the roots of today’s waste-addicted society. With a “lively authorial voice,” Rogers draws connections between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our throwaway lifestyle (New York Press). She also investigates the politics of recycling and the export of trash to poor countries, while offering a potent argument for change. “A clear-thinking and peppery writer, Rogers presents a galvanizing exposé of how we became the planet’s trash monsters. . . . [Gone Tomorrow] details everything that is wrong with today’s wasteful packaging, bogus recycling, and flawed landfills and incinerators. . . . Rogers exhibits black-belt precision.” —Booklist, starred review