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Rating: 
Summary: A book every American should read
Review: If you've ever wondered why the public health system in this country is a mess, this book will show you. Basically, the burden of proof to demonstrate that a given chemical is harmful is on the victims or the underfunded EPA, who often, for both financial and legal reasons, have to depend on tests and information given by the chemical companies themselves. If that's not the fox guarding the henhouse then I don't know what is.
The book examines in depth four chemicals : atrazine and alachlor (both pesticides), perchloroethylene (used in dry cleaning), and formaldehyde, which is used in many products, particularly wood-related ones. The companies that make these products include some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world including du Pont, Monsanto, Ciba-Geigy, Dow Chemical, Borden (yes, Elsie the cow is poisoning you) and Georgia-Pacific. They have armies of lawyers. They have many scientists working directly for them, and many others in academia working indirectly through studies that they fund. They also have bigtime PR firms who hammer home the message that (to quote the title of a related book) Toxic Sludge is Good for You.
Even in the few cases where a chemical actually is banned, the taxpayer then has to make up the difference. We can all be poisoned but heaven forbid that one of these huge corporations should lose a little profit !
Rating: 
Summary: informative
Review: McLachlan 1996 paper was retracted and the 1st edition was written prior to the retraction. Very informative on how the EPA works (or doesn't work) and the tactics used by the Chemical companies to mislead. The precedent established in this book about how Monsanto (Pharmacia) and Zeneca (now Syngenta) act and their lack of concern for people should be kept in mind during the discussion of GMO foods where Monsanto and Syngenta are prime movers. The book was informative, however, I would check out a copy at the library instead of buying.
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Summary: Toxic Deception book simply deceptive
Review: The enthusiasm of your reviewers for Toxic Deception is unwarranted.This volume is far from a reliable guide to the science and politics of environmental health risks. Let one example suffice. Research from Science (7 June,1996) is characterized by the authors in the following manner; "A recent study of the effects of ... pesticides on estrogen-sensitive cells in test tubes, for example, found that the pesticides were 1,000 times more potent in combination than individually." The research in question was formally retracted by its authors in Science, on 25 July 1997. The episode was widely discussed and led to an ethics investigation by Tulane University. Toxic Deception was published in 1999. That news of this development took two years to reach the authors stretches plausibility. Moreover, the same environmental foundation (W. Alton Jones) which funded the retracted study likewise supported the publication of Toxic Deception.
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Summary: Muckraking is not (totally) dead!
Review: This is a great book, telling the reader how and why the EPA, the supposed bane of industry, has become toothless in the face of organized opposition (and co-optation) from the industries themselves. Four chemicals, including the drycleaning chemical "perc", formaldehyde, and two pesticides, are followed through the EPA maze, with fascinating diversions to corporate lawfirms, PR flacks, and financial records, until the reader discovers why these dangerous chemicals are not properly regulated. Anyone who understands math knows the EPA will never adequately test the millions of chemicals now in existence--now find out the politics that explain why they can't even properly test or regulate some of the most dangerous ones in common use all over the USA. An eye-opener!
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