Book
They poisoned the world : life and death in the age of forever chemicals / Mariah Blake.
"A landmark investigation of the chemical industry's decades-long campaign to hide the devastating effects of "forever chemicals," told through the story of a small town on the frontline of an epic public health crisis"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781524760090 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xvii, 296 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Crown, [2025]
- Copyright: ©2025
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | A bump in the road -- Teflon town -- Lucifer's gas -- Exile to Devil's Island -- Catch-22 -- Biological dynamite -- Blood secrets -- The tipping point -- Welcome to beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia -- A rock in the machine -- "They poisoned the world" -- The reckoning -- Cloud nine -- Dirty water, dirty deal -- Accidental activists -- What-ifs and worst-case scenarios -- Wall of resistance -- Victory -- To the ends of the world -- Epilogue. |
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- 0 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
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- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown Branch | 615.9020974741 Bla | 31681010418077 | NONFIC | Checked out | 07/31/2025 |
- Baker & Taylor
"A landmark investigation of the chemical industry's decades-long campaign to hide the devastating effects of "forever chemicals," told through the story of a small town on the frontline of an epic public health crisis"-- Provided by publisher. - Random House, Inc.
âRiveting . . . Blakeâs deft chronicle of one of the greatest moral scandals of our time [is] a book that none of us can afford to miss.ââThe Washington Post
A gripping investigation of the chemical industryâs decades-long campaign to hide the dangers of forever chemicals, told through the story of a small town on the frontlines of an epic public health crisis.
In 2014, after losing several friends and relatives to cancer, an unassuming insurance underwriter in Hoosick Falls, New York, began to suspect that the local water supply was polluted. When he tested his tap water, he discovered dangerous levels of forever chemicals. This set off a chain of events that led to 100 million Americans learning their drinking water was tainted. Although the discovery came as a shock to most, the U.S. government and the manufacturers of these toxic chemicalsâused in everything from lipstick and cookware to childrenâs clothingâhad known about their hazards for decades.
In They Poisoned the World, investigative journalist Mariah Blake tells the astonishing story of this cover-up, tracing its roots back to the Manhattan Project and through the postwar years, as industry scientists discovered that these chemicals refused to break down and were saturating the blood of virtually every human being. By the 1980s, manufacturers were secretly testing their workers and finding links to birth defects, cancer, and other serious diseases. At every step, the industryâs deceptions were aided by our governmentâs appallingly lax regulatory systemâa system that has made us all guinea pigs in a vast, uncontrolled chemistry experiment.
Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and tens of thousands of documents, Blake interweaves the secret history of forever chemicals with the moving story of how a lone village took on the chemical giantsâand won. From the beloved local doctor to the young mother who took her fight all the way to the nationâs capital, citizen activists in Hoosick Falls and beyond have ignited the most powerful grassroots environmental movement since Silent Spring.
Humane and revelatory, this book will provoke outrageâand hopefully inspire the change we need to protect the health of every American for generations to come.
