Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants

Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants
by Carl F. Cranor
(2)

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Review & Description

Take a random walk through your life and you’ll find it is awash in industrial, often toxic, chemicals. Sip water from a plastic bottle and ingest bisphenol A. Prepare dinner in a non-stick frying pan or wear a layer of Gore-Tex only to be exposed to perfluorinated compounds. Hang curtains, clip your baby into a car seat, watch television—all are manufactured with brominated flame-retardants.

Cosmetic ingredients, industrial chemicals, pesticides, and other compounds enter our bodies and remain briefly or permanently. Far too many suspected toxic hazards are unleashed every day that affect the development and function of our brain, immune system, reproductive organs, or hormones. But no public health law requires product testing of most chemical compounds before they enter the market. If products are deemed dangerous, toxicants must be forcibly reduced or removed—but only after harm has been done.

In this scientifically rigorous legal analysis, Carl Cranor argues that just as pharmaceuticals and pesticides cannot be sold without pre-market testing, other chemical products should be subject to the same safety measures. Cranor shows, in terrifying detail, what risks we run, and that it is entirely possible to design a less dangerous commercial world.

(20110701)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79672 in Books
• Published on: 2011-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 328 pages

Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know
by Lawrence R. Jacobs, Theda Skocpol
(5)

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Review & Description

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama in March 2010 is a landmark in U.S. social legislation. The new law extends health insurance to nearly all Americans, fulfilling a century-long quest and bringing the United States to parity with other industrial nations. Affordable Care aims to control rapidly rising health care costs and promises to make the United States more equal, reversing four decades of rising disparities between the very rich and everyone else. Millions of people of modest means will gain new benefits and protections from insurance company abuses - and the tab will be paid by privileged corporations and the very rich.

How did such a bold reform effort pass in a polity wracked by partisan divisions and intense lobbying by special interests? What does Affordable Care mean - and what comes next? In Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol--two of the nation's leading experts on politics and health care policy--provide a concise and accessible overview. They explain the political battles of 2009 and 2010, highlighting White House strategies, the deals Democrats cut with interest groups, and the impact of agitation by Tea Partiers and progressives. Jacobs and Skocpol spell out what the new law can do for everyday Americans, what it will cost, and who will pay. Above all, they explain what comes next, as critical yet often behind-the-scenes battles rage over implementing reform nationally and in the fifty states. Affordable Care might end up being weakened. But, like Social Security and Medicare, it could also gain strength and popularity as the majority of Americans learn what it can do for them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27271 in Books
• Published on: 2010-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .80" h x 5.40" w x 8.10" l, .57 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation (Institute for Policy Innovation Books)

Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation (Institute for Policy Innovation Books)
by Richard A. Epstein
(1)

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Review & Description

This book is the first to offer a comprehensive examination of the pharmaceutical industry by following the tortuous course of a new drug as it progresses from early development to final delivery. Richard A. Epstein looks closely at the regulatory framework that surrounds all aspects of making pharmaceutical products today, and he assesses which current legal and regulatory practices make sense and which have gone awry. 
While critics of pharmaceutical companies call for ever more stringent controls on virtually every aspect of drug development and approval, Epstein cautions that the effect of such an approach will be to stifle pharmaceutical innovation and slow the delivery of beneficial treatments to the patients who need them. The author considers an array of challenges that confront the industry--conflicts of interest among government, academe, and the drug companies; intellectual property rights that govern patents; FDA regulation; pricing disputes; marketing practices; and liability issues, including those brought to light in the recent VIOXX case. Epstein argues that to ensure the continuing creativity, efficiency, and success of the pharmaceutical industry, the best system will feature strong property rights and clearly enforceable contracts, with minimal regulatory and judicial interference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1071580 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .70" h x 6.10" w x 9.20" l, .95 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages