When Smoke Ran like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle against Pollution

When Smoke Ran like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle against Pollution Devra Davis, Basic Books, 387 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10016-8810. 2002. 316p. $16.95 paperback. ISBN 0-465-01522-0.

This is a high-impact book, suitable for classes on environmental policy in the United States. It has many clear examples drawn from the author's own experience (Chapters 3-5). It also invokes, implicitly in many places and explicitly in a few, the precautionary principle, that xenobiotic materials should be considered guilty until proven innocent. This idea is far more common in Europe than the United States and we are just beginning to digest its implications. In the meantime there is plenty here to chew on.

Epidemiology as a science is well described in Chapter 5. Some of Davis' earlier, more controversial positions have already been proven correct by further research, while for some the evidence is still accumulating. In particular the topic of environmental endocrine disrupters...