When a new technology makes people ill, how high does the body count have to be before protectives steps are taken?

This disturbing book tells a dark story of hazardous manufacturing, poisonous materi...

Buy Now From Amazon

When a new technology makes people ill, how high does the body count have to be before protectives steps are taken?

This disturbing book tells a dark story of hazardous manufacturing, poisonous materials, environmental abuses, political machinations, and economics trumping safety concerns. It explores the century-long history of “fake silk,” or cellulose viscose, used to produce such products as rayon textiles and tires, cellophane, and everyday kitchen sponges. Paul Blanc uncovers the grim history of a product that crippled and even served a death sentence to many industry workers while also releasing toxic carbon disulfide into the environment.
 
Viscose, an innovative and lucrative product first introduced in the early twentieth century, quickly became a multinational corporate enterprise. Blanc investigates industry practices from the beginning through two highly profitable world wars, the midcentury export of hazardous manufacturing to developing countries, and the current “greenwashing” of viscose as an eco-friendly product. Deeply researched and boldly presented, this book brings to light an industrial hazard whose egregious history ranks with those of asbestos, lead, and mercury.


Similar Products

Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the PresentHow to Read a Dress: A Guide to Changing Fashion from the 16th to the 20th CenturyThe Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining WomenBanned: A History of Pesticides and the Science of ToxicologyA Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and OurselvesThe Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States (Architecture, Landscape and Amer Culture)Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America's Children (California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public)