I bought this book after watching a Ted talk about the harmful effects of atrazine on frogs. It kept me engaged for the first four or maybe five chapters. Then everything became a blur, I could not remember what arguments the author had put forth for which toxins and what the reasons were for those toxins not being regulated out. In the end, I cannot really say that I have retained a lot of stuff from this book, mostly because there were too many facts involved, and I was reading at a pace that was too fast for me to memorize all of it. What I did internalize however is the fact that we all are exposed to a lot of toxic substances and they all come from the conveniences we have surrounded us with. The book gives some advice into how to reduce your exposure.
A number of facts in the book were shocking to me. One was that asbestos is a carcinogen. Maybe everyone in the US know this for a fact. In India however, a lot of houses have this as their roof. It gets really hot to stay inside a house with such kind of roofs, but people still do it instead of the traditional tiling that were used earlier because it is durable and cheap. The tiles that were in use until maybe around 50 years ago were perfectly suited for our climate - they keep the house cool in the heat. The problem that traditional tiles have is that they need to be completely replaced from time to time, and it is an expensive and time consuming affair that one has to make sure is done before the monsoons hit. Thats why, even though it gets hot, and even though during the monsoons the noise of rain falling on these roofs make the water sound more like rocks, people continue to replace the tiles with this stuff. Pieces of the stuff soon start falling around your house, and then pretty soon kids start using these pieces to play games with. And for the very same reasons, a lot of people use it for covering their water tanks too. Oh, btw, in India, you have to have a water tank for each house, because one cannot be sure that the public water supply will always have water. Our water tank used to be covered with asbestos. I have played with it so many times. I still remember the powdery feeling your hands had if you handled some of the old pieces long enough. I had no idea I was dealing with a carcinogen, all that time. I wonder what my future is...
The other thing was PVC. I had no idea that was a harmful material. I remember seeing a lot of ads when I was younger about why it was good to use PVC pipes in your house. I guess the thinking then was that PVC was a lot better than the old metal pipes that would get rusted and broken, and worse, will need to be replaced. Wish we had only known..
I guess I have written way too much than is required for a book review. Read it.
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A number of facts in the book were shocking to me. One was that asbestos is a carcinogen. Maybe everyone in the US know this for a fact. In India however, a lot of houses have this as their roof. It gets really hot to stay inside a house with such kind of roofs, but people still do it instead of the traditional tiling that were used earlier because it is durable and cheap. The tiles that were in use until maybe around 50 years ago were perfectly suited for our climate - they keep the house cool in the heat. The problem that traditional tiles have is that they need to be completely replaced from time to time, and it is an expensive and time consuming affair that one has to make sure is done before the monsoons hit. Thats why, even though it gets hot, and even though during the monsoons the noise of rain falling on these roofs make the water sound more like rocks, people continue to replace the tiles with this stuff. Pieces of the stuff soon start falling around your house, and then pretty soon kids start using these pieces to play games with. And for the very same reasons, a lot of people use it for covering their water tanks too. Oh, btw, in India, you have to have a water tank for each house, because one cannot be sure that the public water supply will always have water. Our water tank used to be covered with asbestos. I have played with it so many times. I still remember the powdery feeling your hands had if you handled some of the old pieces long enough. I had no idea I was dealing with a carcinogen, all that time. I wonder what my future is...
The other thing was PVC. I had no idea that was a harmful material. I remember seeing a lot of ads when I was younger about why it was good to use PVC pipes in your house. I guess the thinking then was that PVC was a lot better than the old metal pipes that would get rusted and broken, and worse, will need to be replaced. Wish we had only known..
I guess I have written way too much than is required for a book review. Read it.
\
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