The Poison Detectives

Doing it For Yourself

What does the ordinary person do to protect themselves when regulators fail? How can you know what is safe to eat – or safe to eat just a little – or safe to eat if you wash it?  There are groups trying to fill in the gaps left by poor regulation. The Environmental Working Group in Washington publishes a list of the Dirty Dozen – fruits and vegetables most contaminated with pesticides. But they also publish a list of the Clean 15. And both lists are updated if things change and a dirty one becomes clean. And then there is the book, Slow Death by Rubber Duck. When it was published in 2009 it wasn’t just the quirky title that made it a best seller around the world. The book revealed how daily life is bathing us in toxins that accumulate in our tissues, are passed on to our children and damage our health. That was a wakeup call to people all over the world. In this episode Bruce Lourie and Rick Smith explain why they decided the best way to demonstrate how chemicals get into our bodies was to experiment on themselves and document it in a book. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Weed Killer

For more than thirty years, scientists, regulators, and one of the world’s most powerful chemical companies have been locked in a battle over the active ingredient in Roundup -- a chemical called glyphosate. A battle fought over the soil itself -- and over what we believe keeps us safe. Episode eight tells that story. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Birds and The Bees

Industry capture can happen when a regulator has too few resources and relies on industry analysis of studies on a product up for review. It can happen when the culture of the government agency is to support industry and ensure speedy approvals. It can happen because Industry has paid lobbyists who spend a lot of time calling and meeting with regulators to push their products.      Most often it takes a court case or an investigative journalist to find the evidence for the interference. Day to day, people can only wonder when a regulator makes a decision that is questionable and detrimental to people and wildlife.     Episode seven is a case study in how a Canadian scientist had her work dismissed and discredited by a collaboration between the regulator and the industry wanting to prevent its product from being banned. This is episode seven, The Birds and the Bees.  ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Pesticides for Dinner

Pesticides for Dinner reveals how trust in Canada's food system is damaged by a regulatory system that works too closely with the industry and often fails to act when science uncovers the health dangers of approved pesticides. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Toxic Justice

In this episode, everyone has given up on the regulators, who move slowly if at all. Lawsuits are filed by Diane Cotter’s husband Paul and his colleagues. The union, the International Association of Fire Fighters, sues the National Fire Protection Association, which sets the safety standards for firefighting equipment. And lawyer Rob Bilott files a class action suit, which includes every person in the U.S., and requires the chemical companies to pay for blood tests of all 325 million Americans. Will the chemical companies let him get away with it?   And we learn about Diane Cotter’s hardest days. After years of abuse on social media, email attacks and shunning, she felt she couldn’t go on. But something pulled her back from the edge. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.