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Join us when author Mariah Blake visits to discuss her latest book, They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals.
About the author:
Mariah Blake is an investigative journalist whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The New Republic, and other publications. She was a Murrey Marder Nieman Fellow in Watchdog Journalism at Harvard University.
They Poisoned the World tells the astonishing story of this cover-up, tracing its roots back to the Manhattan Project and through the postwar years, as industry scientists discovered that these chemicals refused to break down and were saturating the blood of virtually every human being. By the 1980s, manufacturers were secretly testing their workers and finding links to birth defects, cancer, and other serious diseases. At every step, the industry’s deceptions were aided by our government’s appallingly lax regulatory system—a system that has made us all guinea pigs in a vast, uncontrolled chemistry experiment.
Drawing on eight years of on-the-ground reporting, interviews with more than two hundred people, and tens of thousands of documents, They Poisoned the World interweaves the secret history of forever chemicals with the moving story of how a lone village took on the chemical giants—and won. From the beloved local doctor to the young mother who took her fight all the way to the nation’s capital, citizen activists in Hoosick Falls and beyond have ignited the most powerful grassroots environmental movement since Silent Spring. Blake documented almost every facet of their lives, accompanying them to hospital rooms, churches, dive bars, funeral homes, Little League games, and family dinners. She watched as they fought illness and grief and witnessed deeply emotional moments, including the birth of a child whose mother was all too aware of the chemical burden she had passed on through her umbilical cord.
Humane and revelatory, They Poisoned the World will provoke outrage—and hopefully inspire the change we need to protect the health of every American for generations to come.
Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.
TAGS: | Author Event |
Located in Pepper Pike, the Orange Branch offers a cozy fireplace reading area, community meeting spaces and a full service drive-up window. The branch’s interactive children’s area features artwork from the book Aesop’s Fables by the late beloved illustrator Jerry Pinkney.
