Biocidal: Confronting the Poisonous Legacy of PCBs [review]

Criticism of chemicals, medications and cosmetics in the world, as well as those companies that make them, is nothing new. With the emergence of conscientious consumerist subcultures, a small industry has mushroomed to cover the dangers of manufactured goods in our daily lives. The most extreme examples of this are anti-vaccine tendencies that assert cagy links of immunization to autism or worse. One can find dozens of DVDs, books, blogs and more devoted to the idea that the medical establishment, Big Pharma and the government are in cahoots to inoculate children with crippling drugs.

Not fully science yet not total conspiracy theory, the cottage industry breeds in a gray area, one in which rightful concern about profiteering and lax safety measures are intermingled with presentations of hard science by non-scientists and circumstantial evidence to a much more sinister conclusion. It is difficult to completely condemn such works — their blasting of corporate greed is needed and refreshing, for one — but it is challenging to verify at points.

Ted Dracos’ Biocidal: Confronting the Poisonous Legacy of PCBs (Beacon, 2010) seems nestled in this area.

On the one hand, Dracos’ writing is accessible and intelligent. His background is not in science, but as an author, whose previous works have included a look into the killing of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and an Amazon-promoted essay on Timothy Leary. Such skilled writing and his talents as an investigative reporter allow Dracos a certain panache to telling the story of Monsanto, the EPA and independent researchers uncovering the true danger. If you can get past publisher (and internal) comparisons to Rachel Carson’s environmental movement-launching Silent Spring, you are in for an engrossing book. Dracos is clearly passionate about the subject, and what seem to be liberties are at moments forgivable as a reader cannot help but be caught up in what seems to be tremendous intrigue and a quest to expose subterfuge at the highest peaks of power.

His views — that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are among the most toxic chemicals ever, which have seeped into almost everyone due to corporate malfeasance, government free-market policy and chummy relationships with lawmakers — are sure to stir strong emotions in anyone worried about the influence of the wealthy. Yet it’s the theatrics of it, vague citations and leaps (given the number of aforementioned online medical conspiracy sites, it is hard to accept such citations without greater context) that make Biocidal hard to follow at points. No matter. You will still find Biocidal most intriguing.

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