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Silent Scourge: Children, Pollution, and Why Scientists Disagree

Colleen F Moore Oxford University Press, £24.95, pp 318 0 19 515391 X Rating:

Children have less control over their environment than adults, and environmental policies that damage the present generation may affect future generations. Moore focuses on the effects of mercury, noise, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead, and technological disasters, partly because of the availability of research results on behavioural and psychological effects from these pollutants. In each chapter Moore examines why experts disagree, looks at problems with the way episodes of pollution have been handled, and concludes with a list of action points for parents, and those working for organisations that could control pollution exposure.

The issues covered are undoubtedly thought provoking, and challenging. There have been huge improvements in the knowledge and the control of some pollutants, but we have not always learnt from past mistakes. The level of protection and strategies for dealing with adverse events are not evenly distributed across all sections of society or across different countries. There are also many unknowns.

Moore has been ambitious in trying to cover all aspects of these pollutants and in providing background information with which to appraise different scientific approaches, summaries of statistical techniques, as well as details of the pollutants, their effects on health, and specific episodes of pollution. It is also ambitious to provide for such a wide readership—from parents to environmental control organisations, and across countries. For people to be empowered to take action, they need to have reliable and timely information about their exposure.

A series of steps is needed to provide relevant, often local, information, recommendations for effective action, and sometimes legislation and measures to be taken by organisations as well as individuals. The balance of methods of action will need to vary according not only to the type of pollution and source but the economy of the population exposed. In some societies, the pressure of other circumstances will result in priorities being made about health care, prevention, and pollution. The recommendations in this book need to be set in the context of these priorities.

Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey Jane.Melia@icr.ac.uk

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