Rick Smith (1) (1968–)

3.75 stars

The subtitle of this book, How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects our Health, pretty much tells you what this is about. The authors, both environmentalists, mostly look at “invisible” chemicals, often in our homes, that affect most of us. They look at plastics, flame retardants, Teflon, mercury, antibacterials, pesticides... and more. We get a history and the authors even do tests on themselves after exposing themselves to these chemicals, in amounts that most people would be exposed to without even thinking about it.

I found this quite interesting, and a bit scary, as well, as I try to limit my contact with chemicals - if I know about them, anyway. I liked that, in the last chapter, they provide ways to help people at least try to avoid some of these chemicals, and they also suggest other “action items”.… (plus d'informations)

Slow Death by Rubber Duck is the kind of book you want to love, and yet, who enjoys reading about how we poison our bodies with unwitting chemicals?

Normally, I avoid these types of books as I feel anxious, frustrated, and hopeless after reading them. The fellow Canadian authors of Slow Death by Rubber Duck, however, have done their due dilligence and given readers a full chapter summarizing their decade-long findings. More importantly, they give concrete advice on what you can do to minimize your toxic load.

Calling Slow Death by Rubber Duck the, "definitive volume on toxic pollution," using themselves as guinea pigs, I feel, is accurate. Not the sexiest of explanations though. Frankly, if someone tried to sell me on the book using that description, I'd pass.

So instead, let me drop one stat from the book - from thousands you could choose from - to explain how fantastic yet disturing this book is: "In one study, 83% of tap water in seven countries was found to contain plastic micro-fibers".

Not enough for you? Here's one more: "... EWG found 232 toxic chemicals in the umbillical cord blood of ten babies..."

These, and all of the other stats and facts mentioned in the book, are all noted at the end. So many that almost a quarter of the book houses the appendix and notes.

I found the writing lighthearted, informative, and clear. Not once did I feel like I was being talked down to, ostracized for my choices, or otherwise put into a category of judgement or 'not-knowingness'. Many books along this vein, I find, force me to go elsewhere to educate myself to understand the contents. Slow Death by Rubber Duck assumes I don't know anything about toxic chemicals in our everyday lives, and shares it with me as if I had a university statistics professor as my neighbor, chatting over our morning coffee about our morning coffee.

The best part of this 10-year anniversary edition? The authors don't leave you in tears, shaking with the thought of how you're killing yourself with your Teflon pan. (Honestly, I did cry a few times reading the book). Not only do they give you the information you need to make 'better' choices, you also get suggestions on how to lower your toxicity levels. The last chapter then sums up an interesting question: what do I do with all these toxic things, now? Do I throw them out, or....? Is there a better way?

I wholeheartedly recommend Slow Death by Rubber Duck for anyone wanting to increase their health in fairly simple ways, all while learning about the products we use on a daily basis, and how they affect us cellularly. I will likely purchase this book for friends and family, so that they can learn it, too.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for offering me an advance copy of this book prior to the release of updated version's publication.… (plus d'informations)

This books contains good information about all the toxic chemicals contained in everyday household items, in beauty products, and food. I found it hard to read for one reason only, it's scary. I felt paralysed at times, debating whether to cook my eggs in my non-stick frying pan the morning after reading about Dupont and their Teflon coatings. Then I would go out for sushi and wonder how much mercury I was ingesting in that serving and try to calculate how many more times I could eat that type of food that month. And of course, my favourite shampoo, was full of suspect ingredients, some straight out bad for me type ingredients. So in the end I got over my fears, changed my shampoo, threw out some frying pans and starting eating yam tempura rolls instead of sashimi. Ignorance in bliss, but I'm glad I read this book.… (plus d'informations)