Slow Death by Rubber Duck — Rick Smith & Bruce Lourie

While I’m sort of on a roll, posting about green/eco/environmental things, I finished reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck yesterday. And man, is it an informative book.

The book takes a look at the many toxic substances people expose themselves to through everyday things such as personal care products, food, and even something as simple as sitting on your fire retardant-covered couch. At the same time, the two authors, Smith and Lourie, douse themselves (willingly, I might add) with these everyday things to measure their levels of these chemicals before and after exposure. The results are astounding, to say the least.

While reading, I got a large sense of paranoia about everything I touch, everything come into contact with. There’s an extremely summary and helpful hints at what to do as a next step that I will need to re-read and take note of. There are a whole bunch of organizations and groups involved in either the banning/regulation of these toxic chemicals or that provide people with ways to live healthier and cleaner (there are too many to list but I may go into them in detail individually). Anyway, enjoy my fat body as seen through my crappy webcam.