Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things

The authors of Slow Death by Rubber Duck, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, are both Canadian environmentalists dedicated to making the world a better place. Smith, born in 1968, is a prominent author and environmentalist known for being the executive director of Broadbent Institute. He graduated from University of Guelph in Canada in 1999 with a Ph.D. in biology. Between 2003 and 2012 he has been a prominent proponent of the “green economy” playing a central role in the creation of the Ontario Greenbelt, and the Ontario Green Energy and Green Economy Act. Through all of his hard work in environmental acts, he also is a husband and father to two young boys.Lourie is an influential and prominent figure in the environmental sector of Canada. For 20 years he has worked on creating collaborative solutions to challenges facing non-profit, government and the private sector. Lourie has a comprehensive background of toxic substances, green energy, forest conservation, and environmental philanthropy. He founded the Summerhill Group in 1992 and currently holds a position as the president of Ivey Foundation.These two influential environmentalists collaborated to produce a book like none other. These two authors took on the challenge of pulling the concept of pollution out of the abstract distance and brought it close to home. Pollution is no longer something that just happens in the outside world, but is within our everyday lives in common household products we use every day. Smith and Lourie conducted their own research by ingesting and inhaling common products used in our everyday lives and measuring the chemical pollution in their own systems before and after use. These authors use themselves to demonstrate how personal pollution has become and expose the cooperate giants who allow the polluted products to be sold.The intended audience for this book is generally adults due to the nature of the information which focuses on changing our personal habits for our familes and the many chemical terms used. The first chapter Each chapter of the book has a similar format where a chemical is introduced and its background and history is discussed. The known environmental problems with each chemical is discussed and the various legal actions taken in changing the status of the current pollution. The chapters move on to disussing the pollution within our own bodies and how that is not only affecting ourselves but affecting families and, in the author’s perspective, his two boys. The authors then move on to discuss how we are putting that pollution into our bodies every day and describe the experiment conducted in which each author attempted to measure his chemical levels in his body before and after exposing himself to the chemical in question. The results of each experiment are presented and discussed to allow the reader to understand what these every day products are really doing to our bodies. The chemicals in each chapter discussed are: phthalates, Teflon, brominated flame retardant, mercury, Trisclosan, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane(DDT), and bisphenol A.I recommend this book to any environmentalists or chemists. Anyone interested in science and understanding pollution, or getting a better understanding of what is in the things we use in our bodies every day should read this book. This book is highly informative about what is in our everyday products and how that is affecting our bodies so anyone interested in reducing their own physical pollution should read this book.

The book contains useful information, but could be presented in a less "hysterical" the-sky-is-falling style. Often disingenuous. The cover, for instance, claims the duck is roughly 1/3 chlorine. Well, salt is 1/2 chlorine by the same measurement. Good ammunition for the "dihydrogen monoxide is scary dangerous" crowd. That's water, BTW.

Arrived promptly, and in good shape.

Amusing title but the book has a serious theme: how we are being contaminated with the chemicals in plastic without our knowledge. This has a huge impact on our health and especially the health of children, who are even more vulnerable than adults. Almost every toy in the toy store is plastic; most kids cups, bowls, and tableware are plastic, yet have not been tested for safety. Everyone who wonders why we have increasing health problems will want to read this. Even products that claim to be BPA free may have different but similar chemicals that are no better than what they are substituting. We owe it to ourselves and our kids to become more aware of the chemicals we are exposing ourselves to.

I am still working my way through this book. It is a lot to 'absorb' just reading through it quickly. I truly believe that this book will alter the way I live, the food I buy, the products I will use in my home. Unfortunately where I live makes it very difficult to find common foods that are sold in glass containers. Everyone is moving to plastics. How safe are those plastic containers? Is there such a think as a safe plasic container? I guess I will find out as I read on. I do believe this is a book worth reading if you are concerned about your health and the health of your family, your children.

This book is phenomenal! It changed my entire way of shopping and living in my home environment. It's so great, I give it as gifts to my friends so that their lives can also be cleaner. I am shocked at all the dangerous chemicals allowed to be marketed for the sake of making businesses profit. I would never knowingly sell anything to anyone I knew would cause them harm. This should be required reading in all schools. It is the best book I've ever read!

This book explains how things got so out of hand -- tens of thousands of new synthetic chemicals are now an intrinsic part of all our lives, none of them having been tested for toxicity to our bodies. The writers started the ball rolling by using themselves as guinea pigs and then analysing their blood and urine for toxic substances, after which they recruited many others for this same testing, including a big project for determining radioactive substances in baby teeth from milk as a consequence of nuclear testing and accidents. My biggest concern as I read this book is, where was the government during this era of no regulation (which continues to this day), leaving us all contaminated with toxins?

A friend gave me the book to read and I was a bit hesitant as I am pretty well informed about environmental hazards and try to do what I can to live a less-toxic life. However this book was even more eye-opening based on actual studies, that the authors did using themselves as the subjects.I wish first of all that every parent would read this book as there are easy ways to avoid toxin. After that I would wish that everyone who is free thinking would read this book. It would just make the world a less toxic place.Thank you to the authors for writing this book.

An eye opener, very informative and has some good suggestions that are practical enough to bring to your every day life. The only reason I gave it four stars is that it is not written from a UK perspective so some of the products are not relevant to me.

Very interesting book. Daily life hazardous practices is very nicely explained with proper scientific and research data.

Book arrived promptly and in great shape

A must read - should be introduced into high schools