The Polluters: The Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment

Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter here tell the story of how the chemical industry, abetted by a compliant government, set loose a plague of pollution that began in the years before and directly following World War II, a plague that still lingers today. The advent of new synthetic chemical products such as Nylon and DDT created new hazards just as the expansion and mechanization of industry exacerbated old ones. Environmental dangers well known today—smog, pesticides, lead, chlorinated solvents,…