When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales Of Environmental Deception And The Battle Against Pollution

I found this more depressing than inspirational, but the stories of the benevolent environmental scientists battling the evil industries and governments were interesting.

A shocking narrative of cover-ups by private industry to delay our scientific understanding of health effects of lead, air pollution, cancer-causing agents, global warming and other environmental issues. Davis does a nice job describing her major public health heros including Mary Amdur, Herbert Needleman, Lester Lave, and others. She is motivated by these individuals in her work as an epidemiologist and by her own personal experience as a resident of Donora, Pennsylvania during the killer fog of the 1950s. As a Jewish woman she also takes an important lesson from the Holocaust, that the dead communicate an important lesson to the living.

I read this book for class, and it was good. It kept my interested the whole time. I liked the personal aspects of it.