Toxics A to Z: A Guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards. - book reviews

Sierra, July-August, 1992 by Mark Mardon

In the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989, the crackdown of freedom of expression in China included an order to halt printing of a "subversive" book on the environment. When it first appeared in the late 1980s, China on the Edge (China Books; $29.95, cloth; $16.95, paper) circulated widely in the upper echelons of Chinese government and academia, creating a stir with its devastating critique of the country's failed environmental policies and its frightening prognostication for China's future.

As might be expected, author He Bochuan, a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong, cites population pressure as the greatest single threat to the Chinese nation. ... With 50,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States and another 1,000 added every year, who can be expected to keep track of their properties and potential hazards, much less know what precautions to take? Common sense calls for perusing and keeping on hand a primer such as Toxics A to Z: A Guide to Every Pollution Hazards (University of California Press; $75, cloth; $29.95, paper). In this volume you'll find detailed but accessible information about some 100 of the more notorious health- and environment-threatening contaminants, including creosote (a wood preservative), vinyl chloride (responsible for that "new car smell"), and ethylene glycol (anti-freeze). ... Until the opening of Interstate 70 some two decades ago, Utah's San Rafael Swell was among the Lower 48's most remote, least explored scenic areas. Compared with such tourist meccas as Zion and Arches national parks, the Swell is still reasonably obscure, but its proximity to the Interstate has left the fragile area pockmarked by ORV tracks and otherwise abused. For this reason activists are seeking to protect large portions of the Swell, either as wilderness or within the bounds of a new national park. Yet even with all this attention, one thing missing until now was a reliable, detailed guidebook to the area for low-impact hikers, mountain bikers, climbers, and backpacking families. Steve Allen, who has led numerous Swell excursions for the Sierra Club and other groups, has filled that gap with Canyoneering: The San Rafael Swell (University of Utah, $14.95, paper). Though far removed from the Paris of the 1920s, the editors of Left Bank, a new literary journal showcasing the work of Pacific Northwest writers, feel close to that magical place and time. Their corner of the country, they say, has become "a meeting ground for ideas of growing intensity," which are pushing "into the consciousness of the East like a weather front sweeping off the Pacific and over the Great Divide." The journal's premier issue ("Writing and Fishing the Northwest," Winter 1991) featured essays by Nancy Lord, Wallace Stegner, and Richard Manning, among others. Issue #2 ("Extinction," Summer 1992) offers the work of such renowned literati as Barry Lopez, Sallie Tisdale, Richard Nelson, David Quammen, and David Suzuki. Subscriptions to the semiannual publication are $14 a year; single issues are $7.95 plus $1.50 shipping and handling. Write to Blue Heron Publishing, Inc., 24450 N. W. Hansen Road, Hillsboro, OR97124. ... The Cree Indians and Inuit in Quebec continue to struggle against a hydroelectric project threatening their way of life. For a compelling account of the controversy read Sean McCutcheon's Electric Rivers: The Story of the James Bay Project (Black Rose Books, c/o Paul & Company, 360 W. 31st St., New York, NY 10001; $37.95, cloth; $18.95, paper).