This text traces the history of pesticide law and science and arrives at the conclusion that we have failed to protect ourselves, and especially our children, from pesticide contamination of food, soil, water and air. It suggests that more fundamental reforms are needed to contain the health risks.

A leading expert in environmental policy traces the history of pesticide law and science and arrives at the alarming conclusion that we have failed to protect ourselves, and especially our children, from pesticide contamination of food, soil, water, and air. Our faith in government's ability to ensure only safe levels of exposure to pesticides is unfounded, despite the passage of the 1996 Food Quality. Protection Act, says John Wargo. He suggests that more fundamental legal and scientific reforms are needed to contain the special health risks faced by children. This edition is revised to include the author's reflections on the recent changes in legislation.

"Wargo's book is rigorous, extensively argued and documented, and examines divergent perspectives with great care.... He has produced a 'Silent Spring' for the 90s". -- Steve Heilig, San Francisco Chronicle

"An exceptionally important book, with forceful arguments based on carefully compiled evidence. Wargo is unfailingly informative and thoughtful". -- Daniel J. Kevles, New York Review of Books

"The book is as much a guide to future controversies as it is a document of controversies now supposedly ended". -- Robert Hunt Sprinkle, Journal of the American Medical Association

"In this book John Wargo persuasively argues that a full-scale overhaul of the regulation and management of pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the United States is badly needed". -- Gary Lee, Washington Post Book World