A terrible thing to waste : environmental racism and its assault on the American mind /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A "powerful and indispensable" look at the devastating consequences of environmental racism (Gerald Markowitz) -- and what we can do to remedy its toxic effects on marginalized communities.
Did you know...
Middle-class African American households with incomes between $50,000 and $60,000 live in neighborhoods that are more polluted than those of very poor white households with incomes below $10,000. When swallowed, a lead-paint chip no larger than a fingernail can send a toddler into a coma -- one-tenth of that amount will lower his IQ. Nearly two of every five African American homes in Baltimore are plagued by lead-based paint. Almost all of the 37,500 Baltimore children who suffered lead poisoning between 2003 and 2015 were African American.
From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of people across the country-cutting lives tragically short and needlessly burdening our health care system. But these deadly environments create another insidious and often overlooked consequence: robbing communities of color, and America as a whole, of intellectual power.
The 1994 publication of The Bell Curve and its controversial thesis catapulted the topic of genetic racial differences in IQ to the forefront of a renewed and heated debate. Now, in A Terrible Thing to Waste , award-winning science writer Harriet A. Washington adds her incisive analysis to the fray, arguing that IQ is a biased and flawed metric, but that it is useful for tracking cognitive damage. She takes apart the spurious notion of intelligence as an inherited trait, using copious data that instead point to a different cause of the reported African American-white IQ gap: environmental racism - a confluence of racism and other institutional factors that relegate marginalized communities to living and working near sites of toxic waste, pollution, and insufficient sanitation services. She investigates heavy metals, neurotoxins, deficient prenatal care, bad nutrition, and even pathogens as chief agents influencing intelligence to explain why communities of color are disproportionately affected -- and what can be done to remedy this devastating problem.
Featuring extensive scientific research and Washington's sharp, lively reporting, A Terrible Thing to Waste is sure to outrage, transform the conversation, and inspire debate.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Washington (Medical Apartheid) examines the devastating environmental poisoning impacting communities across the United States. Industrial chemicals have a profound impact on both adults and children, and result in chronic illnesses and intellectual impairment. The intelligence-eroding chemicals have been labeled "brain drainers." Washington passionately and eloquently explains that these harmful chemicals are often found in African American, Latinx, and Native American communities. Chapters detail the negative impact of lead, oil and gas facilities, pesticides, coal mines and plants, and heavy metals along with bugs and microbes. Statistics as well as quotes from pertinent research and writers are combined with human interest stories that illustrate the crisis we're currently facing. Washington encourages political activism and offers information on what we can do to stop the brain drain. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries, especially those with environmental and social and political justice collections. This evocative work will haunt readers long after they've finished reading.--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel

Publishers Weekly Review

In this searing indictment, scholar and researcher Washington (Medical Apartheid) pores over decades of examples and evidence to assess the damage that "environmental poisoning" has on communities of color. Washington persuasively argues that environmental toxins are much more prevalent in areas where marginalized people live, inequitably harming the brains, health, and future of black, Hispanic, and Native American children; she identifies the consequences as a "collective loss" for the nation and staggering medical and economic costs. Washington offers anecdotal evidence and damning data-on, for example, polychlorinated biphenyl pollution in Anniston, Ala.; ongoing lead poisoning in Flint, Mich., and in Baltimore; and air contamination with pesticides (in Triana, Ala.) and arsenic (in Fort Meyers, Fla.)-to argue that the U.S. should no longer let "industrial greed" trump public safety concerns. She also makes a persuasive presentation of "brain drainers," including toxic chemicals, substances such as tobacco, vermin, and dangerous microbes, that produce "reduced mental functioning" and "horrifying cognitive symptoms" and disproportionately affect minority populations. The structure of the book leads to frequent repetition, and the intended audience seems to switch from policy makers and Washington's fellow researchers to parents, as in the third section, which lists actions that might limit or ameliorate children's exposures to toxins and suggests ways communities might organize in their defense. Nonetheless, this urgent chronicle of ongoing damage will be eye-opening for many readers. Illus. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM Partners. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

A veteran journalist and scholar reveals the long-ranging impacts of environmental racism on black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities.In this heart-wrenching expos, the author of Medical Apartheid (2007) zeroes in on the "chemical Armageddon" that has "preferentially affected" black, Indigenous, and Latinx peoples with "chemicals known or strongly suspected to lower intelligence." To frame her thorough study, Washington (Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illness, 2016, etc.) uses the flawed metric of IQ scores. Though she acknowledges their faulty premise and biased administration, she uses them to describe cognitive impacts because the scores serve as "a predictor of success in school, social settings, work achievements, and lifetime earnings." Citing cases around the United States, Washington clearly presents her research on the expansive effects of toxins, heavy metals, and even drugs that are disproportionately funneled into marginalized communities of color: lead contamination in Baltimore and Flint, where the "water's lead levels were so high that it fell into the EPA's classification for hazardous waste"; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) poisoning in Anniston, Alabama ("a PCB concentration of just 5 parts per billion in a pregnant mother's blood can have adverse effects on a developing fetal brain"), and the forced implantation of the toxic Norplant ("a surgically inserted contraceptive that can be removed only by a physician and lasts for five years") in black and Latin women. Along with many other well-documented examples, these injustices reveal a chilling reality: Marginalized people of color face not only rampant public health impacts, but also societal blame for their plight. The author also offers "steps that individuals can take to fight for a less toxic environment," uplifting the grassroots environmental justice organizing of black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities. She also provides a helpful glossary and long list of "Known Chemical Brain Drainers." The book falls short only in its lack of a discussion of ableism and its role in marginalizing those with altered cognitive development.A devastatingly important read. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Harriet A. Washington has been the Shearing Fellow at the University of Nevada's Black Mountain Institute, a Research Fellow in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University, and a visiting scholar at DePaul University College of Law. She has held fellowships at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Stanford University. She is the author of Deadly Monopolies , Infectious Madness , and Medical Apartheid , which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Oakland Award, and the American Library Association Black Caucus Nonfiction Award.