Killer commodities

public health and the corporate production of harm

Edited by Merrill Singer, Hans A. Baer

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 August 2008

Length of book:

438 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759112407

Killer Commodities enters the increasingly heated debate regarding consumer culture with a critical examination of the relationship between corporate production of goods for profit and for public health. This collection analyzes the nature and public health impact of a wide range of dangerous commercial products from around the world, and it addresses the question of how policies should be changed to better protect the public, workers, and the environment.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Hidden Harm: The Complex World of Killer Commodities
Chapter 2 Stealthy Killers and Governing Mentalities: Chemicals in Consumer Products
Chapter 3 Nothing to Play Around With: Dangerous Toys for Girls and Boys
Chapter 4 The Environmental and Health Consequences of Motor Vehicles: A Case Study in Capitalist Technological Hegemony and Grass-Roots Responses to It
Chapter 5 Lay Me Down to Sleep: SIDS, Suffocation, and the Selling of Risk Reduction
Chapter 6 Melanoma Whitewash: Millions at Risk of Injury or Death because of Sunscreen Deceptions
Chapter 7 Building with Poison: Toxicity and CCA-treated Lumber
Chapter 8 U.S. Health Care: Commodification Kills
Chapter 9 Silicone Seduction: Are Cosmetic Breast Implants Killer Commodities?
Chapter 10 Selling Sickness/Creating Demand: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs
Chapter 11 Deadly Embrace: Psychoactive Medication, Psychiatry, and the Pharmaceutical Industry
Chapter 12 A Guinea Pig's Wage: Risk and Commoditization in Pharmaceutical Research in America
Chapter 13 Corrosion in the System: The Community Health By-Products of Pharmaceutical Production in Northern Puerto Rico
Chapter 14 Inverting the Killer Commodity Model: Withholding Medicines from the Poor
Chapter 15 Conclusion: Killer Commodities and Society: Fighting for Change

Singer and call for more consumer advocacy and less deregulation of industry, as well as a balance between regulatory agencies and industries. They point out that some industries may have too much oversight, that is, monitored by several agencies, which obscures jurisdiction....