title: Biocidal: Confronting the Poisonous Legacy of PCBs
author:  Ted Dracos 
description: [A] driving, fast-paced narrative . . . Dracoss straightforward reporting delivers one blow after another.<i>Publishers Weekly</i><br /><br />Innately villainous and shrouded by deceit, PCBs are the cigarettes of the chemical world.Finally, with <i>Biocidal</i>, their treacherous story is told.And, because all of us on Earth carry molecules of PCBs within our bodies, it is a storythat all of us on Earth need to hear. Happily, Ted Dracos makes listening to PCBs a captivating task.Sandra Steingraber, biologist and author of <i>Living Downstream: An Ecologists Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment </i><br /> <br /> The first ever complete and up-to-date story of PCBs and their effects on human health and the ecosystem.Dr. David Carpenter, Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany<br /> <br /> Dracos tells the well-documented tale from its beginning, filling in the details of how we have all been reduced to playing the role of lab rats in an awful toxicity experiment created by Monsanto, which made more than 99 percent of all of the PCBs ever used in the United States. The story has many players, including not only Monsanto, but also Monsantos biggest customers  polluters that include General Electric and Westinghouse  complicit scientists working on behalf of industry, and co-opted officials in government agencies. Although Dracos spins a non-fictional horror story dotted with dozens of bad decisions made over the course of decades, he also manages to end the book with a hopeful message for change.<i>Steven Jensen Blog</i><br /> <br /> This book is a game changer with respect to the world of PCBs.Katie Noble, KPCWs <i>This Green Earth</i><br /> <i></i><br /> Details how the chemical industry manipulated regulatory agencies despite knowledge of the dangers of PCBs. The author synthesizes research on the connection between PCBs and human illness, environmental damage, and damage to species diversity, drawing on scientific studies, news articles, and court documents.<i>SciTech Book News</i><br /> <br /> Dracos writing is accessible and intelligentSuch skilled writing and his talents as an investigative reporter allow Dracos a certain panache to telling the story of Monsanto, the EPA and independent researchers uncovering the true danger.<i>Dotrad</i>blog<br /><br /><i><br /></i>
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  **Contents**
  
  
  [_TITLE PAGE_](Benn_9780307381453_epub_tp_r1.htm)  
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  [_DEDICATION_](Benn_9780307381453_epub_ded_r1.htm)
  
  
  [_EPIGRAPH_](Benn_9780307381453_epub_fm2_r1.htm)
  
  
  [_INTRODUCTION_](Benn_9780307381453_epub_fm1_r1.htm)
  
  
    
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  [**PART ONE**](Benn_9780307381453_epub_p01_r1.htm)
  
  
  [Fried Brains and Frayed Tempers](Benn_9780307381453_epub_p01_r1.htm)
  
  
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  [1](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c01_r1.htm)
  
  
  
  
  
  [So Much Work, So Little Time](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c01_r1.htm)
  
  
  [2](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c02_r1.htm)
  
  
  
  
  
  [The Myth of the Homework System: What Teachers Don’t Learn About
  Homework](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c02_r1.htm)
  
  
  [3](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c03_r1.htm)
  
  
  
  
  
  [The Family Fallout: From Parent to
  Taskmaster](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c03_r1.htm)
  
  
  [4](Benn_9780307381453_epub_c04_r1.htm)
  
  
  
  
  
  [The Creation of the Hom