Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics was written by Norah McKendrick, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. McKendrick begins by tracing the history of US government inadequacy when it comes to regulating chemicals used in agriculture, food production, and household goods. I found it empowering to be guided through milestone legislation from the past 100 years, learning how laws and restrictions on the sale and use of toxic chemicals were weakened, circumvented, or inadequate from the start.

 In order for a health practitioner to do the job well, educating oneself about the health effects of environmental contamination is required. I'm grateful for Sandra Steingraber's book Living Downstream- a research-based yet personal exploration of the health effects of environmental contaminants.

Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Yet this is precisely what we have done. We have done it, moreover, for reasons that collapse the moment we examine them. 

-Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (19)

Rachel Carson's story has been featured in several books I've picked up recently, including Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber and Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest. When I discovered that several friends hadn't heard of her, I felt moved to feature Rachel here. Though I'm not one to feel starstruck by a film actor or rock star, imagining what I might have said to Rachel Carson (if I'd had the opportunity before she passed) makes me feel a bit weak in the knees. Really, "Thank you!" is all there is to say for her brave and groundbreaking work for environmental sustainability and justice.

 Phytoremediation is the use of plants to remove and/or transform contaminants in the soil. In general, it's appropriate when there are low to medium levels of contamination present.

The relationship between a plant and a contaminant will vary based on the characteristics of the plant, as well as the chemical or heavy metal.

Microbial remediation utilizes the ability of some bacteria to bind heavy metals in less bioavailable forms, or to break down organic contaminants into more benign substances. (In chemistry, organic means that the substance is carbon-based. This includes many industrial contaminants and agricultural chemicals). Because healthy soil rich in bacteria, fungi, and other organisms is imperative for healthy plant growth, we can't talk about using plants for remediation without starting with bacteria.

As I collect contamination information for wild-harvesters on WNY public lands, my conclusions are informed guesses at best. Learning about the history of parks and surrounding property gives important clues, but we often don’t know how this translates into concrete contamination data. Even when testing is done for soil contamination, we can’t assess the levels of every possible contaminant. Some contaminants also break down into other (also toxic) chemicals that aren’t tested for.

Another issue is our lack of a complete list of industries and smaller businesses that have contributed to contamination in WNY. The 2018 book Sites Unseen is an outstanding resource for understanding the complexity of urban contamination history—particularly the quick "forgetting" of businesses that left contamination behind.