Fatal Deception, Michael Bowker
Fatal Deception, Michael Bowker
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Fatal Deception
The Untold Story of Asbestos: Why it is still legal and killing us

Author: Michael Bowker

Narrator: John Slattery

Abridged: 6 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2003


Synopsis

At first glance, the events in this audiobook may seem equal parts science fiction and legal thriller. Unfortunately, this is a true story of blinding greed, cruel deceit, unfortunate circumstance, and powerful human tragedy. It has villains and heroes, but it does not yet have a good ending.
Something's wrong in Libby, Montana. Residents are dying at a rate sixty times higher than the national average from a battery of insidious diseases, and they will continue to suffer for decades to come. The cause: a so-called miracle mineral that generations of families felt thankful for, until they discovered that the "miracle" was too good to be true -- and that the town's disturbing mortality rate was hardly an accident.
The scope of the treachery goes far beyond Libby. Even before the dust had settled following the September 11 terrorist attacks, those who live and work in lower Manhattan were voicing well-founded concerns about air quality around Ground Zero. Tests conducted at the site yielded conflicting results -- and possibly evidence of a continuing corporate and governmental cover-up that mirrors a pattern of deception threatening not only the physical health of millions of Americans but the financial stability of our economy.
In 1989, the EPA banned the manufacture, importation, processing, and distribution of commercial asbestos -- but the ban didn't hold. Asbestos is big business, rivaling tobacco in its profitability. By 1991, powerful corporate lobbyists succeeded in having the ban overturned. Today, asbestos remains an ingredient in more than three thousand products on sale in the United States and many more that are exported to developing nations around the globe.

About Michael Bowker

Michael Bowker is an investigative journalist specializing in telling the human stories behind today’s health, science, and environmental issues. A former contributor to the Los Angeles Times, he has written four books and more than one thousand articles for a variety of publications. He lives in Placerville, California.

About John Slattery

John Slattery has starred on Broadway in Rabbit Hole, Betrayal, and Laughter on the 23rd Floor. Off-Broadway credits include Three Days of Rain (L.A. Critics Award, Drama Desk nom.), and The Lisbon Traviata. On television he has been seen in Ed, K Street, Sex & the City, and Will & Grace. Films include Flags of Our Fathers, Mona Lisa Smile, The Station Agent,Traffic, and Sleepers.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anthony on June 15, 2012

Great book of the sorry scandal that is Asbestos. The most telling was Chapter 16 detailing the malicious fraud by the EPA that has crippled thousands of good Samaritans who help at ground zero and for whom billions have been set aside for medical relief. I use facts Bowker presents in my own book "......more

Goodreads review by Rockconner on May 28, 2008

infuriating......more

Goodreads review by Linda on May 21, 2021

Yet another cover-up by government and big business. Extremely frustrating to read how so many individuals died horrible deaths through no fault of their own.......more

Goodreads review by Shiftopher on May 14, 2018

Good. I wish there was an updated version. 2003 was a long time ago........more

Goodreads review by Julie on November 08, 2023

This was a hard, triggering read, as my father died of mesothelioma. The book itself focused on Libby, Montana. I wish that the topic of asbestos had been covered in more breadth than depth, but that is personal choice. There was good information on Ground Zero. This book is 20 years old, yet little......more