The Cancer Factory: Industrial Chemicals, Corporate Deception, and the Hidden Deaths of American Workers

Journalist Morris debuts with a devastating and thorough critique of corporate greed, deception, and lack of concern for worker health, focusing primarily on Dupont Chemical and Goodyear Tire Company. Drawing on in-depth interviews with workers and their families, Morris documents how employees at the Goodyear factory in Niagara Falls, N.Y., have suffered from a high rate of bladder cancer for decades, and details the lack of an adequate response by corporate leaders and the U.S. government. Opening the account with the story of Rod Halford, a longtime chemical operator at Goodyear who began urinating blood in the early 1990s, Morris shows how Halford had been poisoned by a highly carcinogenic agent, the chemical ortho-toluidine, supplied by Dupont. Both Goodyear and Dupont were aware of the danger, but failed to inform workers or implement protective measures. Although many of the ill workers, including Halford, eventually sued Goodyear, the company settled the lawsuits rather than going to trial, effectively concealing the charges from the public. Morris goes on to spotlight the many American industries where dangerous chemicals are used by workers (the problem is only getting worse, Morris contends, with staggering numbers of new chemicals being introduced every year), and describes how European regulation has been much more successful in reducing cancers. Well documented, lucidly written, and disturbing to read, this is an urgent wake-up call. (Jan.)