Dianne Dumanoski, Our Stolen Future

"Powerful."

—Time

"Could become the biggest scientific and public-relations bombshell to hit the chemical industry since Rachel Carson's 1962 classic, Silent Spring."

—Business Week

"Its subject is so important and its story so powerful that it deserves to be read by the widest possible audience."

—New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating, provocative...a dramatic and important cautionary tale that will be the catalyst for environmentalism in the 21st century."

—Boston Globe

"Frightening...an important and compelling account of modern scientific discovery that shatters the assumptions behind much of this country's environmental protection tradition. Should spark a firestorm of controversy."

—San Francisco Chronicle

"A frightening, detective-style narrative that details for the lay public many of the research studies under discussion in Washington."

—Wall Street Journal

"Although this evidence was already familiar to many in the scientific community, the [book] transformed the scientific discussion into a public policy debate. Our Stolen Future played an important role in the congressional passage of amendments to the Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water act, the impetus for the U.S. EPA's Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, a major research initiative focused directly on the issues the book raised."

—Editorial January 2003 Environmental Health Perspectives

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Our Stolen Future: Are we Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?
—A Scientific Detective Story

"Our Stolen Future is a critically important book that forces us to ask new questions about the synthetic chemicals that we have spread across this Earth. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must urgently seek the answers."

—Former Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore in the foreword to Our Stolen Future

Over forty years ago, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring first warned that manmade chemicals had spread across the planet, permeating virtually every living creature and the most distant wilderness. Her landmark book documented the deadly toll of these synthetic chemicals to birds and wildlife. Only now, however, are we recognizing the full consequences of this insidious invasion, which is derailing sexual development and reproduction, not only in a host of animal populations, but, it now appears, in humans as well.

Our Stolen Future, by two leading environmental scientists and an award-winning environmental journalist, is the first book to piece together the compelling evidence from wildlife studies, laboratory experiments, and human data and to lay out the emerging scientific case regarding this largely unrecognized threat. Picking up where Silent Spring left off, it reveals the underlying causes of the symptoms that so alarmed Carson. Building on decades of research, the authors give a gripping account that traces birth defects, sexual abnormalities, and reproductive failures in wildlife to their source—synthetic chemicals that mimic natural hormones, upsetting normal reproductive and developmental processes.

Humans appear far from immune to the effects of these "hormone imposters." Male sperm counts have dropped as much as 50 percent in recent decades, while women have suffered a dramatic rise in hormone-related cancers, endometriosis, and other disorders. By threatening the fundamental process that perpetuates survival—ability to reproduce—these chemicals may be invisibly undermining the human future.

The authors of Our Stolen Future explore the fascinating scientific research that is linking these problems to "endocrine disruptors," chemical con artists that hinder adults in their efforts to reproduce and pose a particular hazard to their developing offspring. They detail how these pollutants have become an integral part of our industrial economy, spreading with startling ease through the web of life from the equator to the poles. And they explore what we can and must do to combat this pervasive threat.

The conclusions drawn are as urgent as they are inescapable. We must move aggressively to protect ourselves and our families in the short term and to begin vital long-term changes in the way we manufacture and employ the manmade compounds that have become an integral part of the our "good life." This riveting and immensely important work is an indispensable volume for those concerned about the profound human impact on the environment, the integrity and survival of our species, and the well-being of our children."

Since the book's publication in 1996, the evidence has become substantially stronger. The impacts of these chemicals, sometimes not detectable until years or decades after exposure, also include reduced disease resistance and compromised intelligence and behavior. You can find an overview of the broad trends in new endocrine disruptor research and many details, including recent developments, at the book website www.ourstolenfuture.org.