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The Cancer Factory: Industrial Chemicals, Corporate Deception, and the Hidden Deaths of American Workers
2025 Science in Society Journalism Award "A searing indictment of systemic injustice…With safety regulations facing renewed threats, The Cancer Factory is, tragically, more timely than ever.”
“No journalist knows more about toxic chemicals in the workplace than Jim Morris.”
—Dan Fagin, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Toms River
“A powerful and essential read.”
—Anna Clark, author of The Poisoned City
The story of a group of Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers fatally exposed to toxic chemicals, the lawyer who sought justice on their behalf, and the shameful lack of protection our society affords all workers
Working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, was considered a good job. It was the kind of industrial manufacturing job that allowed blue-collar workers to thrive in the latter half of the 20th century—that allowed them to buy their own home, and maybe a small boat for the lake.
But it was also the kind of job that exposed you to toxic chemicals and offered little to no protection from them, either in the way of protective gear or adequate ventilation. Eventually, it was a job that gave you bladder cancer.
The Cancer Factory tells the story of the workers who experienced one of the nation’s worst, and best-documented, outbreaks of work-related cancer, and the lawyer who has represented the bladder-cancer victims at the plant for more than 30 years. Goodyear, and its chemical supplier, DuPont, knew that two of the chemicals used in the plant had been shown to cause cancer, but made little effort to protect the plant’s workers until the cluster of cancer cases—and deaths—was undeniable.
In doing so it tells a broader story of corporate malfeasance and governmental neglect. Workers have only weak protections from exposure to toxic substances in America, and regulatory breaches contribute to an estimated 95,000 deaths from occupational illness each year. Based on 4 decades of reporting and delving deeply into the scientific literature about toxic substances and health risks, the arcana of worker regulations, and reality of loose enforcement, The Cancer Factory exposes the terrible health risks too many workers face.
“No journalist knows more about toxic chemicals in the workplace than Jim Morris.”
—Dan Fagin, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Toms River
“A powerful and essential read.”
—Anna Clark, author of The Poisoned City
The story of a group of Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers fatally exposed to toxic chemicals, the lawyer who sought justice on their behalf, and the shameful lack of protection our society affords all workers
Working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, was considered a good job. It was the kind of industrial manufacturing job that allowed blue-collar workers to thrive in the latter half of the 20th century—that allowed them to buy their own home, and maybe a small boat for the lake.
But it was also the kind of job that exposed you to toxic chemicals and offered little to no protection from them, either in the way of protective gear or adequate ventilation. Eventually, it was a job that gave you bladder cancer.
The Cancer Factory tells the story of the workers who experienced one of the nation’s worst, and best-documented, outbreaks of work-related cancer, and the lawyer who has represented the bladder-cancer victims at the plant for more than 30 years. Goodyear, and its chemical supplier, DuPont, knew that two of the chemicals used in the plant had been shown to cause cancer, but made little effort to protect the plant’s workers until the cluster of cancer cases—and deaths—was undeniable.
In doing so it tells a broader story of corporate malfeasance and governmental neglect. Workers have only weak protections from exposure to toxic substances in America, and regulatory breaches contribute to an estimated 95,000 deaths from occupational illness each year. Based on 4 decades of reporting and delving deeply into the scientific literature about toxic substances and health risks, the arcana of worker regulations, and reality of loose enforcement, The Cancer Factory exposes the terrible health risks too many workers face.
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Published January 23, 2024
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December 21, 2024
The history of industrialization is entwined with disease and disability. Seemingly every technological development brings with it unintended—often predictable in hindsight—health-altering, existential consequences. Examples abound: brown lung diseases of women working in the Lowell, Massachusetts textile factory system, coal miners’ black lungs, Radium Girls pointing brushes with their mouths to apply radioactive paint to glowing watch faces, and on and on. Cost-benefit rationalizations translate these collateral damages into “being part of the job.” Legalisms transform evidence of probable harm into fictions of uncertainty. Jim Morris’s relatively short and profoundly concise arguments in The Cancer Factory weave those varying strands into a substantive narrative tied together by the stories of real people: workers—and their families—at a Goodyear chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York. They were exposed to ortho-toluidine, “a colorless to pale yellow liquid that turns dark on exposure to air or light…used to make textile dyes, rubber chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides”.
The chemical was essential to Goodyear’s bottom line, making its tires and other rubber- and plastic-based products more durable. If not handled safely, it poses a toxic risk. Subsequent research proved it set time bombs of potential catastrophic disease within the bodies of the workers who came into contact with it. Protective measures were minimal, actually nonexistent. And their families who were exposed to residue transported home on clothing and skin. It could years or decades for exposure express itself in disease; bladder cancer being the most common. This period of latency fed defense arguments centered on creating doubt, willful amnesia, and time to contrive confusion and justify uncertainty. Legal strategies were buttressed by state and federal legislative and executive branches to create laws and to further limit liability and avoid responsibility. The U.S. has a long, sordid history of creating agencies and commissions to protect workers, consumers, and vulnerable persons. Virtually all adhere to the same template: overpromise, underfund, understaff, and create an appearance of actually doing something substantive while doing nothing of the sort. Agencies created to address worker safety were undermined by corporate political donations and stonewalling to deny staff and funding to implement rules. Science-based evidence would be diluted and hindered by bureaucratic stalling. The few times workers prevailed was mostly due to union representation and a few committed individuals whose lives were devoted to science and justice. On the other hand, when cancer is a major part of the story, and when the abdication of corporate responsibility is in the mix, a verb like “prevailed” might be a bit strong.
Damaged genes cause every cancer, whether inherited, sparked by an external contagion, or some combination of both. Compromised genes tip the first of many biological dominoes that inevitably lead to catastrophic damage to infiltrate cells, organs, and other life-sustaining biological systems. As they crowd out healthy tissue, they become efficient suicidal terrorists. Some move slowly, others rapidly. If they are “successful,” they will die together with the host they menace. The older we get the more likely parts of the body begin to break down; aberrant genes cause normally functioning cells to lose the ability of the innate immune system to detect, target, or fix potential causes of malignancies. That somewhat explains why almost half of all cancer patients are older than 70. Most childhood cancers and significant percentages of more prevalent cancers like those of the breast are built into some people’s DNA, relayed generation after generation, sometimes more so in particular ethnicities, racial categories, and/or geographical locations.
Environmental exposures of varying intensity inevitably infiltrate genes of certain people to generate a type of cancer (or other diseases and disabilities, but for the purposes of this essay, the focus will be on cancer), a trend that has been accelerating and multiplying since the advent of the industrial revolution. Knowledge that a variety of cancers are likely linked to known toxins raises public awareness, sometimes creating political pressure to enact public policies closely tied to overwhelming sympathy. These can lead to insuring access to treatment and perhaps even compensation if their misfortunes are tied to proximity and timing, such as Vietnam Veterans exposed to Agent Orange or September 11 first responders and others around Ground Zero. But for the most part, cancer patients are pretty much on their own. Rich and well-insured persons will have advantages, many more won’t. Cancer is often political and always economic. Which brings money and opportunism—as well as power and greed—into the cancer equation.
People who are exposed to harmful, cancer-causing risks through their employment are “ambushed by a preventable, chronically induced illness that could not be blamed on lifestyle, genetics, or rotten luck.” They are, by definition, victims. Profit motives fed by consumer demand leads to an indifference of the human costs making them possible. Manipulation of information and scientific evidence lead to willful ignorance and indifference. Cold cost-benefit calculations such as the percentages of “allowable, safe” levels of exposure to chemicals known to have carcinogenic effects on humans are used to justify immoral outcomes. Legalisms based on cynical, contrived fictions create weak—or more often than not, non-existing—standards and practices to keep affected employees ignorant of the hazardous nature of their jobs. This fed the "myth…that "safe" levels of carcinogens could be determined” when in reality “[t]here were no safe levels." Medical evidence, research known to employers, was routinely, intentionally hidden or manipulated or appear of inconclusive, resulting in workers being hit by “an adversary they couldn't see, one that weakened untold numbers of them over time and lopped years off their lives.” In playing down the risks of handling ortho-tuluidine, by carelessly exposed workers and their families and neighbors, Goodyear was responsible for setting off the genetic trigger of bladder cancer.
At the same time I was reading The Cancer Factory, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a purported progressive, coincidentally demonstrated the depths of hypocritical cynicism Morris writes about. Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, likes to sell himself publicly as a champion of common people. To be honest, he once seemed to be, but as the only state-wide elected Democrat with an electoral constituency that has been fine with its descent to Republican-style proto-fascism, he walks a political tightrope with a frustrating balance for people like me. On December 6, 2023, he issued a press release excoriating CEOs of the eight largest banks in the U.S. for opposing regulations to require higher capital reserves to protect the system and consumers against Wall Street speculation. Brown noted their “banks touch almost every aspect of our financial system and working Americans’ money – even if they are not your customers” and “accused them of “hav[ing] one thing in common: corporate lobbyists [who] pushed for weaker rules, less oversight.” He noted the crucial role of having “financial watchdogs in place who are getting serious about the need for these protections.”
On the same day, Brown touted his leadership in opposing rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emission standards of steel plants. He quoted a union leader[emphasis in original], “The EPA’s proposed amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants presents significant challenges to an already heavily regulated Steel Industry”, and the CEO of Cleveland Cliffs, one of the largest steel manufacturers in the nation, “If promulgated, the regulations would put at risk good-paying, middle class union jobs in the steel industry. We are grateful to Senator Brown for leading this U.S. Senate letter to EPA raising serious concerns about the proposed rules.” None of them, however, acknowledged facts like the documented impact air pollution generated by steel plants that lead to higher incidences of asthma and other respiratory diseases in people who work and live in the vicinity of them. Nor did they mention the criticism of environmental organizations that the proposed EPA rules were too weak and did nothing to alleviate the “irreversible damage they have caused to people’s health.” Obviously, Brown did not see the ironic connection of the press releases he put out on the same day. Tension between the two mindsets demonstrate, as Morris writes, “industry bending the narrative to its commercial needs,” too often at the expense of public health. Other examples can be easily Googled but are hardly new.
Approximately 104 million people worldwide are living with cancer right now. Almost 20 million people will be diagnosed with cancer from the time this sentence is read through the next year; 20 million families who have no idea what will hit them. More than 10 million will die in that time. Regardless of whatever progress will be made, because of a growing worldwide population and the relentless certainty of aging—nearly half of all patients are older than 70—it is estimated to increase by 55 percent by 2040.
The Cancer Factory is more than a history, more than a story about workers at a Goodyear chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, and much more than another polemic. It is a parable that will only become more relevant in the coming years because cancer is a disease of modern life. We cannot avoid the air we breathe, the foods we eat, the jobs we have. We don’t yet know how, for example, microplastics, forever chemicals, or the consequences of climate change might damage our genes or those of future generations to set off the chain reactions to create new cancers, diseases, or disabilities. Uncertainty will be exacerbated by new political, social, and economic incentives. The unavoidable moral of who gets a cancer diagnosis invariably linked to employment? Profits are privatized, costs are socialized, misery is individualized. Of that much we can be confidently pessimistic.
Addendum: I received a pre-publication copy of this book from Beacon Press through a Goodreads giveaway entry (yes, Virginia, people do win). I sincerely hope this book will be a great success and read widely. It is profound, expansive in scope, concise in writing, lasting in memory, and frustrating in fact. I hope it motivates more people to pay attention to the world around them.
The chemical was essential to Goodyear’s bottom line, making its tires and other rubber- and plastic-based products more durable. If not handled safely, it poses a toxic risk. Subsequent research proved it set time bombs of potential catastrophic disease within the bodies of the workers who came into contact with it. Protective measures were minimal, actually nonexistent. And their families who were exposed to residue transported home on clothing and skin. It could years or decades for exposure express itself in disease; bladder cancer being the most common. This period of latency fed defense arguments centered on creating doubt, willful amnesia, and time to contrive confusion and justify uncertainty. Legal strategies were buttressed by state and federal legislative and executive branches to create laws and to further limit liability and avoid responsibility. The U.S. has a long, sordid history of creating agencies and commissions to protect workers, consumers, and vulnerable persons. Virtually all adhere to the same template: overpromise, underfund, understaff, and create an appearance of actually doing something substantive while doing nothing of the sort. Agencies created to address worker safety were undermined by corporate political donations and stonewalling to deny staff and funding to implement rules. Science-based evidence would be diluted and hindered by bureaucratic stalling. The few times workers prevailed was mostly due to union representation and a few committed individuals whose lives were devoted to science and justice. On the other hand, when cancer is a major part of the story, and when the abdication of corporate responsibility is in the mix, a verb like “prevailed” might be a bit strong.
Damaged genes cause every cancer, whether inherited, sparked by an external contagion, or some combination of both. Compromised genes tip the first of many biological dominoes that inevitably lead to catastrophic damage to infiltrate cells, organs, and other life-sustaining biological systems. As they crowd out healthy tissue, they become efficient suicidal terrorists. Some move slowly, others rapidly. If they are “successful,” they will die together with the host they menace. The older we get the more likely parts of the body begin to break down; aberrant genes cause normally functioning cells to lose the ability of the innate immune system to detect, target, or fix potential causes of malignancies. That somewhat explains why almost half of all cancer patients are older than 70. Most childhood cancers and significant percentages of more prevalent cancers like those of the breast are built into some people’s DNA, relayed generation after generation, sometimes more so in particular ethnicities, racial categories, and/or geographical locations.
Environmental exposures of varying intensity inevitably infiltrate genes of certain people to generate a type of cancer (or other diseases and disabilities, but for the purposes of this essay, the focus will be on cancer), a trend that has been accelerating and multiplying since the advent of the industrial revolution. Knowledge that a variety of cancers are likely linked to known toxins raises public awareness, sometimes creating political pressure to enact public policies closely tied to overwhelming sympathy. These can lead to insuring access to treatment and perhaps even compensation if their misfortunes are tied to proximity and timing, such as Vietnam Veterans exposed to Agent Orange or September 11 first responders and others around Ground Zero. But for the most part, cancer patients are pretty much on their own. Rich and well-insured persons will have advantages, many more won’t. Cancer is often political and always economic. Which brings money and opportunism—as well as power and greed—into the cancer equation.
People who are exposed to harmful, cancer-causing risks through their employment are “ambushed by a preventable, chronically induced illness that could not be blamed on lifestyle, genetics, or rotten luck.” They are, by definition, victims. Profit motives fed by consumer demand leads to an indifference of the human costs making them possible. Manipulation of information and scientific evidence lead to willful ignorance and indifference. Cold cost-benefit calculations such as the percentages of “allowable, safe” levels of exposure to chemicals known to have carcinogenic effects on humans are used to justify immoral outcomes. Legalisms based on cynical, contrived fictions create weak—or more often than not, non-existing—standards and practices to keep affected employees ignorant of the hazardous nature of their jobs. This fed the "myth…that "safe" levels of carcinogens could be determined” when in reality “[t]here were no safe levels." Medical evidence, research known to employers, was routinely, intentionally hidden or manipulated or appear of inconclusive, resulting in workers being hit by “an adversary they couldn't see, one that weakened untold numbers of them over time and lopped years off their lives.” In playing down the risks of handling ortho-tuluidine, by carelessly exposed workers and their families and neighbors, Goodyear was responsible for setting off the genetic trigger of bladder cancer.
At the same time I was reading The Cancer Factory, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a purported progressive, coincidentally demonstrated the depths of hypocritical cynicism Morris writes about. Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, likes to sell himself publicly as a champion of common people. To be honest, he once seemed to be, but as the only state-wide elected Democrat with an electoral constituency that has been fine with its descent to Republican-style proto-fascism, he walks a political tightrope with a frustrating balance for people like me. On December 6, 2023, he issued a press release excoriating CEOs of the eight largest banks in the U.S. for opposing regulations to require higher capital reserves to protect the system and consumers against Wall Street speculation. Brown noted their “banks touch almost every aspect of our financial system and working Americans’ money – even if they are not your customers” and “accused them of “hav[ing] one thing in common: corporate lobbyists [who] pushed for weaker rules, less oversight.” He noted the crucial role of having “financial watchdogs in place who are getting serious about the need for these protections.”
On the same day, Brown touted his leadership in opposing rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emission standards of steel plants. He quoted a union leader[emphasis in original], “The EPA’s proposed amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants presents significant challenges to an already heavily regulated Steel Industry”, and the CEO of Cleveland Cliffs, one of the largest steel manufacturers in the nation, “If promulgated, the regulations would put at risk good-paying, middle class union jobs in the steel industry. We are grateful to Senator Brown for leading this U.S. Senate letter to EPA raising serious concerns about the proposed rules.” None of them, however, acknowledged facts like the documented impact air pollution generated by steel plants that lead to higher incidences of asthma and other respiratory diseases in people who work and live in the vicinity of them. Nor did they mention the criticism of environmental organizations that the proposed EPA rules were too weak and did nothing to alleviate the “irreversible damage they have caused to people’s health.” Obviously, Brown did not see the ironic connection of the press releases he put out on the same day. Tension between the two mindsets demonstrate, as Morris writes, “industry bending the narrative to its commercial needs,” too often at the expense of public health. Other examples can be easily Googled but are hardly new.
Approximately 104 million people worldwide are living with cancer right now. Almost 20 million people will be diagnosed with cancer from the time this sentence is read through the next year; 20 million families who have no idea what will hit them. More than 10 million will die in that time. Regardless of whatever progress will be made, because of a growing worldwide population and the relentless certainty of aging—nearly half of all patients are older than 70—it is estimated to increase by 55 percent by 2040.
The Cancer Factory is more than a history, more than a story about workers at a Goodyear chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, and much more than another polemic. It is a parable that will only become more relevant in the coming years because cancer is a disease of modern life. We cannot avoid the air we breathe, the foods we eat, the jobs we have. We don’t yet know how, for example, microplastics, forever chemicals, or the consequences of climate change might damage our genes or those of future generations to set off the chain reactions to create new cancers, diseases, or disabilities. Uncertainty will be exacerbated by new political, social, and economic incentives. The unavoidable moral of who gets a cancer diagnosis invariably linked to employment? Profits are privatized, costs are socialized, misery is individualized. Of that much we can be confidently pessimistic.
Addendum: I received a pre-publication copy of this book from Beacon Press through a Goodreads giveaway entry (yes, Virginia, people do win). I sincerely hope this book will be a great success and read widely. It is profound, expansive in scope, concise in writing, lasting in memory, and frustrating in fact. I hope it motivates more people to pay attention to the world around them.
January 15, 2025
As I expected, this was a depressing chronicle of occupational dangers of working with carcinogens and the damage it does to the workers, to their families and to the community. This book focuses on the years of toxicity in the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York. Both Goodyear and DuPont knew how toxic and dangerous the chemicals were, but made little effort to protect workers. Bladder cancer was the most common result from the particular exposures in this plant. Morris exposes the lack of enforcement of OSHA rules, and the role played by politics in protecting our nation’s workers. Ugh!!!
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November 6, 2023I blurbed it! “In telling the breathtaking story of the Goodyear workers, Jim Morris writes with passion, precision, and moral clarity. He shows how the devastation in Niagara Falls is part of a much larger systemic failure to value people over profits—and what it will take to create a more just future. A powerful and essential read.”
May 12, 2024
As important as Paradise Falls, and twice as terrifying.
Read
February 19, 2025Yet another true story of companies doing literally ANYTHING other than protecting their employees just so they can continue turning a profit. An interesting chronicle, but one I think could have been much more compelling had the narrative been structured differently.
March 8, 2024
The environment is fucked, we're all fucked. As things are now, corporations will always win. A well put together exposé about shameful practices.
May 18, 2024
"Even in the twenty-first century, hardly the dawn of the industrial age, many blue-collar workers were still being treated like vassals, easily replaced if they got sick or made trouble."
Data manipulation and suppression, blatant corporate deception and disregard for worker health, all leading to terrible human suffering and untimely deaths. This book made me cry, (Harry and Diane's story broke my heart), but it also made me so angry because working people should not have to make a living by sacrificing years off their life.
Dupont, Goodyear, oil companies, and many more corporate entities continue to poison us all with impunity, and spend billions of dollars to get friendly politicians, judges, etc. elected, to continue to roll back the few regulations that might offer a modicum of protection, all in their endless quest to grow the bottom line.
This book is very well written and researched, highly recommend.
Data manipulation and suppression, blatant corporate deception and disregard for worker health, all leading to terrible human suffering and untimely deaths. This book made me cry, (Harry and Diane's story broke my heart), but it also made me so angry because working people should not have to make a living by sacrificing years off their life.
Dupont, Goodyear, oil companies, and many more corporate entities continue to poison us all with impunity, and spend billions of dollars to get friendly politicians, judges, etc. elected, to continue to roll back the few regulations that might offer a modicum of protection, all in their endless quest to grow the bottom line.
This book is very well written and researched, highly recommend.
March 26, 2024
Couldn't be more relevant, having lived in Buffalo and known the niagara falls area. This should be essential reading. Really puts into perspective the way worker health is not being considered in the production of products even with the amount of legislation the US has in place to "prevent" it. This book does a great job of showing the power that industry holds over everyone and the negligible slap on the wrist they get for killing its workers.
February 4, 2024
From the impact of Firestone tires inhumane treatment of workers on the rubber tree plantations in Liberia and Indonesia, to the disregard of following health and safety protocols by Texaco in Ecuador, I have read several books about transnational corporations and their impact around the world. Each of these books contemplates if these same safety protocols would be ignored if these factories were in United States, and, after reading "The Cancer Factory," I am convinced that transnational corporations often put greed and wealth ahead of the worker's health. "The Cancer Factory" exposes that, although Goodyear knew that workers were handling toxic materials daily, they never notified the workers until it was too late. An example is the type of gloves they used in which chemicals often seeped through onto the skin of the workers. Everyone--from maintenance, custodians, and workers on the line--- were at-risk for exposure to these toxins.
Production was key to Goodyear's standards, and the safety of its workers secondary. When the number of bladder cancer cases amongst its workers began to rise, the lawyers of the corporation shifted blame from the factory to the lifestyle of the workers. Even when the cancer cases began showing up in spouses of the workers, through second hand exposure, the lawyers continued to berate the workers and their spouses for their low quality of life, despite the rising evidence of rising miscarriages, birth defects, and infant mortality. In the end, it seems that Goodyear does not care about any of the workers, only about the accumulation of wealth. In the few cases where Goodyear settled outside of court, they made sure any statements of blame, such as "...result of chemical exposure"--were removed from the agreement thus eradicating themselves from responsibility.
This book is particularly troubling because consumers are inundated with new products everyday, and we rarely consider what and who was sacrificed to make these products. Sadly, Goodyear is not the only transnational corporation that ignored protocols, and views labor as a dispensable commodity. Today transnational corporations influence all corners of the world, which means cancer and diseases will spread throughout the world. It seems the more advanced we become, the less regard we have for the workers who create these advancements.
Production was key to Goodyear's standards, and the safety of its workers secondary. When the number of bladder cancer cases amongst its workers began to rise, the lawyers of the corporation shifted blame from the factory to the lifestyle of the workers. Even when the cancer cases began showing up in spouses of the workers, through second hand exposure, the lawyers continued to berate the workers and their spouses for their low quality of life, despite the rising evidence of rising miscarriages, birth defects, and infant mortality. In the end, it seems that Goodyear does not care about any of the workers, only about the accumulation of wealth. In the few cases where Goodyear settled outside of court, they made sure any statements of blame, such as "...result of chemical exposure"--were removed from the agreement thus eradicating themselves from responsibility.
This book is particularly troubling because consumers are inundated with new products everyday, and we rarely consider what and who was sacrificed to make these products. Sadly, Goodyear is not the only transnational corporation that ignored protocols, and views labor as a dispensable commodity. Today transnational corporations influence all corners of the world, which means cancer and diseases will spread throughout the world. It seems the more advanced we become, the less regard we have for the workers who create these advancements.
June 29, 2025
An important subject, but not a fun read. There's real value in this sort of journalism, it just becomes a repetitive story of chemicals causing obvious harm and the industry fighting the evidence for years as casualties mount.
This is a point where I don't think so much biography serves the story, for all that these things need to put a human face on the tragedy. You can only read about so many hardworking men and women who have their health destroyed by cancer before they start to run together.
That said, this gets much closer to the modern day than I would have hoped. The author even calls out that most people think of absurdly unsafe work standards being a thing of decades past, but that's apparently not the case.
This is a point where I don't think so much biography serves the story, for all that these things need to put a human face on the tragedy. You can only read about so many hardworking men and women who have their health destroyed by cancer before they start to run together.
That said, this gets much closer to the modern day than I would have hoped. The author even calls out that most people think of absurdly unsafe work standards being a thing of decades past, but that's apparently not the case.
January 18, 2025
“The human costs- in terms of preventable deaths, disease, injury - of doing business.” This book was an easy and engaging read. An incredible amount of research must have gone into writing it and it was well done. Rules and regulations are typically written in the blood of those who came before us, and this book shows why we should never stop trying to make work safer. Highly recommend.
July 29, 2024
This is an important story, and it reminded me of one of the reasons I want to be a lawyer. Unfortunately, I found the narrative to be a little repetitive and the timeline hard to follow, as it wasn't linear.
December 29, 2025
3/5 but giving 4/5 for content
A great and heartbreaking account of one corporate cover up. One that hits especially close to me as a former NF resident and exposes the collapse of modern industry (especially there)
A great and heartbreaking account of one corporate cover up. One that hits especially close to me as a former NF resident and exposes the collapse of modern industry (especially there)
April 24, 2024
It was fine, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn't listen to the ebook. The research is obviously very good, but listening to it was challenging with the chemical and medical terms.
July 8, 2025
3 star reading experience, but bumped up to 4 stars because it convinced me to give up my weed pen (i’m now properly scared of unregulated chemicals)
November 24, 2024
Great investigative reporting, very boring topic. Too many names, too many dates to keep track of.
October 26, 2025
DNF. Great writing, extremely informative on a topic I knew nothing about. But the amount of stories of children dying was too much for me
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2024
Basically the whole book is profit over people and none of it is surprising. Still, a worthwhile read to continue learning.
April 18, 2024
i really don't know how to talk about this book! this was pretty harrowing. pretty insane. pretty.... enraging!
February 8, 2024
One of the most depressing books I’ve read so far this year.
April 16, 2024
I wish I could say that I was surprised that Goodyear and Dupont ( plus other well-known American companies ) hid the cancer causing effect of chemicals and fought compensation for the suffering and deaths of their employees. What I found more disturbing was that "OSHA ( the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration ) suffered mightily at the hand of Donald Trump. By the end of his administration, the number of inspectors had plunged to nearly its lowest level since the agency was created. There were only 1,719 - 755 federal, 964 state - to cover 10.4 million workplaces in fiscal year 2021.... That translated into one inspector for 81,427 workers. OSHA's puny budget meant that the nation was spending $4.37 to protect each worker - a little less than he cost of a venti latte at Starbucks." Du Pont knew in the 1950's that ortho-tuluidine caused bladder cancer in laboratory studies and was protecting it own workers. The company sold this tire anti-cracking agent to Goodyear. It either did not tell Goodyear, or Goodyear did not listen. The federal government gave the generations of workers no help until the late 1960's. By this time 14,500 workers were dying. The government did not create the laws and agency to protect workers until prompted by Nixon, yes, Nixon.... Today cancer and other work-related illnesses still cause the deaths off 120,000 Americans. Latency is why we still see 2,500 deaths from mesothelioma due to asbestos. The author outlines the history of Goodyear and the early attempts to develop rigid airships. After personal failures, the burning of the Hindenberg ended dirigibles as safe passenger airships. The Goodyear Blimps are still present. When WWII began Goodyear was selling products on every continent except Antarctica. They help to build half tracs, boats, barrage balloons, gun mounts, camoflage material, gas masks and more for the war effort. Vinyl chloride was popular after the war - used for shower curtains, shoes, raincoats, and more. Inhaling the PVC fumes made workers "drunk". Surprise, surprise, it could also cause cancer. Supplies of natural rubber were disrupted during WWII so the big 4 tire companies worked out a formula for synthetic rubber. Among the chemicals needed for manufacture was ortho-tiluidine. Its family of chemicals was known to cause bladder cancer in European dye factories in the 1800's. In 1968 a bill was introduced to allow the Secretary of Labor to set standards for a safe and healthy working environment. Every year 14,500 workers were dying and 2.2 million were disabled. This did not include those suffering from occupational illnesses - that would be documented later. The National Association of Manufacturers thought they were capable of monitoring their own workplace safety. They were backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, was not established until 1971. The author reviews some of the more famous / infamous incidents of chemical damage caused by American manufactureres. We have the Tyler, Texas asbestos fiasco with a subidiary of PPG. Then Goodrich and polyvinyl Chloride.... Karen Silkwood worked at the Kerr-McGee, a nuclear fuel rod fabrication site. You can guess the rest. Except for the fact that just before a meeting with a labor advocate and a New York Times reported she died alone in a a single car accident. Convenient.... "Silkwood" is a 1983 American biographical drama film directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Meryl Streep. Kerr-McGee was never penalized. The average OSHA penalty for workplace violations in 1975 was $25.69. A rare "serious" violation - $607. Eula Bingham became Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter. Djr She attempted to reform the agency.... Workers were warned that lindane used in head lice shampoo was extremely poisonous.. What about the children???? Bingham lowered the workplace exposure of benzine ( a cancer causing agent ) from 10 parts per billion to 1!!!! The American Petrolium Institute got the regulation put on hold. OSHA fought, but the standard was not in place for 9 years... By 1911 in the U.S. lead was known as a poison. This did not stop the U.S. from being the largest producer of lead in the world in the early 20th century. Bingham stated:"We have to catch up with 200 years of tragedy in the workplace." 1978 steelworkers lobbied for relief from exposure to arsenic. Bethlehem Steelworkers in the 1970's - 43 % of the union workers died before the age of 55. Corporate boardrooms used the standard of "socially acceptable risk". David Wilson, president of the Steelworkers local at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrow point plant replied: "Just as slavery was not socially acceptable, just as Hitler's extermination of the Jews was not socially acceptable, neither today is the genocide of the class of people known as the American worker socially acceptable". "No law on our books excuses manslaughter." 1978... "Brown Lung" due to dust exposure from cotton in textile factories... Bingham established a time line to install equipment to reduce dust. President Carter imposed an even more stringent time for compliance. Go Jimmy!!! Beryllium, used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, which attacked the lungs.... . Carter and Bingham were both defeated as they attempted to regulate exposure by the defense and energy secretaries. The American Cyanimid required that female workers of child-bearing age at their plant in Willow Island, West Virginia be sterilized or face termination. This was their method of protecting fetuses from lead.... 1978... Bingham cited the company for discrimination... In 1983 the American Civil Liberties won a judgment o $200,000 for the women who had been sterilzed or dismissed. OSHA produced pro safety films: "Can't Take No More" and Worker to Worker". The films were banned when Reagan became president. IN 1967 production by Goodyear of polyvynil chloride products exceeded 2 billion tons a year. Exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia. What were the primary uses of PVC??? Plastic bottles, plastic pipe for home plumbing.... 1978 Love Canal !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooker Chemical owned by Occidental had been dumping slurry and dregs into the canal since 1942. The Love Canal area was originally the site of an abandoned canal that became a dumping ground for nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste (including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, and pesticides) produced by the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation in the 1940s and ’50s. In the following years, the site was filled in and given by the company to the growing city of Niagara Falls, which allowed housing to be built on it. In 1978, however, state officials detected the leakage of toxic chemicals from underground into the basements of homes in the area. Subsequent investigations established an abnormally high incidence of chromosomal damage among the area’s residents On August 2, 1978 the New York Health Commissioner declared a state of emergency. The school was closed, pregnant women and children under 2 were evacuated. A federal declaration by President Carter provided funds for the 239 homes closest to the landfill to relocate. All other residents of Niagara Falls were on their own. Carter reversed his decision in 1980 and provided subsidised relocation funds for an additional 710 families. Carter signed into law the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, a comprehensive toxic waste clean-up initiative better known as the "Superfund Law". Are you noticing a trend in Democrats vs Republicans??????????????? Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal, a new documentary on PBS premiers in 8 days - April 22, 2024. Ortho-toluidine is not being "made" in the U.S. in the 20th century, but Goodyear imported it from a Du Pont source in Europe. The chemical was found to cause bladder cancer. What was it used for???? Dyes, herbicides and Prilocaine "a cream used to numb the skin during dental and surgical procedures and blood draws". GREAT!! Let's use it on children!!! An interesting note on the use of lab animals for testing: "Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering).... had decreed an end to what he called the "unbearable torture and suffering in animal experiments." Jews, not so much..... Benzedine and BNA were linked to bladder cancer in U.S. factories in the 1930's. Dupont stopped making BNA in 1955, but bought the chemical from others until 1962. Benzidine was used until 1972. By 1991 DuPont had 489 cases of bladder cancer. DuPont warned Goodyear that ortho-toluidine was linked to bladder cancer in 1977. Goodyear continued to expose workers to the chemical until 1994. Monsanto knew about a connection between the chemical and bladder disease in 1955. The disaster at Goodyear in Niagara Falls begins in 1978. This is only the recognition of the health hazard, probably not the onset. Mr. Morris makes the tragedy more poignant by following individual men and their families through their ordeals. ( There is an entire chapter on how Reagan undid the efforts of Carter to monitor workplace hazards and inform workers that they were working with dangerous chemicals. ) The legal fight to compensate workers vs the machinations of industrial attorneys and lobby groups is fascinating and appalling. In 2021 the Goodyear plant purchased 2.56 million pounds of ortho-toluidine from factories in India and China. Perhaps some of the outsourced American factories have transferred the hazard to "less important" workers. None of us knows whether the products we use, the food we eat or the water we drink is "safe".. From the EPA: Biden-Harris Administration Finalizes First-Ever National Drinking Water Standard to Protect People from PFAS Pollution. PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of synthetic chemicals used in various industrial processes and products.
They are widely used and have long-lasting properties. PFAS resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. They are found in the blood of people and animals worldwide and are present in food products and the environment. Common uses include non-stick cookware, fire-fighting foams, and stain-resistant fabrics. What problems do PFA's cause? Reproductive effects such as decreased fertility, high blood pressure in pregnancy, or low birth weight. Developmental effects or delays in children, including accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioral changes.
Increased risk of some cancers, especially prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers. Changes to cholesterol, immune system, thyroid, and liver functions. Metabolic disorders, including obesity, thyroid disorders, and diabetes...... How about having a nice, cold glass of water. This book should be read by every American citizen. Kristi & Abby Tabby
They are widely used and have long-lasting properties. PFAS resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. They are found in the blood of people and animals worldwide and are present in food products and the environment. Common uses include non-stick cookware, fire-fighting foams, and stain-resistant fabrics. What problems do PFA's cause? Reproductive effects such as decreased fertility, high blood pressure in pregnancy, or low birth weight. Developmental effects or delays in children, including accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioral changes.
Increased risk of some cancers, especially prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers. Changes to cholesterol, immune system, thyroid, and liver functions. Metabolic disorders, including obesity, thyroid disorders, and diabetes...... How about having a nice, cold glass of water. This book should be read by every American citizen. Kristi & Abby Tabby
May 2, 2024
Capitalism is cancer. A few months ago a friend and I drove from DC to Newark to see the house from The Sopranos. We took the Delaware route and in doing so saw what turned out to be the DuPont plant referenced in this book. That place is ominous even when you don’t know what’s going on there.
I liked the last 2/3rds. The beginning was a little dry but still informative. It’s interesting (and horrifying!) to learn about the history of regulation and policy regarding labor and health.
I liked the last 2/3rds. The beginning was a little dry but still informative. It’s interesting (and horrifying!) to learn about the history of regulation and policy regarding labor and health.
March 15, 2025
It was a bit dry, but filled with important information about the history of OSHA and other government agencies in charge of keeping workers safe from occupational hazards. A chilling tale of how, even with regulatory safeguards in place, corporations can and do let their workers die. This includes events up to the Biden administration and really puts into perspective how deregulation and dismantling of government agencies under Trump are a literal death sentence to not only workers, but also consumers. Corporate greed and lack of accountability are poisoning us.
March 7, 2024
THE TRUTH FINALLY COMES OUT
When I was younger I used to hear people talk about all the good paying factory jobs that were around in the 50's and 60's. No one ever mentioned the high cost paid by the people had these jobs. What good is making a lot of money and getting great work benefits if you have to get sick and die in order to get them. Now I know the price they paid. The fabulous 50's and 60's weren't as great as people make them out to be.
When I was younger I used to hear people talk about all the good paying factory jobs that were around in the 50's and 60's. No one ever mentioned the high cost paid by the people had these jobs. What good is making a lot of money and getting great work benefits if you have to get sick and die in order to get them. Now I know the price they paid. The fabulous 50's and 60's weren't as great as people make them out to be.
August 26, 2025
I've been looking forward to cracking this one open since it came out, and I was not disappointed!
Morris sheds light here on some of the most insidious mechanisms employed by capitalism to bring us the cheap goods we know and love here in the United States. While he is careful to clarify that the horrors do not rise to the level of outsourced sweatshops and that workers often earn a respectable living, he also readily quotes the president of the Steelworkers local at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant in comparing the incorrigible negligence in workers' health and safety to outright genocide.
Opening with Rod Halford, but largely centering on Ray Kline and those around him, Jim Morris manages to bring together the biographical detail of a Studs Terkel within a cogent epidemiological framework to showcase the impacts both large and small of workplace carcinogens on the lives of American workers and their families. The repeated warning signs ignored and blatantly covered up for decades by large corporations, and the complicity of the federal government and OSHA in treating these malignancies as benign economic decision points, are hard to stomach. In his prime example, we see 78 cases of bladder cancer at a single Goodyear plant in Niagara Falls, all while the company and their supplier of a specific compound contend to this day that the environmental factor that caused this outbreak is to be found absolutely anywhere but their premises.
More jarring to me than the cases themselves (and the specifics are indeed horrifying) is the inaction or insultingly minuscule action on the part of OSHA. Fines of $210, $900, $680, etc are littered throughout this book, juxtaposed with stories of urinating sheets of blood, multiple surgeries and round of chemotherapy and invasive testing for 3-5 years at most preceding death, life-altering and life-ending fetal birth defects, and just gut-wrenching pain of both the acute and chronic varieties. It made me want to throw up, multiple times. Then there were the anecdotes just as terrifying, but perhaps slightly off-course of the overall narrative: forced sterilization of female workers, people cut in half or whose heads were cut in half, etc. But I suppose that really goes most convincingly to the failure of choice in the job market. For anyone who could find themselves asking, "why on earth would these people keep working there?" - well, these were the alternatives. You would think this book were set in the 1880s, but these conditions were still in place in the 1990s and early 2000s, and quite likely still today.
Overall, an extremely worthy read. I could only ask for slightly better organization - a few chapters seemed out of place and some characters were difficult to keep top of mind or tell apart from one another. But a superb contribution to contemporary labor discourse all the same. This book reminded me why I got into labor studies to begin with, and reified the inestimable role of trade unions in a capitalist society, even today. Protect them at all costs.
Morris sheds light here on some of the most insidious mechanisms employed by capitalism to bring us the cheap goods we know and love here in the United States. While he is careful to clarify that the horrors do not rise to the level of outsourced sweatshops and that workers often earn a respectable living, he also readily quotes the president of the Steelworkers local at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant in comparing the incorrigible negligence in workers' health and safety to outright genocide.
Opening with Rod Halford, but largely centering on Ray Kline and those around him, Jim Morris manages to bring together the biographical detail of a Studs Terkel within a cogent epidemiological framework to showcase the impacts both large and small of workplace carcinogens on the lives of American workers and their families. The repeated warning signs ignored and blatantly covered up for decades by large corporations, and the complicity of the federal government and OSHA in treating these malignancies as benign economic decision points, are hard to stomach. In his prime example, we see 78 cases of bladder cancer at a single Goodyear plant in Niagara Falls, all while the company and their supplier of a specific compound contend to this day that the environmental factor that caused this outbreak is to be found absolutely anywhere but their premises.
More jarring to me than the cases themselves (and the specifics are indeed horrifying) is the inaction or insultingly minuscule action on the part of OSHA. Fines of $210, $900, $680, etc are littered throughout this book, juxtaposed with stories of urinating sheets of blood, multiple surgeries and round of chemotherapy and invasive testing for 3-5 years at most preceding death, life-altering and life-ending fetal birth defects, and just gut-wrenching pain of both the acute and chronic varieties. It made me want to throw up, multiple times. Then there were the anecdotes just as terrifying, but perhaps slightly off-course of the overall narrative: forced sterilization of female workers, people cut in half or whose heads were cut in half, etc. But I suppose that really goes most convincingly to the failure of choice in the job market. For anyone who could find themselves asking, "why on earth would these people keep working there?" - well, these were the alternatives. You would think this book were set in the 1880s, but these conditions were still in place in the 1990s and early 2000s, and quite likely still today.
Overall, an extremely worthy read. I could only ask for slightly better organization - a few chapters seemed out of place and some characters were difficult to keep top of mind or tell apart from one another. But a superb contribution to contemporary labor discourse all the same. This book reminded me why I got into labor studies to begin with, and reified the inestimable role of trade unions in a capitalist society, even today. Protect them at all costs.
May 23, 2024
A very interesting informational piece related to the history and present of workplace safety with the case of Goodyear tires at its center. Through this we learn about the hundreds of industries, including agriculture, which use raw materials that cause morbidity and fatality, not just affecting the workers but their families and the generations to come. Vinyl chloride, asbestos, ortho-toluidine are some of the chemicals of focus in this book. This case study also emphasizes how politics make matters worse by easing restrictions and reforms that the industries have to comply. And the absolute disasters that female workers faced at their workplace.
Also involves the story of how OSHA came to be – a branch of the Labour Department (I was particularly interested to read more about OSHA because it is related to my current work practice). In its initial years it was quite weak – their enforcements not strong enough and fines for violations very minimal. It was under the leadership and guidance of Eula Bingham that OSHA really transformed. Her enforcements started with benzene, then lead and so on. (I learned so much from this book... how at one point when Eula was out of office, the Hazard Communication standard was scrapped by the then OSHA president, a businessman himself! Politics!)
Some of the facts regarding worker casualty and industry negligence were so shocking for me that at one point I began questioning the credibility of all the information regarding the failures of OSHA, even in the present. Is it some propaganda against OSHA? OSHA is so highly regarded internationally and is often used as the standard for occupational safety, yet, it has failed its own people in the states. It was after reading this book on its entirety that I realized OSHA is not as strong as it seems and there are other international chemical safety/health organizations that are more stringent have been more effective in regulating the workplace. Added to that are all the references the author took the pain to include <3
It is appalling to read how lawsuits are going on since the 1980s, big companies continue to dodge legislations and inquiries, influence researches done related to work place illnesses & chemical toxicity, and threaten physicians revealing occupational diseases. They involve in conspiracies so that their business booms, money is made; they remain unconcerned by the consequences of their action on workers since human lives are disposable.
Companies will really do anything for cost reduction involving endangering workers' lives and it scares me. I am scared!
Also involves the story of how OSHA came to be – a branch of the Labour Department (I was particularly interested to read more about OSHA because it is related to my current work practice). In its initial years it was quite weak – their enforcements not strong enough and fines for violations very minimal. It was under the leadership and guidance of Eula Bingham that OSHA really transformed. Her enforcements started with benzene, then lead and so on. (I learned so much from this book... how at one point when Eula was out of office, the Hazard Communication standard was scrapped by the then OSHA president, a businessman himself! Politics!)
Some of the facts regarding worker casualty and industry negligence were so shocking for me that at one point I began questioning the credibility of all the information regarding the failures of OSHA, even in the present. Is it some propaganda against OSHA? OSHA is so highly regarded internationally and is often used as the standard for occupational safety, yet, it has failed its own people in the states. It was after reading this book on its entirety that I realized OSHA is not as strong as it seems and there are other international chemical safety/health organizations that are more stringent have been more effective in regulating the workplace. Added to that are all the references the author took the pain to include <3
It is appalling to read how lawsuits are going on since the 1980s, big companies continue to dodge legislations and inquiries, influence researches done related to work place illnesses & chemical toxicity, and threaten physicians revealing occupational diseases. They involve in conspiracies so that their business booms, money is made; they remain unconcerned by the consequences of their action on workers since human lives are disposable.
Companies will really do anything for cost reduction involving endangering workers' lives and it scares me. I am scared!
August 21, 2024
I grew up along the Niagara River, a twenty minutes drive south of Niagara Falls. Our town housed a chemical factory that in the 1940s processed uranium and deposited radioactive waste in local landfills and contaminated groundwater and the creek that ran through a local park. My dad grew up in Tonawanda; my mom lived there from age 14 to 33; and I lived there my first eleven years.
Chemical manufacturing and industry thrived in the area, thanks to the electrical power of the Falls and the salt mines underground. It has left a legacy of toxic pollution, cancer, and death.
The Cancer Factory is the story of workers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Niagara Falls who were exposed to toxic chemicals that caused bladder cancer in the men and birth defects in their children. Dupont supplied the chemicals, but neglected to inform its customers of the hazards.
The author brings us into these men’s lives. He describes their work environment in detail. We learn to care about these men and their families. The tests and treatment they endured were horrific. It takes decades for the cancer to develop, and even short exposures could doom a worker.
Lawyer Steven Wodka fought for the workers for decades. Goodyear wrote checks, but avoided a trial, controlling publicity.
But in the broader sense, this is a book about the larger problem of chemical exposure across American industry. Every fifteen seconds, some worker dies because of workplace exposure to toxic chemicals.
OSHA’s budget was slashed under Trump, leaving 1,719 inspectors to monitor 10.4 million workplaces in 2021. If you think that a limited Federal government is good economics, realize the implications of losing government oversight that protect Americans.
Perhaps you haven’t worked in a situation that exposed you to toxins. Why should you care? Because it is not just American workers who are exposed to these chemicals used in industry and manufacturing. They are in our environment.
Michigan is home to the worst PFAS contamination in the country. Unlike Europe, the US has not banned PFAS ‘forever chemicals.’
Each of us harbors all kinds of stuff in our bodies that does not belong there, ticking bombs waiting to disrupt our health.
And new threats are being created, nanoparticles we can’t even see.
A truly terrifying book.
Chemical manufacturing and industry thrived in the area, thanks to the electrical power of the Falls and the salt mines underground. It has left a legacy of toxic pollution, cancer, and death.
The Cancer Factory is the story of workers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Niagara Falls who were exposed to toxic chemicals that caused bladder cancer in the men and birth defects in their children. Dupont supplied the chemicals, but neglected to inform its customers of the hazards.
The author brings us into these men’s lives. He describes their work environment in detail. We learn to care about these men and their families. The tests and treatment they endured were horrific. It takes decades for the cancer to develop, and even short exposures could doom a worker.
Lawyer Steven Wodka fought for the workers for decades. Goodyear wrote checks, but avoided a trial, controlling publicity.
But in the broader sense, this is a book about the larger problem of chemical exposure across American industry. Every fifteen seconds, some worker dies because of workplace exposure to toxic chemicals.
OSHA’s budget was slashed under Trump, leaving 1,719 inspectors to monitor 10.4 million workplaces in 2021. If you think that a limited Federal government is good economics, realize the implications of losing government oversight that protect Americans.
Perhaps you haven’t worked in a situation that exposed you to toxins. Why should you care? Because it is not just American workers who are exposed to these chemicals used in industry and manufacturing. They are in our environment.
Michigan is home to the worst PFAS contamination in the country. Unlike Europe, the US has not banned PFAS ‘forever chemicals.’
Each of us harbors all kinds of stuff in our bodies that does not belong there, ticking bombs waiting to disrupt our health.
And new threats are being created, nanoparticles we can’t even see.
A truly terrifying book.
March 26, 2024
The Publisher Says: The story of a group of Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers fatally exposed to toxic chemicals, the lawyer who sought justice on their behalf, and the shameful lack of protection our society affords all workers
Working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, was considered a good job. It was the kind of industrial manufacturing job that allowed blue-collar workers to thrive in the latter half of the 20th century—that allowed them to buy their own home, and maybe a boat for the lake.
But it was also the kind of job that gave you bladder cancer.
The Cancer Factory tells the story of the workers who experienced one of the nation's worst, and best-documented, outbreaks of work-related cancer, and the lawyer who has represented the bladder-cancer victims at the plant for more than thirty years, as well as the retired workers who have been diagnosed with the disease and live in constant fear of its recurrence.
In doing so it tells a story of corporate malfeasance and governmental neglect. Workers have only weak protections from exposure to toxic substances in America, and regulatory breaches contribute to an estimated 95,000 deaths from occupational illness each year. Goodyear, and its chemical supplier, Dupont, knew that two of the chemicals used in the plant had been shown to cause cancer, but made little effort to protect the plant's workers until the cluster of bladder cancer cases—and deaths—was undeniable. Based on four decades of reporting and delving deeply into the scientific literature about toxic substances and health risks, the arcana of worker regulations, and reality of loose enforcement, The Cancer Factory exposes the sometimes deadly risks too many workers face.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: The problems of a corporatized economy are multitudinous. One of the biggest is the existence of actual, unkillable zombies: the artificial persons we call corporations. The existence of corporations is not, by itself, evil or even provocative of evil. What happens, though, when one endows a legal fiction with personhood without accountability or mortality is that it never develops morality or empathy.
No entity that could look at the actual people whose lives were ruined, or ended, by the awfulness that is bladder cancer, know that the actions to prevent others from suffering like fates were within its power to enact, and not do it because it might hurt profits, has any business whatsover being given "rights" to free speech or anything else. But that is what the legal fiction of corporate personhood does. The managers and legal eagles who fought the enactment of even the most minimal safety regulations are actual people and can be held accountable. The corporation is the source of the culture that encouraged these people not to see the suffering of actual human beings as a reality to be valued as highly as they saw more money...money they would share in minimally, if at all. They, in their fiduciary duty to the corporation, did not see human life as more worthy of protection and duty of care than corporate profits, and as these corporations are not real people but only fictions, this is utterly outside any system of moral accountability.
Fines, sanctions, no kind of economic penalty can train a corporation not to see its eternal quest for MORE as evil and as detrimental to the world as it is, because it is a gestalt, a culture, not a human being. The human beings who make up the corporations' staff and management can all, plausibly, point to the fact they are just following orders.
So was Adolf Eichmann.
This book, using decades of reporting, writing, and reasearch of the author's own and also from many sources, makes the case for abolishing corporate personhood indirectly and compellingly by bringing to life the consequences of profits before people in a dangerous, necessary business through personal stories of its victims. There are no innocents here...people needed jobs and ignored the evident consequences to get the paychecks. The problem isn't one way only. The problem is the widely pervasive mindset that enables such oblivious, unchecked greed to flourish.
But what about the law, the regulations that exist to protect the people who handle dangerous chemicals? Yes, indeed...what about them. First, does the substance meet the standards to have a regulation in place to restrict who can handle it and how they can do it? The steps needed to prove that exact regulation is needed must take place in specific ways and have specific thresholds of evidence met for regulations to be drafted at all...that involves both the maker and the user of the substance, who have entire law firms lying, obfuscating, paying off whoever needs paying off to prevent the regulations from taking place for as long as it can be avoided while more profits are stockpiled. Then there are the regulators...subject to bought-and-paid-for politicians' oversight, aka interference, delaying and derailing as much as possible while more profits are stockpiled. More lives lost, more havoc rained on the workers, who don't leave their jobs desite the evident hazards because they need the paychecks, even though evidence mounts that the jobs are killing them...literally. All while more profits are stockpiled.
So a regulation finally, grudgingly, attenuatedly takes effect. Who enforces it? The corporation, and this obvious conflict of interest is lightly supervised by a staff of very very overstretched regulatory enforcers usually drawn from the regulated industry...as often as not from the violator corporation. All of whom answer to the corrupted-by-corporate-money politicians and their appointees.
Does the magnitude of the problem begin to dawn on you? It bids fair to overwhelm me.
This book does what I can't do in a review. It marshals sources and resources for you to look at the facts and make your own judgments about the nature of the corporate entities, as they present themselves in relation to workers they can no longer deny harming. It's been established in courts of several levels of jurisdiction. The journalists, activists, and the lawyers who worked with the victims to get them justice and compensation for the abusive practices used by their employers are much to be lauded. They are not, however, teaching a human being by imposing consequences on them. They are inconveniencing entities that are without minds or consciences in their profit-taking, and in their one effectively attackable weak spot: public reputation.
Bad reputation is the one way to punish the entities who remorselessly, repeatedly, and knowingly enact all the harms detailed in this book. They have used giant, costly media campaigns...that you pay for with higher prices...to distract and misinform you as they move the plants that cause this havoc to powerless minority communities, or countries that have even less regard than the US for their peoples' health.
If there is a solution to this problem, I do not know of it.
Working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, was considered a good job. It was the kind of industrial manufacturing job that allowed blue-collar workers to thrive in the latter half of the 20th century—that allowed them to buy their own home, and maybe a boat for the lake.
But it was also the kind of job that gave you bladder cancer.
The Cancer Factory tells the story of the workers who experienced one of the nation's worst, and best-documented, outbreaks of work-related cancer, and the lawyer who has represented the bladder-cancer victims at the plant for more than thirty years, as well as the retired workers who have been diagnosed with the disease and live in constant fear of its recurrence.
In doing so it tells a story of corporate malfeasance and governmental neglect. Workers have only weak protections from exposure to toxic substances in America, and regulatory breaches contribute to an estimated 95,000 deaths from occupational illness each year. Goodyear, and its chemical supplier, Dupont, knew that two of the chemicals used in the plant had been shown to cause cancer, but made little effort to protect the plant's workers until the cluster of bladder cancer cases—and deaths—was undeniable. Based on four decades of reporting and delving deeply into the scientific literature about toxic substances and health risks, the arcana of worker regulations, and reality of loose enforcement, The Cancer Factory exposes the sometimes deadly risks too many workers face.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: The problems of a corporatized economy are multitudinous. One of the biggest is the existence of actual, unkillable zombies: the artificial persons we call corporations. The existence of corporations is not, by itself, evil or even provocative of evil. What happens, though, when one endows a legal fiction with personhood without accountability or mortality is that it never develops morality or empathy.
No entity that could look at the actual people whose lives were ruined, or ended, by the awfulness that is bladder cancer, know that the actions to prevent others from suffering like fates were within its power to enact, and not do it because it might hurt profits, has any business whatsover being given "rights" to free speech or anything else. But that is what the legal fiction of corporate personhood does. The managers and legal eagles who fought the enactment of even the most minimal safety regulations are actual people and can be held accountable. The corporation is the source of the culture that encouraged these people not to see the suffering of actual human beings as a reality to be valued as highly as they saw more money...money they would share in minimally, if at all. They, in their fiduciary duty to the corporation, did not see human life as more worthy of protection and duty of care than corporate profits, and as these corporations are not real people but only fictions, this is utterly outside any system of moral accountability.
Fines, sanctions, no kind of economic penalty can train a corporation not to see its eternal quest for MORE as evil and as detrimental to the world as it is, because it is a gestalt, a culture, not a human being. The human beings who make up the corporations' staff and management can all, plausibly, point to the fact they are just following orders.
So was Adolf Eichmann.
This book, using decades of reporting, writing, and reasearch of the author's own and also from many sources, makes the case for abolishing corporate personhood indirectly and compellingly by bringing to life the consequences of profits before people in a dangerous, necessary business through personal stories of its victims. There are no innocents here...people needed jobs and ignored the evident consequences to get the paychecks. The problem isn't one way only. The problem is the widely pervasive mindset that enables such oblivious, unchecked greed to flourish.
But what about the law, the regulations that exist to protect the people who handle dangerous chemicals? Yes, indeed...what about them. First, does the substance meet the standards to have a regulation in place to restrict who can handle it and how they can do it? The steps needed to prove that exact regulation is needed must take place in specific ways and have specific thresholds of evidence met for regulations to be drafted at all...that involves both the maker and the user of the substance, who have entire law firms lying, obfuscating, paying off whoever needs paying off to prevent the regulations from taking place for as long as it can be avoided while more profits are stockpiled. Then there are the regulators...subject to bought-and-paid-for politicians' oversight, aka interference, delaying and derailing as much as possible while more profits are stockpiled. More lives lost, more havoc rained on the workers, who don't leave their jobs desite the evident hazards because they need the paychecks, even though evidence mounts that the jobs are killing them...literally. All while more profits are stockpiled.
So a regulation finally, grudgingly, attenuatedly takes effect. Who enforces it? The corporation, and this obvious conflict of interest is lightly supervised by a staff of very very overstretched regulatory enforcers usually drawn from the regulated industry...as often as not from the violator corporation. All of whom answer to the corrupted-by-corporate-money politicians and their appointees.
Does the magnitude of the problem begin to dawn on you? It bids fair to overwhelm me.
This book does what I can't do in a review. It marshals sources and resources for you to look at the facts and make your own judgments about the nature of the corporate entities, as they present themselves in relation to workers they can no longer deny harming. It's been established in courts of several levels of jurisdiction. The journalists, activists, and the lawyers who worked with the victims to get them justice and compensation for the abusive practices used by their employers are much to be lauded. They are not, however, teaching a human being by imposing consequences on them. They are inconveniencing entities that are without minds or consciences in their profit-taking, and in their one effectively attackable weak spot: public reputation.
Bad reputation is the one way to punish the entities who remorselessly, repeatedly, and knowingly enact all the harms detailed in this book. They have used giant, costly media campaigns...that you pay for with higher prices...to distract and misinform you as they move the plants that cause this havoc to powerless minority communities, or countries that have even less regard than the US for their peoples' health.
If there is a solution to this problem, I do not know of it.
February 20, 2024
I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway and am providing an honest review. 4.5 Stars I don’t think I have ever read so much of a book out loud - I was forever saying to my husband “Listen to this!” And the scary part was his response of “Yep - I have seen things like that.” 😳 This book drove home how much we just “do” without thinking on the job - I mean our companies wouldn’t put us in contact with chemical they know will kill us, right? They couldn’t have known - could they? But they did … and they do.
The Cancer Factory is such a well written, easy to follow history of atrocities against working men and women by the chemical industry. Without a doubt one of the most important collective works outlining 75 years of dangers knowingly placed on workers without thought or care for their future wellbeing. There is so much outlined in this book - from post war-time chemical production to the history of OSHA and government regulations, and of course the health and side effects experienced by employees exposed to toxic substances. But, the extent of the research this author has collected as to when companies such as Dow knew and shared information with Goodyear is truly remarkable. A literal WTF - my mind was blown away. This book needed to exist - but once you know, what do you do? How is change made? Obviously, big chemical companies see third world counties as their solution - and I want to scream. They know what will happen to these employees who are exposed and yet a change of location is good enough for them.
Just in recent weeks there has been articles/news on the silica dust that is killing young men working with prefab counters - a disease know about for nearly 100 yrs. (And also mentioned in this book) But yet employers don’t inform their workers of the dangers - let alone provide them with adequate gear to keep them safe. We tend to think “Oh that was way back when…..” but it’s happening today. And sadly, over and over the cry of “we need to work” over rides ANY/ALL risks. How is that even allowable.
This is a book that deserves to be on the NYT best selling list. Highly recommend!
The Cancer Factory is such a well written, easy to follow history of atrocities against working men and women by the chemical industry. Without a doubt one of the most important collective works outlining 75 years of dangers knowingly placed on workers without thought or care for their future wellbeing. There is so much outlined in this book - from post war-time chemical production to the history of OSHA and government regulations, and of course the health and side effects experienced by employees exposed to toxic substances. But, the extent of the research this author has collected as to when companies such as Dow knew and shared information with Goodyear is truly remarkable. A literal WTF - my mind was blown away. This book needed to exist - but once you know, what do you do? How is change made? Obviously, big chemical companies see third world counties as their solution - and I want to scream. They know what will happen to these employees who are exposed and yet a change of location is good enough for them.
Just in recent weeks there has been articles/news on the silica dust that is killing young men working with prefab counters - a disease know about for nearly 100 yrs. (And also mentioned in this book) But yet employers don’t inform their workers of the dangers - let alone provide them with adequate gear to keep them safe. We tend to think “Oh that was way back when…..” but it’s happening today. And sadly, over and over the cry of “we need to work” over rides ANY/ALL risks. How is that even allowable.
This is a book that deserves to be on the NYT best selling list. Highly recommend!
November 18, 2023
5 stars, Corporate Greed
THE CANCER FACTORY
by Jim Morris
When we think of all of the products that we have here in America, we don't usually consider all that was needed to develop those products.
This book gives an expose on the employees who have worked in the "cancer factories," specifically the Goodyear Plant using DuPont chemicals in Niagra Falls, New York. The author goes on to tell a little bit about the suffering of workers from all sorts of factories across the USA, ones that the public has heard of, like Karen Silkwood in Oklahoma, in a nuclear plant. And others like the chemical plant that required female workers to have hysterectomies to work in the factory, because the chemicals were proven to cause horrible birth defects.
These examples are from before OSHA-Occupational Safety and Health Administration that works to provide a safe work environment for employees.
We follow several different people throughout the book; workers who were diagnosed with bladder cancer; Steve Wodka who worked as an investigator to delve into the secrets that the cancer factories were willing to keep. There are probably hundreds of workers out there who will come down with unusual cancers related to jobs working with dangerous chemicals.
Highly recommend. "Mindlessly dumping powder into bags..." All of the while, not knowing that their health, safety, and that of their family members are at stake.
I received a complimentary copy of #TheCancerFactory from #BeaconPress I wasn't obligated to post a review.
#CancerCausingJobs #OSHA #NonFiction #Goodyear #DuPont #History #Crime #PenguinRandomHouse #JimMorris
THE CANCER FACTORY
by Jim Morris
When we think of all of the products that we have here in America, we don't usually consider all that was needed to develop those products.
This book gives an expose on the employees who have worked in the "cancer factories," specifically the Goodyear Plant using DuPont chemicals in Niagra Falls, New York. The author goes on to tell a little bit about the suffering of workers from all sorts of factories across the USA, ones that the public has heard of, like Karen Silkwood in Oklahoma, in a nuclear plant. And others like the chemical plant that required female workers to have hysterectomies to work in the factory, because the chemicals were proven to cause horrible birth defects.
These examples are from before OSHA-Occupational Safety and Health Administration that works to provide a safe work environment for employees.
We follow several different people throughout the book; workers who were diagnosed with bladder cancer; Steve Wodka who worked as an investigator to delve into the secrets that the cancer factories were willing to keep. There are probably hundreds of workers out there who will come down with unusual cancers related to jobs working with dangerous chemicals.
Highly recommend. "Mindlessly dumping powder into bags..." All of the while, not knowing that their health, safety, and that of their family members are at stake.
I received a complimentary copy of #TheCancerFactory from #BeaconPress I wasn't obligated to post a review.
#CancerCausingJobs #OSHA #NonFiction #Goodyear #DuPont #History #Crime #PenguinRandomHouse #JimMorris
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