Poisoning Our Children

A powerful examination of how environmental contamination is shaping children's health—and what we can do to protect future generations.Every child deserves a healthy start in life. Yet today, children are born carrying traces of thousands of synthetic chemicals linked to cancer, developmental disorders, respiratory illness, and other serious health conditions. How did this become our new normal—and what would it take to change it? In Poisoning Our Children, Jean-Marie Kauth combines deeply personal experience with decades of scientific research to examine one of the defining public health challenges of our time.After losing her eight-year-old daughter to leukemia, Kauth devoted her career to studying children's environmental health. Through interviews with leading researchers, physicians, policymakers, advocates, and families affected by toxic exposures, she traces the devastating connections between industrial pollution, pesticides, forever chemicals, climate change, and the rising burden of disease in children. Grounded in ethnographic research and informed by her work as an environmental health scholar and EPA advisor, the book offers readers an accessible introduction to the scientific, ethical, political, and social dimensions of children's environmental health.Ideal for courses in public health, environmental health, environmental studies, medical humanities, sociology, and public policy, as well as for parents and anyone interested in children's environmental health, Poisoning Our Children equips readers to understand the complex forces shaping children's health today. It challenges future practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to rethink prevention, environmental responsibility, and the policies needed to protect future generations.