What does the ordinary person do to protect themselves when regulators fail?

How can you know what is safe to eat – or safe to eat just a little – or safe to eat if you wash it? 

There are groups trying to fill in the gaps left by poor regulation. The Environmental Working Group in Washington publishes a list of the Dirty Dozen – fruits and vegetables most contaminated with pesticides. But they also publish a list of the Clean 15. And both lists are updated if things change and a dirty one becomes clean.

And then there is the book, Slow Death by Rubber Duck. When it was published in 2009 it wasn’t just the quirky title that made it a best seller around the world. The book revealed how daily life is bathing us in toxins that accumulate in our tissues, are passed on to our children and damage our health. That was a wakeup call to people all over the world.

In this episode Bruce Lourie and Rick Smith explain why they decided the best way to demonstrate how chemicals get into our bodies was to experiment on themselves and document it in a book.

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