Womens-Safety-and-Health-Issues Books

This is maybe the most comprehensive and well-researched book on women and addiction. It serves as an excellent resource for anyone interested in this topic. I have given away several copies to friends who were writing papers, etc. on this topic so I keep having to buy new copies for myself.

I never received this book or two others that I purchased!

This is a thorough report of scietific research on the differences between men and women and their reactions to the use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs. It is essential reading for anyone needing to understand the topic and those who are caught up in this problem.

Book was very 'DRY' in the reading. It is informative, but the way that it was written was a bit too much. Author uses long vague descriptions before you finally understand what they are trying to say. Like using 500 words when 10 words would have explained the same thing in a better way.

I have found this book to be vital in preparing children to deal with the inevitable conflict that they will face in the school yard and in life. As a martial arts teacher, I am concerned that by simply teaching physical techniques to children we are only teaching them how to fight. The content of this book gives numerous concrete examples of how children can navigate through a sea of bullies without resorting to their physical training. By practicing the "12 ways" described in the book, children are taught to think on their feet and manage situations by first understanding and ultimately by out thinking the bully. The physical skills accumulated in martial arts class lend to the development of the confidence to be able to use the mental techniques covered in the book.
From my view, this is a perfect match....Strong yet gentle!!

I have used this book to teach 100s of Martial Arts students about conflict and how to resolve it without using violence. It has helped me and my students understand there are many options to solving conflict. Many parents and students return to me saying "The lessons you taught me and the books from Dr. T have helped me focus on the important things in school, keep the bullys away, and find good friends". School teachers have commented how the children from my classes share the lessons from the books with other students and have helped spread the peaceful ways accross the community. I highly recommend this book and others from this author.

I have had GREAT! success with this book. In fact, the success was actually documented in a case study with several children. If you are any kind of teacher at all, you will find this book useful. I think it gives children a number of options to manage conflict. I also think if we taught our children more from this author's books and programs, we would all be more peaceful people and actually be able to live with each other, (there's a concept)no matter how different we are! It is not a passive response...it is a SMART response!

I first met the Author in the late 1980's. I have since employed much of his work within the many programs I have done.
Dr. Webster-Doyle has enormous experience as both a psychologist (with background in Youth related work), and as a experienced Martial Artist.
Psychologists might not fully understand the synergy with martial arts, and many (most, I'm sorry to say) martial artists do not fully comprehend the many ways Body & Spirit are driven by Mind. I have used this material in many public & Private Programs, from NYC Bd of ED programming to Community Non-Profit Organization & Commercial Martial Arts Programs. I recommend it highly.
GM Ticali ,
Old Lion Karate Academy
Martial LIFE Arts Assoc.

Terrance Webster-Doyle's books are a great help for teaching youth the art of non-violence which is, essentially, the essence of Martial Arts. Anyone who criticizes this basic premise just doesn't get it. Terrence Webster-Doyle does, that is why he is a respected educator and Master worldwide.

I really liked this book. It has a lot of information on why certain products are bad and alternative products you can buy. I also tried many of the recipes you can make on your own and have had great success with all of them! Definitely worth buying!

Anyone that uses any beauty products must read this book!

I am a makeup queen and as an induvidual who has not only worked in the cosmetics industry as well as having a huge collection of cosmetics this book is priceless. I thought I was relatively educated...hardly. I found this book to be easy to read and understand. But more importantly it educated me and also gave me insight as to why I had reactions to certain products.

I appreciate Kim's easy to do recipie's and also her guide to shopping for "safe" products. My only problem with the book is her recipies, some needed to be reworked as the proportions are wrong. As well I couldn't get some to mix. It did get somewhat frustrating but she did provide a comprehensive listing of existing products.

It is scary to read some of things she has to say but I feel that education is the best way to alert people of the dangers in everyday products.

In response to some criticisms of Erikson's work, I would like to say that I agree on the level that the research she provides is suspiciously insufficient to back her claims. We are bombarded with "iffy" words like, "almost all", "may", "might", "greater risks than" and so forth. I have a personal peeve against those types of words, but that did not cause my interest in her book to wane.

I think that in order to read this book and get the most out of it, one has to digest Erikson's bold statements with a pinch of salt. I don't believe quite everything she says, but she says so much that I still squeezed some valuable information out of it. For instance, when she describes and defines chemicals like the infamous propylene gycol and sodium lauryl sulfate, she is not wrong (I have a naturopathic doctor of a sister-in-law and medical books to support me). Whether those unpronouncable chemicals will give me cancer or not, I can't be sure. The sun can give me cancer too, but I won't shut it out from my life forever. My computer that I'm typing on right now could possibly give me cancer from the electronic radiation it gives (but I love my computer too much to ever part with it).

I still recommend this book based on the otherwise hard facts it presents, along with the recipes. I find it absolutely delightful and exciting to make my own facial cleansers =) Think of it as taking back one or two years of your life that stress stole. It doesn't hurt to try and be a bit healthier, I say.

This book, written by environmental writer Kim Erickson has three major points. Commercial cosmetics have carcinogens and other unsafe chemicals. Even the "earth friendly" cosmetics cannot be trusted. There are many homemade cosmetics that are safer.

Drop-Dead Gorgeous has over 100 recipes for cosmetics. The recipes are, for the most part, safe. Those that are questionable include the appropriate warnings. (For example, horseradish can burn sensitive skin.) Most recipes have been published in other magazines and books and have been around for a while. The use of these recipes may not be practical, but they are unlikely to do any harm. The book includes a recipe for skin cleaning to treat acne. If you use commercial cleansers or the organic recipes, you keep the skin clean and acne will be less frequent.
For athlete's foot, there is a recipe that includes garlic oil. Lucky there is also a recipe for smelly feet. It includes baking soda. There are recipes for hair dies, shampoos, rinses, facial scrubs, nail soaks, and sunburn lotion. This is handy information to have in any household.

The author uses a few pages to condemn the use of animals in the testing of cosmetics. One test is the LD-50. Basically, how much of a product, force fed to a critter is enough to be fatal in 50% of the cases. Maybe she doesn't realize this is also done with the basic chemicals found in organics. For example, cinnamon oil is about 75% cinnamic aldehyde (depending upon the type of oil). LD50 (orally in rats) for cinnamic aldehyde is 2220mg/kg. This means I (if I was a 200 pound rat) could eat about a third of a pound of cinnamic aldehyde with about a 50% chance of survival.

On page 11 she makes a special point to discredit a company that makes my favorite brand of peanut butter. "One company resisting the trend toward more humane treatment of animals is Proctor & Gamble, the manufactures of Cover Girl, Max Factor and Vidal Sassoon brands." She cites evidence that, "In 1993 alone, Proctor & Gamble invested $2.4 billion on advertising while spending only $450,000 in scientific grants to develop actual alternatives
to animal testing." The advertising number includes potato chips and hundreds of other products besides beauty products. P&G only does animal testing when required by law. Specifically European requirements for cosmetics. In addition to spending money on grants for alternatives to animal testing, P&G is active in promoting these alternate tests.
(Disclaimer: I do not own stock in P&G nor am I expecting a lifetime supply of Jif(tm) to start showing up at my door. It is just an easy thing to investigate.)

The author has a bias against commercial products and the contents. When writing about a commercial products on page 23: "Glycerin is a solvent, humectant, and emollient. The FDA issued a notice in 1992 that glycerin has not been shown to be safe or effective." When writing about her recipe products on page 41: A sweet, syrupy byproduct of soap making, glycerin has been used for thousand of years a humectant, emollient, and lubricant in skin care preparations, It is available at most pharmacies. She doesn't mention if she means organic glycerin or not. Organic glycerin is made from animal fat. She conplains that cosmetics make products that may cause cancer in rats. Yet one of her receipes uses tobacco leaves.

While no one can be an expert in everything, the author is careless with facts. On page 165 is says, "Deodorants simply inhibit the growth of bacteria that cause odor, while antiperspirants stops perspiration by blocking the pores." Later on the same page, "Antiperspirants, on the other hand, curb wetness by temporarily shrinking the size of the sweat glands." Antiperspirants do neither to stop sweat. Antiperspirants change the electric charge on the skin. Sweat has a positive charge. It is attracted to the skin by the negative charge. The antiperspirant reduces the negative charge, by changing most of it to a positive charge.
Like charges do not attract, they repel.

I do agree with the author, that we should make an effort to have fewer cancer causing elements in our lives. She does suggest that using cosmetics with unproven and dangerous chemicals might be causing cancer (and mutant fish in Lake Erie --page 9). Statistic doesn't help her cause. Women get cancer less often than men in America in every category shared by the two genders except for breast cancer. (Breast cancer is usually fatal for men. In America one man a day dies of breast cancer.) If cosmetics were a factor for cancer, you would expect women to have a at least a greater rate of skin cancer. The author writes in a charged fashion about the possible dangers of cosmetics. But her recipes for homemade cosmetics are safe.

This book takes a survey-like look at the state of vaccines at the beginning of the 21st century, with each chapter focusing on one disease and the vaccines available for it. Each chapter is short, from 3 - 10 pages in length, and covers the history and science of that illness, and the history and science of the vaccines for it. The history portions of each chapter includes the source of the illness, its affect on human history, how it spreads, its symptoms, and biology. The vaccine portion includes a famous trials, and the names of the individuals, scientists and patients involved in making the vaccine(s). Most of the major infectious diseases are covered, such as polio, smallpox, chickenpox, and whooping cough. There are few exclusions, these primarily being the more recent ones, like the vaccine against cervical cancer. Another nice feature of the book are the appendices, which cover the legal aspects of vaccine usage, and how vaccines are tested in clinical trials. Overall, the book is quite complete, and quite readable for anyone with some science background. The only thing missing is a comprehensive timeline of events.

Dr. Link gives an overview of the history of vaccination and immunization, and ethical issues raised by this. He also has a chapter devoted to known vaccine failures and worse; the best known was the Bundaberg disaster in Australia in the 1920s, involving a batch of bacteria-contaminated vaccine. There were also examples of polio vaccine that gave people polio, and hepatitis spread by smallpox vaccination.

He describes the diseases they prevent and what they did to people, since most of us have never known anyone who had some of them, and why people should or should not take the vaccine. He also debunks the vaccines-cause-autism thing, but does admit that the P component of the DPT vaccine does cause neurological damage in a small percentage of people who take it. This is well known in medical circles. There was considerable skepticism raised about the chicken pox vaccine; he saw no indication in giving it to healthy children, and I have to agree. There are also chapters about anthrax and smallpox vaccination and the problems that have arisen from them.

The back of the book has the suggested vaccine schedule; he also gives provisions for spreading them out should the parents wish to do so.

Some people may not agree with what he says, but he's old enough to have encountered many of the diseases nobody gets nowadays and that is his only agenda.

Rachel Roth sheds intellectual and logical light on some highly emotional issues. Her book covers topics such as women's employment, citizenship, and individual rights. This book does not ponder the moral question of abortion, but rather it points out the price women must pay and the burdon they bear during pregnacy. Women no loger have control over their bodies and in some cases are forced into unwanted medical procedures. This book should be read by all because it well documented and shows how society puts more importance on the fetus and less on the woman. However, I sometimes found this book to get a little repetative in the message it was conveying.

Please note that the more or less average "average ratings" come from reviewers who either rate this one star or four to five stars. In my opinion this illustrates the main point of the book, i.e. that people either evaluate things based on medical evidence, on the opinion of experts, or on their personal belief based on personal life experience/expectations. The different ways of evaluation produce conflicting perceptions, conflicting world views which we see played out many aspect of life. I think that Dr. Angell is gutsy to even take on an issue which generates tremendous controversy. I believe that she presents the arguments for medical evidence very well. Chapter 5 is the best brief and understandable description of what medical evidence is (and is not) that I have ever read. I recommend the book on that alone. I hope that some day Dr. Angell will update the book to include more recent research.

People have a tendency to let their emotions rule their mind, or in this case, their breasts. Luckily, this book chooses the mind.

For the true story behind implants, one's time is better spent reading John Byrne's "Informed Consent". He was in charge of Dow's "ethics" program and his wife also had implants. Contrary to what Dr. Angell writes in her book, there are many studies showing immunological responses to silicone oils (most recently a study by researchers at the FDA - June 1999). The Institute of Medicine in their recent report termed the FDA study "interesting", choosing to rely on previous, and seriously flawed, studies purporting to show no link between silicone and disease (the same studies quoted in Dr. Angell's book). One of the studies looked at women who had implants for only one month (!), which is as ludicrous as determing smoking doesn't cause cancer after studying a person who smoked for only a brief time. There are thousands of court documents proving fraud on the part of the implant manufacturers. Reading through them makes one realize how powerful corporations are and how the bottom line is far more important than the health and safety of the consumer. Breast implants (saline and silicone) have NEVER been approved for safety by the FDA. They only have pre-market approval, which means they can be on the market pending the manufacturers submission of safety data. To date, the manufacturers have been UNABLE to prove implants safe. Unfortunately, the medical community and the corporate community are oftentimes inextricably intertwined. Money is the motivator. When Dr. Angell speaks of greed, I'm sure that's at least one thing she knows a lot about.

this woman is a front for the plastic surgeons and the chemical cos. who are responsible for the largest cover-up of facts in the history of plastic surgery--the media pr and the cruel slap at sick women and children is disgusting--she also came out against agent orange problems (also a DOW product--if the public ever gets the real story in this silicone disaster it wont be thru drs and health persons like her--she is so tainted by dow et/al money that this book reeks --its smells of corporate cover-up and misinformation--GET THE FACTS ON THIS WOMAN AND HER BACKERS!

I read this book back in 1996 before the issue of implant safety was settled. I recall the impression it made on me with regard to the widespread ignorance that surrounds us, not only on specific scientific principles but also on the whole idea of the scientific method. This book illustrates why hypotheses and theories can never be evaluated by a court of law. It also illustrates why in any critical review of data one must have a control. If the incidence of a disorder is the same in a group getting implants as it is in a group that does not get implants then it is impossible to reasonably argue that there is any connection between implants and the disorder. Silicone is one of the most inert materials around and people are exposed to it all the time. I strongly recommend this book for anyone looking for further proof that our schools do not teach science adequately.