Environmental Toxins Theory

Michael J. Lynch & Paul B. Stretesky

Toxins are poisonous substances produced by living organisms. Environmental toxins are chemical pollutants that result from the production of commodities in mass consumption societies and have become ubiquitous across the face of the globe. The production of environmental toxins has attracted serious public attention in the United States. Several influential works have been written about this issue including Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers's Our Stolen Future , Louis Gibbs's Love Canal , and Sandra Steingraber's Living Downstream . Efforts at controlling environmental toxins’ impact on human health have resulted in the passage of legislation such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Superfund Act (or CERCLA), and the National Environmental Policy Act. Criminologists have become increasingly interested in environmental toxins as a subject of study. This is the case for two reasons. First, the ...

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