The war in Vietnam, spanning more than twenty years, was one of the most divisive conflicts ever to envelop the United States, and its complexity and consequences did not end with the fall of Saigon in 1975. As Peter Sills demonstrates in Toxic War, veterans faced a new enemy beyond post-traumatic stress disorder or debilitating battle injuries. Many of them faced a new, more pernicious, slow-killing enemy: the cancerous effects of Agent Orange. Originally introduced by Dow and other chemical companies as a herbicide in the United States and adopted by the military as a method of deforesting the war zone of Vietnam, in order to deny the enemy cover, Agent Orange also found its way into the systems of numerous active-duty soldiers. Sills argues that manufacturers understood the dangers of this compound and did nothing to protect American soldiers. Toxic War takes the reader behind the scenes into the halls of political power and industry, where the debates about the use of Agent Orange and its potential side effects raged. In the end, the only way these veterans could seek justice was in the court of law and public opinion. Unprecedented in its access to legal, medical, and government documentation, as well as to the personal testimonies of veterans, Toxic War endeavors to explore all sides of this epic battle.

"Why Can't We Hate Men?" asks a headline in the Washington Post. A trendy hashtag is #KillAllMen. Books are sold titled I Hate Men, The End of Men, and Are Men Necessary? How did the idea arise that masculinity is dangerous and destructive? Bestselling author Nancy Pearcey leads you on a fascinating excursion through American history to discover why the script for masculinity turned toxic--and how to fix it. Pearcey then turns to surprising findings from sociology. Religion is often cast as a cause of domestic abuse. But research shows that authentically committed Christian men test out as the most loving and engaged husbands and fathers. They have the lowest rates of divorce and domestic violence of any group in America. Yes, domestic abuse is an urgent issue, and Pearcey does not mince words in addressing it. But the sociological facts explode the negative stereotypes and show that Christianity has the power to overcome toxic behavior in men and reconcile the sexes--an unexpected finding that has stood up to rigorous empirical testing.

The past several years have seen an increase in the use of toxic weapons -- i.e., inexpensive and easily acquired chemicals and industrial waste -- on the part of state as well as nonstate actors. Nonetheless, little analysis has been done on the nature and extent of this threat either to the military or to the U.S. homeland. This report examines the implications of toxic weapon use for military planning and concludes that such weapons merit further analysis.

While it is not possible to predict or necessarily prevent terrorist incidents in which chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) are deployed, correctly chosen, fast, and reliable detection equipment will allow prepared rescue workers to respond quickly and minimize potential casualties. Detection Technologies

Sensing of Deadly Toxic Chemical Warfare Agents, Nerve Agent Simulants, and their Toxicological Aspects provides a general overview of the development and performance of different novel molecular frameworks as potent vehicles for sensing Chemical Weapons (CWs). The chapters are contributed by leading researchers in the areas of materials science, medical science, chemical science, and nanotechnology from industries, academics, government and private research institutions across the globe. It covers cover topics such as inorganic nanocomposites, hyperbranched polymers, and graphene heterojunctions for effective sensing of CW agents. This book is a highly valuable reference source for graduates, post-graduates, and research scholars primarily in the fields of materials science, medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, and nanoscience and nanotechnology. In addition, almost all analytical techniques will be discussed, making this a first-rate reference for professors, students, and scientists in many industries. - Provides an efficient, reliable, and highly versatile approach for the synthesis of different molecular systems suitable for diversity-oriented strategies, structure-activity studies and molecular tailoring for the sensing of chemical warfare agents - Goes into depth on new binary organogels, discrete carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) and molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and has endowed electrochemical chemosensors (ECCSs) with high selectivity and sensitivity towards the detection of chemical warfare agent - Highlights in detail the detection of CWs by composite optical waveguide sensors, and describes disposable biofilm biosensors for sensitive detection of biotoxicity in water with treatment of nerve agent poisoning

Toxic Airs brings together historians of medicine, environmental historians, historians of science and technology, and interdisciplinary scholars to address atmospheric issues on a spectrum of scales from body to place to planet. The chapters analyze airborne and atmospheric threats posed to humans, and contributors demonstrate how conceptions of toxicity have evolved and how humans have both created and mitigated toxins in the air. Specific topics discussed include medieval beliefs in the pestilent breath of witches, malarial theory in India, domestic and military use of tear gas, Gulf War Syndrome, Los Angeles smog, automotive emissions control, the epidemiological effects of air pollution, transboundary air pollution, ozone depletion, the contributions of contemporary artists to climate awareness, and the toxic history of carbon "die"-oxide. Overall, the essays provide a wide-ranging historical study of interest to students and scholars of many disciplines.

An interdisciplinary environmental humanities volume that explores human-environment relationships on our permanently polluted planet. While toxicity and pollution are ever present in modern daily life, politicians, juridical systems, media outlets, scholars, and the public alike show great difficulty in detecting, defining, monitoring, or generally coming to terms with them. This volume’s contributors argue that the source of this difficulty lies in the struggle to make sense of the intersecting temporal and spatial scales working on the human and more-than-human body, while continuing to acknowledge race, class, and gender in terms of global environmental justice and social inequality. The term toxic timescapes refers to this intricate intersectionality of time, space, and bodies in relation to toxic exposure. As a tool of analysis, it unpacks linear understandings of time and explores how harmful substances permeate temporal and physical space as both event and process. It equips scholars with new ways of creating data and conceptualizing the past, present, and future presence and possible effects of harmful substances and provides a theoretical framework for new environmental narratives. To think in terms of toxic timescapes is to radically shift our understanding of toxicants in the complex web of life. Toxicity, pollution, and modes of exposure are never static; therefore, dose, timing, velocity, mixture, frequency, and chronology matter as much as the geographic location and societal position of those exposed. Together, these factors create a specific toxic timescape that lies at the heart of each contributor’s narrative. Contributors from the disciplines of history, human geography, science and technology studies, philosophy, and political ecology come together to demonstrate the complex reality of a toxic existence. Their case studies span the globe as they observe the intersection of multiple times and spaces at such diverse locations as former battlefields in Vietnam, aging nuclear-weapon storage facilities in Greenland, waste deposits in southern Italy, chemical facilities along the Gulf of Mexico, and coral-breeding laboratories across the world.