Healthy Living in a Contaminated World How to prevent toxic chemicals from undermining your health

Donald Hoernschemeyer has a Ph.D. degree in chemistry. For twenty-five years he did research and development work on new products, such as membranes for desalination, and for ten years he did consulting on polymer technology. He has long been interested in environmental issues, the health of the planet, and the relationship between toxic chemicals and disease. While working on uranium processes he became acquainted with the dangers of low levels of radioactivity. Observing industrial waste effluents in the Delaware and Allegheny Rivers made him think about their effects upon the people living downstream who took their municipal water from the contaminated rivers. While living in the Los Angeles basin he became acutely aware of the toxic nature of smog. Reading about the pollution of air, water, and food in weekly publications of the American Chemical Society initiated a growing awareness of the pervasive nature of the contamination of the environment and its damaging effects on people's health. Publications of several nonprofit organizations dedicated to the health of the environment motivated him to play a part in educating people about the health risks they unknowingly face every day, and how they can avoid chronic afflictions and diseases caused by toxic chemicals in the environment.