A FINE MESS

The news last May that a fresh inquest will be held into the death of a nine-year-old British girl, Ella Kiss-Debrah, after new evidence showed that her fatal asthma attack may have been linked to high levels of air pollution near her home, has sparked fresh worries about the effect of the ever-present chemical pollution around us. But the evidence is far from new. Nearly 20 years ago, the biologist Joe Thornton published a thoroughly researched and lucidly written analysis of the global build-up of toxic chemicals known as organochlorines in his book, Pandora’s Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy (MIT Press, 2000). These compounds are now found in the environment, in our food supply, in wildlife and, increasingly, in our own bodies.

They include the notorious pollutants DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), dioxins and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), but Thornton also discusses many lesser-known chemical