January 1996
Toxic Sludge is Good for You
Toxic Sludge Is Good For You:
Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry,
by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton (1995: Common Courage Press, Monroe, ME)
Along the lines of William Grieder’s classic Who Will Tell the People, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You takes the reader step-by-step into the world of public relations. Through their work on the quarterly publication, "PR Watch," Stauber and Rampton have been able to decipher the PR gimmicks used to discredit public interest organizations, activists, and authors, while downplaying critical health risks to communities.
While writing the book, the authors found out that for some interests, their title was no joke. They were contacted by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) — a front group developed by the PR firm Powell Tate — which was concerned that the book might have a negative impact on their campaign to promote sewage sludge (aka "biosolids") as inexpensive agricultural fertilizer. WEF’s campaign is designed to hide from the public information about the heavy metals, PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and industrial solvents that contaminate this sludge. Utilizing the innocuous name "biosolids," WEF is helping city sewage departments sell their sludge to rural communities and farmers for use in growing food crops.
In Toxic Sludge, the reader will learn the techniques and strategies of industry PR campaigns. Most importantly, the reader will be armed with the information needed to counter these campaigns, which so often undermine the hard work of citizen activists.
— Jill Cashen
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