Sound Truth and Corporate Myth

Dr. Riki Ott exposes the profound legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how readers can help reshape our global energy future.
The author chronicles the long-lasting environmental harm to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and investigates the health problems suffered by many cleanup workers. Exxon's spill provided a portal to understanding a startling truth: oil is much more toxic than we previously thought. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ frames the larger story of discovery of the truly toxic nature of oil.

This book shows how one particular fraction of crude oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, may well be the new DDT of the 21st century. In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 22 PAHs in crude oil as "persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) pollutants." Sharing this list of extreme human health hazards are the more commonly known pollutants--mercury, lead, dioxin, PCBs, and DDT. The latter are all highly regulated chemicals and some, such as DDT and PCBs, have been banned in the United States.

Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ traces 15 years of lingering harm to humans and wildlife from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It reveals how corporate greed, government short-sightedness, and manipulation of the truth and the media have kept the public from learning the deadly nature of PAHs. The author provides relevant information and practical recommendations for people and policy-makers at this critical juncture in the history of civilization. This book will inspire people to reduce their own consumption of fossil fuels and, in so doing, help permanently shift society to a clean energy future.

Since 1987 Dr. Riki Ott has dedicated her academic training in marine biology and toxicology to help the general public understand the effects of oil, mining and timber industry activities on water quality and marine and aquatic ecosystems. She has helped citizens use this new knowledge to redefine business practices and government accountability to improve the general quality of life through environmental protection, social justice and economic stability. She has written numerous white papers and one book (Alaska's Copper River Delta, Univ. WA Press, 1998), served on several state-appointed advisory or working groups, worked with many nonprofit organizations in various capacities (founding director to volunteer), testified often before Congress and the Alaska State Legislature, and received state and national recognition for her work. Her book, Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (Dragonfly Sisters Press 2005), frames the new understanding of oil toxicity to humans and wildlife from the stories of key witnesses and participants to this drama.