Book Recommendation: “Lethal, But Legal”

Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg’s new book, Lethal But Legal: Corporations, Consumption, and Protecting Public Health, is at the top of our “to-read” list.

Here is what Publishers Weekly‘s review:

“Public health specialist Freudenberg points a critical finger at the “Corporate Consumption Complex” and the major corporations doing business in six consumer product industries: food, alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, guns, and automobiles.

He argues that carefully designed products, effective lobbying, and aggressive advertising have created rising rates of premature death, increases in instances of heart disease and diabetes, and poorer health worldwide. Reinforced by deep-seated cultural ideologies that value hyper-consumption, low regulation, and blaming individual lifestyle choices for widespread health issues, these corporations produce high-profit “fun for you” products, pursue poorly regulated international markets, and maintain a “system in which those at the very top… run the world to benefit themselves.”

And here is Kirkus Reviews’ take:

“A call to arms to fight the “corporate consumption complex,” offering strategies and resources that can be enlisted in the fight. It’s all about capitalism and profit, writes Freudenberg (Public Health/CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College) as he lays out the sins of the alcohol, automobile, firearms, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and tobacco industries, all of which are contributing to ill health and preventable deaths. A richly detailed account of how corporate power has been used to corrupt health and well-being, along with excellent advice on what readers can do about it.”

Last month, the City University of New York School of Public Health hosted a panel discussion to celebrate the release of Legal But Lethal, which featured Dr. Freudenberg, New York University’s nutrition and food politics expert Dr. Marion Nestle, and Laura Berry, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

The panel discussion is excellent from beginning to end, and we were thrilled to have our efforts name-checked by Dr. Nestle during the Q&A portion.