A Bitter Fog: Herbicides & Human Rights

A Bitter Fog is the true story of people fighting to protect their families and homes from Agent Orange and other poisons sprayed on them from the air. This books is about ordinary people who defied profiteering corporations and indifferent government agencies. Meticulous research exposes deception and outright fraud by chemical companies to keep profiting from herbicides they knew were toxic and government complicity in covering up severe human health problems and environmental damage.

The award-winning PBS documentary film The People vs. Agent Orange is based in large part on material first revealed in A Bitter Fog. It was awarded the Christopher Award, which is presented to writers whose works "affirm the highest values of the human spirit."

This new edition of A Bitter Fog adds a brief update on the fight for environmental justice and numerous photographs that add a new perspective to the story.

"A real life Toxic Avenger. It takes a village to raise a family, and it also takes individuals and groups in a community to make it safe for everyone. Residents and tourists alike must respect that we in small rural and coast communities make up the fabric of how the place ticks and where the history is both created and memorialized."

- Paul K. Haeder, in Street Roots

"An excellent and horrifying read."

- Joyce Thompson, Author of How To Greet Strangers

"A Bitter Fog is the shocking and infuriating story of how the timber industry and the U.S. Forest Service, spraying herbicides containing dioxin, destroyed the health and killed the unborn babies of families in communities throughout the Pacific Northwest."

- Lewis Regenstein, USA Today

"A Bitter Fog is an emotional book [that has] boiled my blood. I'm not liking at all what was going on back then and still to this day....I was really pissed about Melyce's murder. But I admire her courage for driving 50 miles to go put ole Commissioner Zedwick in his place. That took balls. Iron balls! She seem like she had fire in her. She was beautiful, too. That's what makes this ugliness from those corporate cowards so disgusting....

- T. H., Inmate in solitary in an Oregon prison

"This well-documented, hard-hitting books deserves serious study at all levels of government as well as by citizen organizations."

- Publisher's Weekly

"Americans never approved biocides, risk assessment or the fraudulent science behind 'regulation.' Industry has captured the EPA through the offices of Congress and the White House. That's why the EPA is misusing science for legitimizing the use of pesticides, and, often, the poisoning of innocents. The American people and, especially, environmental organizations, must wake up to this tragic reality. A Bitter Fog is an important book. Melyce Connelly keeps dying not merely in Oregon, but all over the United States-and the world."

- Evaggelos Vallianatos, Truth-Out Review