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REVIEWS < TWENTY THIRST CENTURY tainable water management approach that health writers, Ray Moynihan (whose work by John Archer includes incentives for householders to has appeared in major Australian newspa- Pure Water Press, Australia, 2005 install water tanks and be responsible for pers and the world's top medical journals) ISBN 1-920769-56-09 (319pp tpb) their water supply. His strategy includes and Alan Cassels (a Canadian researcher Availability: Australia—Pure Water Press, ways to become self-sufficient in water use specialising in drug policy issues). http://www. johnarcher.com.au by recycling grey water for gardening, and The common factor about the pharmcos' uthor John Archer is passionate about his advice covers the range of water filters promotional strategies in selling us sickness Awe and has been researching and and resources that are available. It's a blue- _is the marketing of fear. For example, the writing about it for 15 years. His new book — Print for personal, community and planetary fear of heart attacks was used to sell women Twenty-Thirst Century is an urgent call to survival that's political as well as practical. the idea that menopause requires HRT, and yet the drugs prescribed have been found to cause the very harm they are supposed to prevent. Moynihan and Cassels focus on a number of invented and/or misdiagnosed "disease conditions" including high choles- terol, depression, ADD, high blood pressure, pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder and social anxiety disorder to demonstrate how the pharmaceutical corporations have seriously duped the public. They use statistics in such a way as to blind doctors and potential patients to the actual efficacy of so many drugs, they give misleading or no informa- tion about harmful side-effects, and they action that furthers the cause he championed in his 2001 Australia's Drinking Water: The Coming Crisis (see NEXUS 8/06). It's urgent because the water supplies of the dri- est continent on Earth are drying up. Cities and towns are suffering from the worst drought in 100 years, and climate change is making things worse, ensuring that when rain does fall it falls mainly on coastal strips and not within catchments. Archer focuses much of his gaze on Sydney's catchment because "within two short years Sydney could be the world's first modern metropolis to run out of water". & Part of the problem is that politicians, sci- iavedba Bian Caeants sponsor patient support groups so as to kin- entists and planners have allowed the crisis = : ae srassroots demand tor thet drugs. 0° to unfold as it has—and their stop-gap solu- often they foster uncomfortably cosy rela- tions are doomed to failure. Archer explains SELLING SICKNESS tionships with medical practitioners for the why such solutions like seawater desalina- by Ray Moynihan & Alan Cassels sake of expanding their markets. tion (as being touted by the NSW State Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2005 The authors, like the independent Government, and using nuclear power to do ISBN 1-74114-579-1 (264pp tpb) researchers and health advocates who are it), sewage recycling and groundwater Availability: www.allenandunwin.com also trying to change the status quo, aim to extraction won't be economically viable and n their relentless drive to increase their stimulate informed public debate on health environmentally sustainable and they won't A market shares and profits, the pharmaceu- issues. They can already see a shift, with supply the quantity or quality of water to tical corporations are increasingly targeting —_ more and more professionals and laypeople meet growing demand. He is also aghast the "worried well", defining new disease demanding information that doesn't have that water authorities have such pathetic conditions and coming up with new drugs, pharmco money attached to it. They encour- contingency plans should water supplies dry old drugs in a new guise, to treat them. age us to realise that the more educated we up or be severely compromised by, say, out- But the tactics of the medical/pharmaceuti- are, the better equipped we are to participate breaks of poisonous blue-green algae. cal industry are revealed for all to see in in the debate and take more control over our What Archer proposes is a sensible, sus- Selling Sickness, a damning exposé by two own health and well-being. tainable water management approach that includes incentives for householders to install water tanks and be responsible for their water supply. His strategy includes ways to become self-sufficient in water use by recycling grey water for gardening, and his advice covers the range of water filters and resources that are available. It's a blue- print for personal, community and planetary survival that's political as well as practical. SELLING SICKNESS by Ray Moynihan & Alan Cassels Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2005 ISBN 1-74114-579-1 (264pp tpb) Availability: www.allenandunwin.com n their relentless drive to increase their market shares and profits, the pharmaceu- tical corporations are increasingly targeting the "worried well", defining new disease conditions and coming up with new drugs, or old drugs in a new guise, to treat them. But the tactics of the medical/pharmaceuti- cal industry are revealed for all to see in Selling Sickness, a damning exposé by two 66 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazi ne.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2005