Northern Exposures is a unique and valuable book. David Bennett writes as someone who, for more than 20 years, was in the forefront of the Canadian labor movement's struggles for a safer workplace and healthier environment. Based on his participation in numerous domestic and international negotiations, he provides not only a valuable historical account of those struggles but also a keen analytical treatment—reflecting his academic training as a philosopher—of many controversies in Canadian environmental policy. We do not have nearly enough high-quality studies on the interface of science and public policy, and Dr. Bennett's book is a powerful antidote to the contemporary tendency to depoliticize conflicts over underlying values through the jargon of 'risk management.' (Ted Schrecker, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Principal Scientist, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa)

Northern Exposures is an important and thought-provoking book that shows how the labor movement has embraced environmental protection and is beginning to create a new and more sustainable vision for the future. Dave Bennett's knowledge and commitment shine through. He is, by turns, the skeptical philosopher sifting the evidence and the passionate partisan arguing for the rights of the people. It makes for a rich and exhilarating mixture. ( Crisp, Permanent Secretary, U.K. Department of Health, and Chief Executive, National Health Service (2000-2006), Author, Turning the World Upside Down: The Search for Global Health in the 21st Century (Royal Society of Medicine Press, 2010))

The absence of a strong federal authority in health, the workplace, and the environment is a central challenge to achieving sustained improvement across Canada. The patchwork that results weakens our collective ability to make improvements and undermines any consistent comparisons with other jurisdictions, especially the United States. WHMIS and CEPA legislation were high points in trying to link national and provincial action, high points that have not since been equaled. Primarily this is a result of the weakening of labor and environmental activism by a succession of federal and provincial rightwing parties that trumpeted the market in support of an agenda of deregulation and implemented free trade in support of globalization. Unlike in the United States, where large foundations provide funds for alternative activism to thrive, in Canada we are much more dependent on government to redistribute funds and promote alternatives. As Bennett points out, some progress is being made at the provincial level. Building on success regulating pesticides, Ontario became the first province to adopt toxic use reduction laws in 2009, as the result of a coalition of environmental, health, and union activists. (Andrew King, National Health, Safety and Environment Coordinator and Department Leader, Health, Safety and Environment Department, United Steelworkers Union-Canadian National Office)

In Northern Exposures, David Bennett offers an important contribution to the contemporary history of the Canadian labor and environmental movements. His well-argued analysis chronicles the labor movement's shift from a narrow focus on occupational health to a much broader conceptualization of hazard prevention. Bennett carefully laces together the complex labor and environmental movement initiatives that led from chemical exposure management to reductions in the use of hazardous chemicals in both commerce and the workplace. The analysis is well-grounded in the legal and constitutional history of the period, and it also offers rich insights into the political struggles between the business and labor communities and the strategic struggles within the labor and environmental movements. This is both a well-documented history and a record from a man who was often at the center of these events, written with the personal conviction that comes from an author's lived experience. Today, Canada's chemical management policy is praised globally as an effective international model; Bennett's careful examination reveals that it emerged largely through the persistence and determination of a handful of dedicated advocates. If we are going to effectively advance an international movement for a sustainable future, we need critical retrospectives such as this on the struggles that have brought us major steps forward. (Ken Geiser, Ph.D., Professor of Work Environment, Co-Director, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, University of Massachusetts Lowell)