The Blue Death

A public health expert warns about the safety of our water supply and "recounts, with crystal clarity, some of history's epic drinking water disasters" (Booklist, starred review).

A Library Journal Best Consumer Health Book of the Year

In this book, Dr. Robert Morris chronicles the fascinating and at times frightening story of our drinking water. His gripping narrative recounts the epidemics that have shaken cities and nations, the scientists who reached into the invisible and emerged with controversial truths that would save millions of lives, and the economic and political forces that opposed these researchers in a ferocious war of ideas.

In the gritty world of nineteenth-century England, amid the ravages of cholera, Morris introduces John Snow, the physician who proved that the deadly disease could be hidden in a drop of water. Decades later in the deserts of Africa, the story follows Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch as they race to find the cause of cholera and a means to prevent its spread. In the twentieth century, burgeoning cities would subdue cholera and typhoid by bending rivers to their will, building massive filtration plants, and bubbling poisonous gas through their drinking water. However, in the new millennium, the demon of waterborne disease is threatening to reemerge, and a growing body of research has linked the chlorine relied on for water treatment with cancer and stillbirths.

In The Blue Death, Morris dispels notions of fail-safe water systems and reveals some shocking truths: the millions of miles of leaking water mains, constantly evolving microorganisms, and the looming threat of bioterrorism, which may lead to catastrophe. Across time and around the world, this account offers alarming information about the natural and man-made hazards present in the very water we drink.

"While casual readers don't generally pick up public health books expecting to stay up late turning pages, Morris manages a neat trickhe provides an in-depth medical history that at times reads like a mystery." San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Engrossing and disquieting." Publishers Weekly

"Morris approaches water systems like an engineers, disease outbreaks like an epidemiologist, and the people and events behind waterborne disasters like an investigative reporter . . . The effect is riveting." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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