SAMUEL EPSTEIN’S The Politics of Cancer is written with the self- righteous anger of one who “knows” the truth but feels blocked by conspiracies and the incompetence of others. Epstein states that the increased rate of cancer in the United States since the turn of the century is directly related to the increased use of chemicals. Moreover, Epstein argues that we can identify the specific carcinogenic substances with unambiguous statistical studies-studies that deal with exposure to chemicals and increased rates of human cancer, or with increased cancer rates in laboratory animals given very high levels of a suspected carcinogenic substance.