I’m an environmental toxicologist, a scientist that considers how things like pollutants and other chemicals might affect human health and the environment. Environmental toxicologists use data to evaluate how exposures to those things might result in harmful outcomes like cancer, reproductive harm, or death. We help inform decision makers and the public about risks associated with beneficial chemicals. Our work can also prevent or lessen harmful outcomes of unnecessary exposures.

Therefore, we aim to inform the most critical concerns with the best available information. With what’s known about outcomes of exposure to something, we must consider what’s not known. We must include considerations of insufficient or questionable data. And we must be transparent when our conclusions are less certain because they’re not well informed.

Messaging from the FDA indicates that’s standard practice. However, it isn’t at its Center for Tobacco Products, an agency that has failed in its role to inform and protect the public. I wrote AGENTS OF THE CURRENT THINKING because I’m deeply concerned about the flawed and misleading consumer product market that’s allowed to persist in the U.S.

I investigated, wrote, edited, and produced AGENTS OF THE CURRENT THINKING in about 10 months. I didn’t use an editor and self-published because the story needed to be told quickly and because I didn’t know who I could trust with the story. I criticize Democrats and Republicans. I criticize some FDA employees and I don’t speak highly of the tobacco industry. Although I read and re-read, I found a few errors outside of quoted text, like transposed and missing words. The story was in no way compromised and those errors have been corrected. My apologies. Amazon is still intermittently selling an older copy—please reach out if you ordered the book after May 12, 2026, and the print date on the last page is earlier than May 12, 2026. Thank you!