on risks, medicine and the law to protect the public's health. His research has been supported by The National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, Yale Law School, and the University of California. He served on California science advisory panels: Proposition 65; Electric and Magnetic Fields; Nanotechnology; and Biomonitoring, along with Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences Committees. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Collegium Ramazzini, a Congressional Fellow, the National Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professor in Philosophy for 2014-2015, "Educator of the Year,” National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, 2022 and Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor, 2025-2026.
Cranor applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Vital Lives: Social Responsibility and the Battle Against Chronic Disease, and shared the following:
From page 99 (and the end of page 98); footnotes omitted:Learn more about Vital Lives at the Oxford University Press website.The world is awash in toxicants to which millions are exposed, including mothers, developing children, and newborns (Chapter 5). Women, pregnant or not, may have from 43 to 200 toxicants in their bodies and with possible additional contributions from their local environment or living conditions. Data reveal newborns with many toxicants in their umbilical cords. 1 Minority women and their youngsters are among the most contaminated and most susceptible subpopulations.Page 99, in Ch. 4, partially provides clues of some major ideas from the book. Chronic diseases are biological conditions (Ch. 2), but they can be limited or accelerated by personal habits (Ch.4), life stages (Ch. 3), referenced here, involuntary toxic exposures (Ch. 5), also referenced here, or substandard living conditions [social determinants of disease] (aspects of Ch. 4 & 6). This is one of the earliest references to the social determinants of disease. Page 99 first calls attention to the downside of toxic exposures during the puberty life stage, and toward the end hints at influences from the social determinants of diseases. While this page is not critical, it points to three features of life circumstances that may enhance chronic afflictions (life stages, toxic exposures, and substandard poor living conditions). Page 99 is not the best single page for introducing the book’s ideas, but it provides references of themes that are developed elsewhere and hints at their significance. Page 99 in this book might whet a reader’s appetite to discover more about chronic maladies and what contributes to them and what can be done about them.
Puberty is a notable susceptibility period for teenage women and perhaps to a lesser extent for men. Are teenage men and women alerted to possible toxic exposures during this life-stage? Recall that young women have enhanced risks of breast cancer when exposed to some toxicants at this time (Chapter 3).
While white women have risks of breast cancer, Black women have two- or three-times greater risks, with Asian American women having lesser risks. Additionally, if women have some chronic diseases or are obese, they are likely to have greater breast cancer risks from toxicants. Prediabetic adults with exposures to perfluorinated compounds are twice as likely as unexposed individuals to have elevated cholesterol and blood sugars, conditions that could foster diabetes.
However, decisions beyond the previous points may not be easy to make because of social circumstances in which one lives.
The influence of the Social Determinants of Disease
How do social and economic conditions shape lifestyle choices? Do public health officials, WHO and CDC inadvertently assume favorable social and economic circumstances in which persons could influence their health; to choose to smoke or not, drink to excess or not, or pay little attention to fat-enhancing foods or not? Certainly, socially advantaged and educated people with decent incomes, might better appreciate the importance of healthy choices and their consequences, and more plausibly could choose to avoid risky courses of action that invite diseases.
Less specific contributions to chronic illnesses have been identified by sociologists and epidemiologists. These are called the “social determinants of disease.” [These may create risks of disease, set the stage for chronic disease or foster behaviors that reduce them.]
Readers opening this book to page 99 would get some clues of the broader work. By suggesting more major ideas, this page hints at connections between those themes. As a “test” of a browser’s shortcut, this page may whet an appetite for the larger themes broached elsewhere.
The Page 99 Test: Legally Poisoned.
--Marshal Zeringue
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