Modern corporations, pursuing profit, are dangerous, at least the ones playing with hazardous chemicals. To protect themselves, Americans look to government. The power of government is supposed to shield us from the stupidity or the malevolence of corporations. When you get into a toxics fight, the hardest thing to understand is that the government isn't protecting you and doesn't seem to be interested in protecting you. This is a rude shock.
Governments develop their own agenda.
In some sense, government is simply an extensions of business. From local zoning boards up to the President, government can be viewed this way. But there's something else at work as well. Bureaucracies take on a life of their own, serving their own goals, not the goals of the people they were set up to serve. Based on years of experience, this manual distills the essential information that citizens need to protect themselves against predatory corporations and do-nothing government.