Paul Brodeur

Paul Brodeur (born May 16, 1931) is an American investigative science writer and author, whose writings have appeared in The New Yorker, where he began as a staff writer in 1958. He lives on Cape Cod. For nearly two decades he researched and wrote about the health hazards of asbestos. He has also written about the dangers of household detergents, the depletion of the ozone layer, microwave radiation and electromagnetic fields from power lines.

In 1992 he donated 300 boxes of papers accumulated during his research to the New York Public Library. In 2010 he was informed that the NYPL had finished culling the papers it chose to retain in its collection. Brodeur publicly objected, stating that the materials to be removed were essential to understanding his investigative process. Brodeur's papers are now archived at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.[1]

Science writer Gary Taubes has said Brodeur's writings on electromagnetic radiation are part of what inspired him to switch from writing about bad practices in physics to epidemiology and public health.

Brodeur's short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, and Show Magazine. His 1970 novel The Stunt Man inspired the Academy-Award nominated 1980 film of the same name, starring Peter O'Toole as an egotistical movie director.[2]

Brodeur graduated from Phillips Academy and Harvard College.[3]

His daughter, Adrienne Brodeur, is an author and program director at the Aspen Institute.[4][5]