"The AIDS Indictment" by Marvin R. Kitzerow, Jr. is a new book from a dissident perspective that focuses on nitrite inhalant (‘popper’) abuse. Unfortunately the book suffers from a conspiratorial and sometimes hysterical tone and numerous errors that, while often minor, will only help support the contention that AIDS dissidents are semi-educated conspiracy theorists.
The strength of the book is in the detailed information and chronology it provides on the abuse of nitrite inhalants. It documents how the manufacturing companies bypassed early attempts at regulation by labelling them as room deodorizers (Kitzerow pointedly asks why something that smells like a locker room that hasn’t been cleaned in a long time would be used as a room deodorizer) and by minor changes in the chemical included. It also details much of the research that showed the damage that nitrites could do to animals, and their close association with AIDS. This part of the book is quite well referenced and provides a convincing tale of greed and opportunism by manufacturers and inattention and lack of care and concern by government regulators.
However, while the central part of the book is well referenced, the introductory parts are not. To make matters worse, many paragraphs sound suspiciously like personal opinions, not verifiable facts, because they start with words like “I believe...” or “I guarantee...”. Others are sarcastic or flippant (e.g. “narrow mind-set”, “astute decision makers” (when he clearly means the opposite)), and provide an unfortunate extremist tone to the book, something that many AIDS dissidents are anxious to avoid.
The lack of references is especially frustrating when the book touches on areas that are not often discussed elsewhere. Kitzerow claims that inhalants are abused in many third world countries, yet provides no references. While this is believable, references would give the reader more confidence, and could be used to determine whether this type of inhalant abuse (of things like nail polish remover) has been associated with any AIDS-like conditions, and whether the geographical patterns of abuse have any correlation to the prevalence of the associated diseases.
The typographical errors in the book are unfortunately more numerous than can be forgiven. Calling HTLV-III, HTLV-111 (one-hundred and eleven) is a bit embarrassing, as is using the distorted “Pnuemocystitis” instead of “Pneumocystis” in the first line of the Introduction. Other sentences are just plain hard to figure out. For example, “The CDC/HIV/AIDS hypothesis regarding the cause and treatment of AIDS, has been dead wrong from the beginning and associated with the true cause of death in over 400,000 U.S. citizens.” is used to conclude the book, yet it sounds to me like it contradicts everything that the author just spent 150 pages saying!
Those who are willing to overlook the flaws of this book, and use it to broaden their library of nitrite-related literature, can obtain it from MRKCO Marketing (PO Box 32034, Chicago, IL 60632) for US$14.95 (an additional $3.95 is required for shipments outside the US). The book also has a website at www.aidsindictment.com.