In communities around the world, toxic pollution has taken a terrible toll on public health, leading to more than 12.5 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization. In her new book “Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities,” UCLA Luskin’s Veronica Herrera sheds light on the struggle against toxic exposure and the role of grassroots activism in crafting effective environmental policies. “For the millions of communities around the world where pollution is a slow-moving, long-standing problem, residents born into toxic exposure often perceive pollution as part of the everyday landscape,” writes Herrera, an associate professor of urban planning. The book, published by Oxford University Press, shares her pathbreaking research into river pollution on the poor fringes of three Latin American capitals: Bogotá, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through original interviews, photographs, maps and other sources, Herrera illustrates how human rights movements that had previously helped dismantle state-sponsored militarized violence have also laid the groundwork for successful environmental activism. “In many instances, citizen-led pressures are increasingly the environmental regulatory institution of last resort in Global South cities,” Herrera writes.