Many people have helped to shape this book. We thank especially Marilee Karl of Isis International in Rome, Soledad Gonzales in the IOCU Central Office in the Hague and in Malaysia, Josie Zaini of ERA Konsumer and Irene Fernandez of the Women Development Centre, for making time to comment on the drafts. Thanks are also due to even passing journalists, Janet Mohun and Omar Sattaur.

We are both grateful to our colleagues at work who have not only supported this effort but also excused us from much of our other work. Many have helped by listening, honing ideas, brainstorming for titles and improving a phrase here and there. In Penang, special thanks to Lin Min Min for her secretarial support and for having so ably organised the typesetting and proof-reading; and in Oxford to Dexter Tiranti for his critical editorial advice.

Encouragement came too from those whom we live with. Troth's children, Anne and Gabriel and their father Dexter Tiranti who took her absence in their stride; Gaik's housemates, Janice and Deng, for the constant supply of tea and good cheer.

We would also like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work from the United Nation's Development Fund for Women.

FGS & TW

About the Authors

Troth Wells is a member of the New Internationalist magazine co-operative based in Oxford, UK. She has previously helped to produce two IOCU brochures, Protecting Tomorrow's World Today and Giving a Voice to Consumers, as well as a press kit on the export of hazardous products. She has written on women for the New Internationalist and co-edited issues on consumerism.

Foo Gaik Sim works with the IOCU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Penang and is an Associate of Isis International. She has been involved in research, campaigning and writing on a varied range of Third World consumer issues. She coordinated the work on a recent IOCU book, Adverse Effects: Women and the Pharmaceutical Industry.