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Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment Paperback – March 23 2010

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 83 ratings
4.2 on Goodreads
830 ratings

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Sandra Steingraber, biologist, poet, and survivor of cancer in her twenties, brings all three perspectives to bear on the most important health and human rights issue of our time: the growing body of evidence linking cancer to environmental contaminations. Her scrupulously researched scientific analysis ranges from the alarming worldwide patterns of cancer incidence to the sabotage wrought by cancer-promoting substances on the intricate workings of human cells. In a gripping personal narrative, she travels from hospital waiting rooms to hazardous waste sites and from farmhouse kitchens to incinerator hearings, bringing to life stories of communities in her hometown and around the country as they confront decades of industrial and agricultural recklessness. Living Downstream is the first book to bring together toxics-release data -- now finally made available through under the right-to-know laws -- and newly released cancer registry data. Sandra Steingraber is also the first to trace with such compelling precision the entire web of connections between our bodies and the ecological world in which we eat, drink, breathe, and work. Her book strikes a hopeful note throughout, for, while we can do little to alter our genetic inheritance, we can do a great deal to eliminate the environmental contributions to cancer, and she shows us where to begin. Living Downstream is for all readers who care about the health of their families and future generations. Sandra Steingraber's brave, clear, and careful voice is certain to break the paralyzing silence on this subject that persists more than three decades after Rachel Carson's great early warning.

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Review

Tuscon Citizen, 4/20/10
“In this second edition of a contemporary classic, Steingraber, a cancer survivor, biologist, and mother, builds a convincing case that many cancers can be prevented through environmental change…This spare, beautifully written book, originally published in 1997, presents a passionate, hopeful view, asserting that it's a good thing that the environment has such influence over cancer because, she insists, we can do something about it.”

InfoDad.com, 4/29/10
“A book with a strong personal as well as societal orientation…The book's language is more plainspoken and thus more accessible than that of many other books warning of environmental hazards.”

Energy Times, May 2010
“Beautifully written,
Living Downstream blends [Steingraber's] own tale—a cancer diagnosis at age 20—with an environmental detective story…If you've ever wondered about the link between pollution and cancer, read Living Downstream.”

Ms., Spring 2010
“In the film, as well as in her memoir of the same title, Steingraber moves to break the silence about chemical carcinogens by doing what Rachel Carson couldn't: use her own diagnosis to prove a scientific point.”



TheSmartMama.com, 3/6/10
“I thought I would talk about two of the books that most moved me to do more, to do better, to live a less toxic life. The first is Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring and the second is Sandra Steingraber's incredibly powerful Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment …Why these two books? Because they point out something very, very telling about the link between the lives we live and the cancers we get.”

The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, Spring 2010
“Steingraber presents a clear, cogent and convincing case for the environmental roots of cancer.”

Gaia Fitness blog, 3/11/10
“
Living Downstream is a very well-written book by Sandra Steingraber about the status of the world in which we live and it's affects on our lives. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend picking it up. It will likely give you a whole new perspective on the health of our world and us.”

Ithaca Journal, 4/2/10
“A part-memoir/part-scientific treatise about her battles with cancer, and the environmental roots of many cancers.”

Ithaca Times, 3/31/10
“Part analysis and presentation of available scientific information on the links between cancer and the environment and part memoir.”



The Sun, January 2009
“Steingraber's ability to meld literary prose with complex scientific information has made her a best-selling author. Like her hero Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book
Silent Spring led to the ban on the pesticide DDT and kick-started the grass-roots environmental movement, Steingraber somehow finds language beautiful and compelling enough to seduce readers to sit through a science lesson.”

The Ithacan, 2/12/10
“Jeff Cohen, director of the Park Center for Independent Media, said that Steingraber's expertise in writing and biology as well as her personal experience created an unbelievable combination. ‘What she's brilliant at—almost in a league of her own—is mixing personal passionate stories with totally comprehensive and accurate science,' he said. ‘It's not easy to do, it's not easy to make complex scientific issues interesting, but no one does it better than Sandra Steingraber.'”

From the Back Cover

With this eloquent and impassioned book, biologist and poet Sandra Steingraber shoulders the legacy of Rachel Carson, producing a work about people and land, cancer and the environment, that is as accessible and invaluable as "Silent Spring--and potentially as historic.
In her early twenties, Steingraber was afflicted with cancer, a disease that has afflicted other members of her adoptive family. Writing from the twin perspectives of a survivor and a concerned scientist, she traces the high incidence of cancer and the terrifying concentrations of environmental toxins in her native rural Illinois. She goes on to show similar correlation in other communities, such as Boston and Long Island, and throughout the United States, where cancer rates have risen alarmingly since mid-century. At once a deeply moving personal document and a groundbreaking work of scientific detection, Living Downstream will be a touchstone for generations, reminding us of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the integrity of our air, land, and water.
"By skillfully weaving a strong personal drama with thorough scientific research, Steingraber tells a compelling story....Well worth reading."--Washington Post

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; 2 edition (March 23 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 440 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306818698
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306818691
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 522 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.82 x 22.86 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 83 ratings

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4.6 out of 5 stars
83 global ratings

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Top reviews from Canada

  • Reviewed in Canada on October 20, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Can't say enough positives about this book. Very eye opening! Everyone should read it.

Top reviews from other countries

  • Diane D.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Eminently readable and very informative!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    The author has taken a huge amount of information related to how we produce food—from field to table, along with the impacts on health and environment—and made it all "grasp-able." Interwoven with her own personal story, the end result is stunning and packs a real punch. I've read the book several times now, and each time I feel sad, amazed, touched, and surprisingly hopeful, to realize there are scientists out there really trying to help humans see the flaws in the systems they've created, with an eye on finding solutions. Well worth the time!
  • P. Stavris
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sobering and compulsory reading
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I originally bought this book 10 years ago and have given copies as presents several times. This is a brilliant critique of the impact of chemical pollution on the ecostructure and the lives of people in the United States. Drawing heavily on Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" it is a heartfelt plea for a more enlightened approach to a safer science. Some of the figures she quotes are so extraordinary that you have to read them twice.Few people now dispute the link between environmental pollution and the increasing frequency of cancers in humans and animals, and this book, originally published in 1997 is an important contribution. At the same time it is a deeply personal account of the author's survival from bladder cancer and her search as a biologist for the causes of the current cancer pandemic. This book will make you cry, it will probably make you very angry and - as the author suggests - it may make you into a campaigner.
  • Alicia Crumpton
    5.0 out of 5 stars Environmental Destruction and Cancer
    Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Steingraber, S. (2010). Living downstream: An ecologist’s personal investigation of cancer and the environment (2nd ed.). Da Capo Press.

    Sandra Steingraber is an American activist, biologist, author, senior scientist, and cancer survivor. She was born in 1959 in Tazewell Country, Illinois, United States.

    Part memoir, part research, Steingraber blends stories and data from scientific and medical literature to tell a story about industrial and agricultural pollution specifically the relationship between environmental factors and cancer. Her thesis: "The release and use of toxic substances, the exploitation of resources, and physical alterations of the environment have had substantial unintended consequences affecting human health and the environment." Many sobering statistics, one in particular was how the acceleration of global toxicity is largely an outcome of the "rapid birthrate of petrochemicals [which] began in 1945". Steingraber found that "by 1976, 62000 synthetic chemicals were in commercial use." Toxicity related to these chemicals is recorded in air, water, the earth, animals, and humans. She critiques what the scientific community constitutes as "evidence" which provides a useful rationale for negating the problem. She said, "the uncertainty over details is being used to call into doubt the fact that profound connections do exist between human health and the environment.. . . uncertainty is too often parlayed into an excuse to do nothing until more research can be conducted."

    This would be a good read for people interested in the health patterns, agriculture, water safety, environment and ecology, and Illinois history. It would also be a good conversation starter for thinking about epistemology including what constitutes evidence and research.
    Customer image
    Alicia Crumpton
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Environmental Destruction and Cancer

    Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2024
    Steingraber, S. (2010). Living downstream: An ecologist’s personal investigation of cancer and the environment (2nd ed.). Da Capo Press.

    Sandra Steingraber is an American activist, biologist, author, senior scientist, and cancer survivor. She was born in 1959 in Tazewell Country, Illinois, United States.

    Part memoir, part research, Steingraber blends stories and data from scientific and medical literature to tell a story about industrial and agricultural pollution specifically the relationship between environmental factors and cancer. Her thesis: "The release and use of toxic substances, the exploitation of resources, and physical alterations of the environment have had substantial unintended consequences affecting human health and the environment." Many sobering statistics, one in particular was how the acceleration of global toxicity is largely an outcome of the "rapid birthrate of petrochemicals [which] began in 1945". Steingraber found that "by 1976, 62000 synthetic chemicals were in commercial use." Toxicity related to these chemicals is recorded in air, water, the earth, animals, and humans. She critiques what the scientific community constitutes as "evidence" which provides a useful rationale for negating the problem. She said, "the uncertainty over details is being used to call into doubt the fact that profound connections do exist between human health and the environment.. . . uncertainty is too often parlayed into an excuse to do nothing until more research can be conducted."

    This would be a good read for people interested in the health patterns, agriculture, water safety, environment and ecology, and Illinois history. It would also be a good conversation starter for thinking about epistemology including what constitutes evidence and research.
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    Customer image
  • H J Builders
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Interesting book but not sure how selective the information is
  • A.nonymous
    5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and amazingly informative
    Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    This book is a fascinating blend of a personal story (nonfiction) tied in with scientific data on cancer and the environment-told in a way that makes it hard to put down. The organization of the book is spectacular, it is simply amazing how well she winds her tale to be ever interesting, ever informative, and the revelations inside are simply mind-boggling. A must read (as is HAVING FAITH, her second book, which is just as fabulous). I just finished this last week, passed it on to a close friend, and am ordering a second copy because I don't want to be without one. This is something everyone should have at their fingertips-knowledge is power, and I have never experienced this much wisdom and factual evidence neatly wrapped and presented in such a way that it is hard to put down, and reads more like fiction than non. I wish it was, due to the grim nature of many of the truths it presents, but the author manages to write it without a depressing tone, but rather one of determination to look toward a better future. 5 Stars, I wish I could give it more.