Living Downstream - 2nd Edition by Sandra Steingraber (Paperback)

About the 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 as invaluable as "Silent Spring". "An important, deeply felt book".--"Chicago Tribune".

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

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.'"

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."

About the Author

Sandra Steingraber, PhD, biologist, activist, and author, is Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Ithaca College in New York.