- Living Downstream
Sandra's Weekly Essays
For one year, Sandra Steingraber will be authoring short essays on environmental health issues to be published here and on Huffington Post. Each week, Sandra’s essay is inspired by a different quote from a noteworthy thinker, activist or artist. Each piece employs Sandra’s signature style of addressing complex scientific and social issues with stories and musings from her life as a cancer survivor, biologist and mother.
If you would like to reproduce any of Sandra's essays for educational or non--profit purposes, feel free to do so. Simply add the essay to your website, newsletter, magazine, or educational resource and be sure to include the following credit:
Sandra Steingraber is the author of Living Downstream, newly published in second edition by Da Capo Press to coincide with the release of the documentary film adaptation. This essay is one in a weekly series by Sandra - published at www.livingdownstream.com - exploring how the environment is within us.
A Bridge to Somewhere—Responding to the President's Cancer Panel Report (Part 3)
July 8, 2010
Two cancer narratives compete for the president’s attention—and for ours. Read more.
A Bridge to Somewhere—Responding to the President's Cancer Panel Report (Part 2)
June 16, 2010
The new President’s Cancer Panel report on the environment shows us where to begin a meaningful program of cancer prevention. Read more.
A Bridge to Somewhere—Responding to the President's Cancer Panel Report (Part 1)
June 8, 2010
A recently released report from the President’s Cancer Panel finds that the environment plays a much bigger role in the story of human cancer than previously appreciated. The Congressional briefing organized to discuss these results played to a full house. Read more.
The Hope Inside Canada's Garbage Cans
May 26, 2010
In Canada, redefining the word trash may send engineers back to their drawing boards—and keep dioxins out of the food chain. Read more.
Canadian Bylaws; American Lawn Flags
May 11, 2010
The smell of lawn chemicals is as dependable a harbinger of spring as robins and lilacs. Not in big parts of Canada, where many municipalities and provinces have opted to abolish the cosmetic use of pesticides on the grounds that the links between pesticide exposure and childhood cancer are too troubling to ignore. So, how come we’re still using them? Read more.
Escape from the Heartland—Atrazine, Susan G. Komen, and KFC
May 6, 2010
The pesticide atrazine—with its possible links to breast cancer—is making headlines as the EPA opens a new investigation and a member of Congress calls for its outright abolition. What does the leading breast cancer advocacy organization say about atrazine? Nothing. It’s busy peddling pink buckets of deep-fried chicken breasts. Really. Read more.
Release the Day—My Secret Desire to Waste Time, Investigate the Past, and Imagine the Future
April 28, 2010
Living each day as if it were your last is not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, discounting the future and ignoring the past is how we’ve contaminated the earth with toxic chemicals in the first place. Read more.
Life After Cancer—The Identity That Has No Name
April 20, 2010
A funny thing happened on the way to making a documentary film about, among other things, my life as a longtime cancer survivor. With the cameras rolling, I received some unsettling medical news. Read more.
The Unhappy Beginnings of Cancer's Happy Endings
April 13, 2010
With the Relay for Life season upon us, I am less interested in celebrating my own survival from cancer and more interested in abolishing carcinogens so that my own two children will never have to run the survivors’ lap of honor. Read more.
Earth Day—The View from the F Terminal
April 8, 2010
Every spring semester, the great triumvirate of commemorative events—Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Earth Day—arrives on college campuses as predictably as the return of robins. As a woman scientist who is called forth to podiums across the nation during two of the three months of back-to-back teach-ins, I believe in their power to inspire and educate. But Earth Day needs to take a lesson from the other two. Read more.
Awakening to Cancer's Environmental Roots
April 5, 2010
Three decades ago, my adoptive mother and I both became cancer patients. The way we each reacted to our new identities was a study in contrasts, but growing public awareness of cancer’s environmental roots has now brought us, unexpectedly, back together. Read more.
About the Author
Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized authority on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health.
Sandra’s highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment presents cancer as a human rights issue. The second edition of Living Downstream is available from Da Capo Press in April 2010 and features all the latest scientific evidence uncovered since Living Downstream was first published in 1997.
Please visit Sandra's website.
About the Author
Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health.
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“What we love we must protect.”
~ Sandra Steingraber
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The Living Downstream Educational DVD is now available for pre-order.
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News
August 15, 2010
15 Upcoming Screenings announced!
April 16, 2010
Educational DVD now available for pre-order.
