Full name: Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment

Author: Sandra Steingraber Year: 1997 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Non Fiction, Science, Health, Memoirs Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780375700996 0375700994

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 Similar books: Oil and Honey by Bill McKibben Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn Slow death by rubber duck by Rick Smith No Impact Man by Colin Beavan Earth in the Balance by Al Gore Countdown by Alan Weisman The End of Nature by Bill McKibben The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand Silent Spring by Rachel Carson The Revenge of Gaia by James E. Lovelock The World Without Us by Alan Weisman Half-Earth by Edward O. Wilson Toms River by Dan Fagin The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann Having Faith by Sandra Steingraber Complications by Atul Gawande Another Day in the Frontal Lobe by Katrina Firlik My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor What the Eyes Don't See by Mona Hanna-Attisha