Summary Of Living Downstream By Sandra Steingraber

Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber illustrates the vast effects of environmental pollutants on the human body. As a biologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber is able to eloquently execute this story because the topic is so relatable to her life. The strong association and correlation between the environment and our DNA shows so much about the ignorance of the human population and our stupidity of not acting to make a change. Although we are at fault for placing these chemicals into the environment, we still blame our faulty genetic repair mechanisms for the cancer instead of the environmental carcinogens that we’ve put into the land, the air and the water. This book tells the story of the connection between cancer and environmental contamination. Through research and personal experience, Steingraber executes an eloquently written story. She provides personal stories about her and her family’s battle with cancer which really adds emotion into the book. Throughout …show more content…
If a child is adopted, they are more likely to have cancer if their adopted parents have cancer than if their biological parents have cancer. Steingraber is proof of this fact as she is adopted and cancer runs in her family. This indicates that environmental factors widely contribute to cancer in people of all ages. “I’ll let them know that I am adopted and go on to describe one study of cancer among adoptees that found correlations within their adopted families but not within their biological ones. (‘Deaths of adoptive parents from cancer before the age of 50 increased the rate of mortality from cancer fivefold among the adoptees…. Deaths of biological parents from cancer had no detectable effect on the rate of mortality from cancer among the adoptees.’).” (pg. 256-257) This statistic shows how much environmental factors a correlated to the cause of