In her book Living Downstream, Sandra Steingraber blends her narrative writing style with scientific research and data to provide an accessible account of the cancer epidemic in the United States and its link to the environment. It is Steingraber’s belief that it is essential for human beings to not only question, but also understand how a lifetime of incremental exposures to chemicals like DDT, PCBs, and atrazine increase an individual’s risks of developing cancer at some point in their life. Throughout the course of the book Steingraber balances her personal experience growing up in rural Tazwell County Illinois, her diagnosis with bladder cancer in her early twenties, and how her environmental exposure to certain industrial and agricultural
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In fact, Living Downstream succeeds in making science and more specifically cancer, personal. Steingraber herself is a cancer survivor. It is her personal experience with the disease and her knowledge as a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan, that makes her a reliable witness to the relationship between the aforementioned environmental hazards and cancer. Throughout the book, Steingraber not only relies on her personal experience with cancer to connect with her readers, but she focuses on astounding data which reminds her audience that cancer is the very real fate for one in four Americans. She does not allow readers to place distance between themselves and the statistics she presents in the book. Instead, the data proves that each reader is a future statistic. Steingraber writes, “Today, more than 40 percent of us (38.3 percent of women and 48.2 percent of men) will contract the disease sometime within our lifespans” (47). It is this reliability and personal investment that allows Steingraber to present compelling arguments that appear to seamlessly connect genetics, the environment, and lifestyle choices into the intricate network of cancer …show more content…
Steingraber not only presents her own research, but she also strategically sublimates her own experiences with personal stories of friends and correlates these experiences to a wide array of scholarly research. To further validate her position, Steingraber recalls the countless hours invested in the work of Rachel Carson, and merges Carson’s historical findings with her own continued research. Though at times some of the statistics presented in the book may seem like they are over the top or are presented to place nothing more than put fear into the readers mind, that is the exact opposite of Steingraber’s mission. Instead, Steingraber is successful in presenting data that while surprising is able to move her readers to become hyperaware of the risks that are placed on them daily and urge them to demand change from local governments and policy
In fact, Living Downstream succeeds in making science and more specifically cancer, personal. Steingraber herself is a cancer survivor. It is her personal experience with the disease and her knowledge as a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan, that makes her a reliable witness to the relationship between the aforementioned environmental hazards and cancer. Throughout the book, Steingraber not only relies on her personal experience with cancer to connect with her readers, but she focuses on astounding data which reminds her audience that cancer is the very real fate for one in four Americans. She does not allow readers to place distance between themselves and the statistics she presents in the book. Instead, the data proves that each reader is a future statistic. Steingraber writes, “Today, more than 40 percent of us (38.3 percent of women and 48.2 percent of men) will contract the disease sometime within our lifespans” (47). It is this reliability and personal investment that allows Steingraber to present compelling arguments that appear to seamlessly connect genetics, the environment, and lifestyle choices into the intricate network of cancer …show more content…
Steingraber not only presents her own research, but she also strategically sublimates her own experiences with personal stories of friends and correlates these experiences to a wide array of scholarly research. To further validate her position, Steingraber recalls the countless hours invested in the work of Rachel Carson, and merges Carson’s historical findings with her own continued research. Though at times some of the statistics presented in the book may seem like they are over the top or are presented to place nothing more than put fear into the readers mind, that is the exact opposite of Steingraber’s mission. Instead, Steingraber is successful in presenting data that while surprising is able to move her readers to become hyperaware of the risks that are placed on them daily and urge them to demand change from local governments and policy