There was once a village along a river. The people who lived there were very kind. These residents, according to parable, began noticing increasing numbers of drowning people caught in the river’s swift current. And so they went to work devising ever more elaborate technologies to resuscitate them. So preoccupied were these heroic villagers with rescue and treatment that they never thought to look upstreams to see who was pushing the victims in. Living Upstream is a walk up that river. Author, environmentalist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., was raised in a family that seemed prone to cancer. She was diagnosed with bladder cancer at age 20. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when Steingraber was in high school. Her aunt died of the same form of cancer that Sandra had, and many of ther close family members also struggled with the disease. But there is no question that cancer does not run in Steingraber’s genes—she was adopted. Clearly, this family was struggling with toxic influences surrounding them in their daily lives. Living Downstream , first published in 1997, both tells the tale of Steingraber’s ongoing battle against cancer and her life’s work linking the effects of our toxic environment on cancer and our health. A documentary film adaptation of the book coincides with last month’s release of an updated edition of the book, tracking recent scientific revelations in the connection between a healthy environment and human health. Find a public screening of Living Downstream , the movie, or purchase a DVD at LivingDownstream.com , and follow Steingraber’s ongoing search for answers and journey of cleaning our environment of carcinogenic influences in Walking Upstream . (Photo credit: Steingraber.com ) Glossary: Carcinogens , Toxicity
