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

Living Downstream is a 1997 book (updated in 2010) by Sandra Steingraber, a biologist and poet who is also a survivor of bladder cancer. Primarily a data-based examination of the link between environmental contamination and cancer, the book is also an autobiographical account of Steingraber’s experience with the subject matter in rural Illinois. The book reflects several themes: The Paradox of Silence, Personalizing Scientific Research through Memoir, and War as a Backdrop for Environmental Contamination.

While the book was first published in 1997, the second edition, published in 2010—on which this guide is based—reflects the rapid growth in the medical understanding of bladder cancer. The 2010 documentary Living Downstream, produced by the People’s Picture Company, is based on Steingraber’s book.

Summary

At age 20, while a biology major at Illinois Wesleyan University, Steingraber was diagnosed with bladder cancer. After reading numerous medical reports and pamphlets about bladder cancer, she identified a disconnect in the information she read: The medical pamphlets she collected from medical offices didn’t address environmental toxins. Doctors suggested that the cancer was genetic. However, although Steingraber’s family has a history of cancer, she was adopted. The literature on cancer among adoptees, Steingraber reveals, suggests that the chances of an adoptee dying of cancer relates more closely to the occurrence of cancer in the adoptive than biological parents and family.