Book Review By Cathleen McGuire
Sandra Steingraber has written
an important work about the massive damage caused by
the synergistic effects of chemical pollution. One of
her more useful contributions is the refusal to
attribute genetics or lifestyle choices such as diet,
smoking, or exercise as primary explanations for the
cause of cancer. While she knows such factors do, of
course, play a role, her message (delivered in
measured language) ultimately comes down to:
"It's the environment, stupid."
With a doctorate in biology,
Steingraber is professionally versed in the
scientific complexities of PCBs, dioxin, and the
literally tons of other pollutants that are regularlyand legally!released into the environment. She
stops just short of overwhelming the layperson with
information too technically detailed to absorb. As a
balance, interwoven with the chemical recitations is
Steingraber's lyrical account of growing up in rural
Illinois, the toxification of her community, and her
own eventual struggle with bladder cancer.
She pays ample
homage to Rachel Carson and the environmentalist's pioneering cri de coeur, Silent
Spring. In keeping with Carson's political
imperative, Steingraber encourages citizens to take
action at the local level. She charges that it is a
human right not to be exposed to carcinogens, and
that death from cancer is a form of homocide.
For such a meticulously
researched book, I was disappointed that Steingraber
did not highlight more prominently issues of
environmental racism.
I was especially distressed by
her clinical detachment of lab experiments on
animals. Steingraber documents case upon case of
animal research conducted to shed light on
carcinogenic toxicity in humans. Ever the old school
scientist, she never once questions the ethicalness
of such experimentation. Steingraber is concerned
that animals likewise are mutating and/or dying, but
she is unable to connect the pain of animals in the
wild with the pain of those tortured in laboratories.
While she points out that
estrogenicity assays with mice are "complex,
messy, and expensive," regarding animal assays
in general she dryly states, "Without these
tests, we can only guess at the number of chemical
carcinogens in our midst." There was one sole
reference to animal rights, yet it was actually to
make a tangential point ("Now that animal
testing has become associated with cruelty...").
In spite of what appears to be a
lack of consciousness regarding nonhuman animals,
Steingraber has written a very good book. When the
subject is technical, be prepared to work. But when
she goes into poetic mode, her turns of phrase are so
compelling that you almost wish she had written Living
Downstream as an equally potent novel.