She has taught biology at Columbia College, Chicago, held visiting fellowships at the University of Illinois, Radcliffe/Harvard, and Northeastern University, and served on President Clinton’s National Action Plan on Breast Cancer. She is the author of Post-Diagnosis, a volume of poetry, and coauthor of a book on ecology and human rights in Africa, The Spoils of Famine. She received her doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan and master’s degree in English from Illinois State University. is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health. 'By skillfully weaving a strong personal drama with thorough scientific research, Steingraber tells a compelling story.Well worth reading.'-Washington PostĮcologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. At once a deeply moving personal document and a groundbreaking work of scientific detection, Living Downstream will be a touchstone for generations, reminding us of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the integrity of our air, land, and water. She goes on to show similar correlation in other communities, such as Boston and Long Island, and throughout the United States, where cancer rates have risen alarmingly since mid-century.

Writing from the twin perspectives of a survivor and a concerned scientist, she traces the high incidence of cancer and the terrifying concentrations of environmental toxins in her native rural Illinois. In her early twenties, Steingraber was afflicted with cancer, a disease that has afflicted other members of her adoptive family. With this eloquent and impassioned book, biologist and poet Sandra Steingraber shoulders the legacy of Rachel Carson, producing a work about people and land, cancer and the environment, that is as accessible and invaluable as Silent Spring -and potentially as historic.

Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber