Summary - Selection 31

Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber

Sandra Steingraber is a cancer survivor herself. In telling her story and family history, she came to the realization that there aren't cancer genes, but trigger factors in the environment around us. Sandra is adopted, yet she was cancerous at a young age and many of her adoptive family members had similar forms of cancer. Her theory is that families tend to share environments and would be exposed to similar toxins. Contaminants called aromatic amines are found in cigarette smoke, dyes for clothes and leather, printing and colour photographs. Granted, genetics aren't always going to be perfect and leave some people more susceptible to get cancer. Sandra specifically talks about bladder cancer which seems to be sensitive to a lot of factors such as carcinogens in rivers and ground water. Specifically, Sandra discusses an aromatic amine called 0-toluidine which can be found in the dyes of commercial textiles. Other chemicals of concern mentioned are trihalomethanes (by-products of water chlorination) which also link to bladder cancer.

There are many questions that should be asked, in Sandra's view. Her concern is the big "why?" Why are these chemicals being used--or still used, after many years? What happens to them after their release into the environment? Why are products continually being manufactured with proof of their linkage to bladder cancer? There are so many factors involved in ones health, many are unknown. There is difficulty in finding exact causes because it could be a variety of unseen contaminants. Carcinogens that do get into the environment and into our bodies can stick around in our human tissue or just remain in the environment. Looking back to the physical environments that we grew up in instead of the history of distant relatives could be key in finding answers. Sandra believes that we should be preventing these toxins from being used rather than releasing them or disposing them into the environment around us. In her conclusion Sandra discusses the "principle of the least toxic alternative," which stops the use of the harmful chemicals if they can be replaced by non toxic alternatives as well as supporting people to make the change. It should be the first choice of any person on the planet to use the safest alternative so that release of any sort of chemical carcinogen can be abolished.

This article was less difficult to read than others in this book. Every single person has been touched by cancer, whether be a loved one, friend, or idol. It is a scary and real disease, and people cringe when they hear the word. I found Sandra's view on how genetics have little to do with getting cancer. It makes a lot of sense that we could live a life cancer free without some sort of airborne toxins triggering the cancer cells or "fragile" genes that could aid the toxins in forming into cancerous cells.