Sandra Steingraber
Encyclopedia
Sandra Steingraber is an American
biologist
, author
, and cancer survivor
in the tradition of Rachel Carson
. Steingraber writes and lectures on the environment
al factors that contribute to reproductive health problems and environmental links to cancer
.
. Her mother was a Microbiologist
and her father was a community college Professor
. Her parents inculcated in her an interest in sustainable development
and organic agriculture from a young age.
In her 20s, Steingraber developed bladder cancer
. She was not alone; in several of her books, she describes an apparent cancer cluster
in her hometown and within her family.
After her cancer went into remission, Steingraber completed her undergraduate degree in biology
from Illinois Wesleyan University
.She worked for several years as a field researcher, eventually earning her doctorate
in biology from the University of Michigan
. Steingraber also holds a master's degree
in English from Illinois State University
.
Steingraber was formerly on faculty at Cornell University, she is currently Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies at Ithaca College, located in Ithaca
, New York. Steingraber has 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.
Steingraber currently lives in Trumansburg, New York
with her husband Jeff de Castro, a sculptor and art restoration
specialist, along with their two children, Faith and Elijah.
Sandra Steingraber has the same ideals as Rachel Carson. Her text; Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment. Is a text that dives into the ideals of Rachel Carson
's Silent Spring
. Steingraber a woman with bladder cancer tries to explain and research how and why has cancer linked to the environment. Steingraber stresses issues such as chemical pesticides being rooted indirectly to our body. For example, just like Carson, Steingraber comes with startling facts. Steingraber states; "in 1996 a study investigated six-fold excess if bladder cancer among workers exposed years before to o-toludine and aniline
in rubber chemicals department of a manufacturing plant in upstate New York. Levels of these contaminants are now well within their legal workplace limits and yet blood and urine samples collected from current employees were found to contain substantial numbers of DNA adducts and detectable levels of o-toulidne and aniline."
Living Downstream is also the basis for a documentary movie by The People's Picture Company, which chronicles Steingraber's personal struggles as a cancer survivor and her significant contributions as an ecologist and cancer prevention activist.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and cancer survivor
Cancer survivor
A cancer survivor is an individual with cancer of any type, current or past, who is still living. About 11 million Americans alive today—one in 30 people–are either currently undergoing treatment for cancer or have done so in the past." Currently nearly 65% of adults diagnosed with cancer in the...
in the tradition of Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
. Steingraber writes and lectures on the environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
al factors that contribute to reproductive health problems and environmental links to cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.
Awards and honors
- 1997 - Named a Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year.
- 1998 - First annual Altman Award for “the inspiring and poetic use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer,” from the Jenifer Altman Foundation
- 1998 - Will Solimene Award for “excellence in medical communication” from the New England chapter of the American Medical Writers Association.
- 1999 - Sierra Club heralded Steingraber as “the new Rachel CarsonRachel CarsonRachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
.” - 2001 - Biennial Rachel Carson Leadership Award from Chatham CollegeChatham CollegeChatham University is an American university with a women's undergraduate college and coeducational graduate programs through the doctoral level, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Shadyside neighborhood. The campus population of approximately 2,300 includes undergraduate women and graduate...
, Rachel CarsonRachel CarsonRachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
’s alma mater. - 2006 - Received the Breast Cancer Fund’s "Hero Award" along with Teresa Heinz KerryTeresa Heinz KerryMaria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz , known as Teresa Heinz, is an American businesswoman and philanthropist, the widow of former U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III , and the wife of U.S...
. In recognition to honor and publicly thank those who have significantly helped advance our mission to identify and eliminate the environmental—and preventable—causes of breast cancer. - 2008 - Honorary Doctor of LettersDoctor of LettersDoctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
(D.Litt.) awarded by Lycoming CollegeLycoming CollegeFounded in 1812, Lycoming College is located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. One of the 50 oldest colleges in America, Lycoming enrolls 1400 undergraduate students from over 28 states and 12 foreign countries. Eighty percent of the college's students live on campus...
, Williamsport, PA, in recognition of excellence in research and writing. - 2010 - Named one of the "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" by Utne ReaderUtne ReaderUtne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...
magazine.
Biography
Sandra Steingraber was adopted as an infant, Steingraber grew up and spent most of her childhood in Tazewell County, IllinoisTazewell County, Illinois
Tazewell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 135,394, which is an increase of 5.4% from 128,485 in 2000. Its county seat and largest city is Pekin. The majority of the population live in the suburbs and bedroom communities...
. Her mother was a Microbiologist
Microbiologist
A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Microbiologists study organisms called microbes. Microbes can take the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists...
and her father was a community college Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. Her parents inculcated in her an interest in sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
and organic agriculture from a young age.
In her 20s, Steingraber developed bladder cancer
Bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. It is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control in the bladder. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; it is located in the pelvis...
. She was not alone; in several of her books, she describes an apparent cancer cluster
Cancer cluster
Cancer cluster is a term used by epidemiologists, statisticians, and public health workers to define an occurrence of a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases within a group of people in a geographic area over a period of time....
in her hometown and within her family.
After her cancer went into remission, Steingraber completed her undergraduate degree in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
from Illinois Wesleyan University
Illinois Wesleyan University
Illinois Wesleyan University is an independent undergraduate university located in Bloomington, Illinois. Founded in 1850, the central portion of the present campus was acquired in 1854 with the first building erected in 1856...
.She worked for several years as a field researcher, eventually earning her doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in biology from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. Steingraber also holds a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in English from Illinois State University
Illinois State University
Illinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
.
Steingraber was formerly on faculty at Cornell University, she is currently Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies at Ithaca College, located in Ithaca
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, New York. Steingraber has 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.
Steingraber currently lives in Trumansburg, New York
Trumansburg, New York
Trumansburg is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 1,581 at the 2000 census. The name is a variant spelling of the surname of the founder, Abner Treman...
with her husband Jeff de Castro, a sculptor and art restoration
Art restoration
Art restoration is related to art conservation. Restoration is a process that attempts to return the work of art to some previous state that the restorer imagines was the "original". This was commonly done in the past...
specialist, along with their two children, Faith and Elijah.
Books by Steingraber
- The Spoils of Famine: Ethiopian Famine Policy and Peasant Agriculture (Cultural Survival Report 25) (1988, co-author), which raised issues of ecology and human rights in Africa.
- Post-diagnosis (1995), a volume of poetry on living with cancer.
- Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment (1997), which proposed a relationship between cancer registry data and Toxics Release InventoryToxics Release InventoryThe Toxics Release Inventory is a publicly available database containing information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities in the United States.-Summary of requirements:...
data. - Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood (2001), which explored fetal toxicology and genetics with respect to Steingraber's own pregnancy.
- The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: what we know, what we need to know (2007), which reviews the epidemiology and etiology of the acceleration of puberty among girls in the USA.
- Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis (2011, a Merloyd Lawrence Book) ISBN 978-0738213996
Living Downstream
In Living Downstream, Steingraber blends poetic anecdotes and vivid descriptions of reckless industrial and agricultural pollution with a wealth of data from scientific and medial literature. The result is a compelling analysis of what is known and unknown about the relationship between environmental factors and cancer. Steingraber bemoans the imbalance between funding devoted to studies of genetic predispositions to cancer and the relative paucity of funding devoted to studies of potential environmental contributions to cancer incidence. She argues persuasively that while we can do little to change our genetic inheritance, there is much that can be done to reduce human exposure to environmental carcinogens.Sandra Steingraber has the same ideals as Rachel Carson. Her text; Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment. Is a text that dives into the ideals of Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
's Silent Spring
Silent Spring
Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on 27 September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
. Steingraber a woman with bladder cancer tries to explain and research how and why has cancer linked to the environment. Steingraber stresses issues such as chemical pesticides being rooted indirectly to our body. For example, just like Carson, Steingraber comes with startling facts. Steingraber states; "in 1996 a study investigated six-fold excess if bladder cancer among workers exposed years before to o-toludine and aniline
Aniline
Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the prototypical aromatic amine. Being a precursor to many industrial chemicals, its main use is in the manufacture of precursors to polyurethane...
in rubber chemicals department of a manufacturing plant in upstate New York. Levels of these contaminants are now well within their legal workplace limits and yet blood and urine samples collected from current employees were found to contain substantial numbers of DNA adducts and detectable levels of o-toulidne and aniline."
"To the 89 percent of Illinois that is farmland, an estimated 54 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are applied each year. Introduced into Illinois at the end of World War II, these chemical poisons quietly familiarized themselves with the landscape. In 1950, less than 10 percent of cornfields were sprayed with pesticides. In 1993, 99 percent were chemically treated," (page 5).
Living Downstream is also the basis for a documentary movie by The People's Picture Company, which chronicles Steingraber's personal struggles as a cancer survivor and her significant contributions as an ecologist and cancer prevention activist.