Living Downstream Chapter Summary

Now that I am halfway through Sandra Steingraber’s book, Living Downstream, I feel that I have a pretty strong idea as to what her main point is (or the theme): there are many pesticides and chemicals that are in our environment that are linked to cancer many health issues, but more specifically cancer. Furthermore, her main message is to say what we don’t know about our environment and the chemicals in the air could be killing us. She focuses on the changes between back then and now, and the different carcinogens that have been put into the environment over time.

I think the chapter that helps to support her main point the most is chapter four titled “Space.” In this chapter, she discussed a great deal about the geographic distribution of cancer as well as the environment of the people who are more likely to get cancer. This includes: job type, living location, and living surroundings. To expand on each, she states that workers with

multiple occupations are at a higher risk to getting cancer than those with fewer jobs. Those who have a lot of agriculture surrounding their home (such as her home town) are more likely to report having cancer (or having had cancer in the past). When it comes to location, she states that living near an industry (or factory) or toxic waste dumps, gives a person a higher change of getting cancers. While Steingraber does talk about geographic location around the world and connects it to cancer, she also talks about herself, her hometown, and her cancer. She mentions her hometown, Normandale, and the high cancer rates which are connected to industrial wastes which were ignored.
The cancers she mentions are different depending on the environment. People who have cancer who live near agriculture report to have a different kind of cancer then those who live near a toxic waste. To help further understand this, Steingraber talks much about “cancer death atlases” and the statistics they show. For example, Steingraber writes, "Death from cancer is not randomly distributed in the United States. Shades of red consistently light up the northeast coast, the great Lakes area, and the Mouth of the Mississippi River. For all cancers combined, these are areas of the highest mortality; they are also the areas of the most intense industrial activity" (Steingraber 64). Here she is saying how the red indicates a significant amount deaths caused from cancer due to areas of intense industrial activity. She goes on to mention how rates of increase tent to be higher in other parts of the country with lower morality. All of this data she gives throughout the chapter helps to support her main point in that the environment we live in has a lot to do with health issues, and geographically cancers that are reported generally show a connection between location geographically and surroundings-wise.
Besides location being a huge factor to chemicals and pesticides in the environment, she also talks a lot about specific chemicals that are linked to cancer. Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a major carcinogen, along with vinyl chloride, and the pesticides from hazardous waste sites. Humans are exposed to these carcinogens and pesticides in the environment through air, food, and water. With these pesticides, chemicals, and carcinogens so easily accessed to us, it becomes a major concern that they are linked to these cancers. This data is what she is using to tackle her main point. Not only scientists or the EPA, but everyone needs to help to contribute and educate everyone about the harmful chemicals in the environment, and hopefully help reduce the cancers that are linked to them.

Exam 2: Atul Gawande’s The Bell Curve
How is the human body affected by cystic fibrosis? On the first page of the article, Gawande talks about the Page family and their daughter who was diagnosed with cystic fibroses. The family shared that their daughter’s skin was always salty, her breathing was sometimes a little wheezy, and her size was too small. Cystic Fibrosis is when the mucus that is produced to protects the linings of the airways, digestive system, reproductive system, and other organs and tissues is produced much thicker than in a person without cystic fibrosis. This results in their airways being clogged, causing harm to their breathing, digestive system, ect. I did some research on what exactly cystic fibrosis is, and I found a source that explained it perfectly. The website writes, “over time, mucus buildup and infections result in permanent lung damage, including the formation of scar tissue (fibrosis) and cysts in the lungs.” (Genetics Home Reference). Cystic Fibrosis affects multiple things in the human body, specifically coughing, wheezing, digestive issues, breathing issues, and infection in the lungs.
Three things involved with cystic fibrosis are membranes, movement across membranes, and concentration gradients.

Membranes are involved in Cystic Fibrosis when it comes to the genes that are prone to the disease. In a regular functioning body, the CFTR gene helps make the channel that transports charged chloride ions into and out of cell membranes. In a body with cystic fibrosis, the chloride channels don’t function properly, and do not allow chloride ions into and out of the cell membranes, causing the thick mucus (as mentioned earlier) to be produced. The concentration gradients are involved when it comes to moving these molecules and ions across the cell membranes with passive and active transport. Passive transport substances move down concentration gradients while active transport substances move against their concentration gradients (keep in mind this is in a healthy functioning body). With cystic fibrosis, there is a defect in the transport protein, which does not move through the concentration gradient

properly.