(This column was first published in the April 15, 2002 Buffalo News.)
To prepare me for Earth Day, local activist Nancy
Smith assigned me 276 pages of homework. She asked me to read Sandra
Steingraber's Living Downstream: An Ecologist
Looks at Cancer and the Environment.
Although I found this a serious book that required
close attention, I thank Nancy for this assignment. I know of no writer since
Rachel Carson who could personalize as well the mass of information Ms.
Steingraber presents. She gave me new perspective on the world in which we
live.
Two of her points especially struck home. One is encapsulated in this
passage: "I had bladder cancer as a young adult. If I tell people this
fact, they usually shake their heads. If I go on to mention that cancer runs in
my family, they usually start to nod. She is from one of those cancer
families, I can almost hear them
thinking. Sometimes, I just leave it at that. But, if I am up for blank stares,
I add that I am adopted and go on to describe a study of cancer among adoptees
that found correlations within their adoptive families but not within their
biological ones.... At this point, most people become very quiet....
"What runs in families does not necessarily run
in blood. And our genes are less an inherited set of teacups enclosed in a
cellular china cabinet than they are plates used in a busy diner. Cracks,
chips, and scrapes accumulate. Accidents happen."
"Hereditary cancers," she tells us
elsewhere, "are the exception.... As much as 90 percent of all forms of
cancer is attributable to specific environmental factors."
The other relates to a common response: "By
emphasizing personal habits rather than carcinogens, they frame the cause of
the disease as a problem of behavior rather than as a problem of exposure to disease-causing agents. At its best, this
perspective can offer us practical guidance and the reassurance that there are
actions we as individuals can take to protect ourselves. (Not smoking,
rightfully so, tops this list.) At its worst, the lifestyle approach to cancer
is dismissive of hazards that lie beyond personal choice. A narrow focus on
lifestyle -- like a narrow focus on genetic mechanisms -- obscures cancer's
environmental roots. It presumes that the ongoing contamination of our air,
food, and water is an immutable fact of the human condition to which we must
accommodate ourselves. When we are urged to 'avoid carcinogens in the
environment and workplace,' this advice begs the question. Why must there be
known carcinogens in our environment and at our job sites?"
This bright young woman who has written so well and
from first hand knowledge about one of our most terrifying diseases will be
among those speaking in Buffalo as part of our Earth Day program.
Although this holiday will be celebrated
internationally on April 22, here in Western New York environmental activities
related to Earth Day straddle that date this week
and next.
Here is a quick rundown for your calendar:
·
Thursday, April 18
7:00 p.m.: Conversations
with Sandra Steingraber at Allen
Hall, University at Buffalo South Campus.
· Friday, April 19, 1:30 p.m.: Ms. Steingraber's Living Downstream at the Center for the Arts Screening Room, University at Buffalo North Campus.
· Saturday, April 20, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Earth Day Exposition at the Buffalo State College Student Sports Arena.
·
Wednesday, April
24, 7:00
p.m.:
Indian activist and Ralph Nader running mate Winona LaDuke's A Call for
Environmental Justice at the
Bulger
Communications Center, Buffalo State College.
·
Friday, April 26,
7:30 p.m.:
urban
designer Anton Nelessen's Creating a More Livable Western New York
at Rockwell Hall, Buffalo State
College.-- Gerry Rising