Living Downstream

Living Downstream is a Canadian documentary based on the 1997 alarm-bell book of the same name by biologist Dr. Sandra Steingraber—an Illinois native who, along with several other members of her family, contracted bladder cancer. What made Steingraber diagnose environmental causes as opposed to hereditary ones was a simple fact: she was adopted. Focusing on industrial toxins, Steingraber finds a witch's brew of poisons—asbestos, benzene, formaldehyde, arsenic, PCBs—that have been released into the environment by industry and agriculture, toxins that often find insidious ways to enter the food chain (collecting in human breast milk, for one). Speaking not as an activist-scientist but also as a cancer survivor (facing a possible recurrence), Steingraber's voice carries special authority. Although Steingraber—who cannot help but draw comparisons to science author and cancer casualty Rachel Carson (Silent Spring)—is a central force, director Chanda Chevannes frequently checks in with other researchers (mostly Canadian) also on the trail of the same deadly pollutants. DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one by Steingraber and Chevannes; the other by the filmmaking team), and related featurettes. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)