Living Downstream: A Review

Tonight I was lucky enough to see a screening of the movie Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber. Sandra wrote a book by the same title which I read for an environmental science class during my undergrad (about 12 or so years ago.... yikes!). The film documents Sandra, an ecologist and cancer survivor, and discusses the relationships between our environment and the incidence of cancer.
The film is like many movies about environmental pollution, however, this one really personalizes it. Sandra entwines her personal story of living with cancer with the cancer research she has done, and puts a face to the statistic.
The film is informative, yet, like many environmental films, depressing. How can we let this happen to our environment? How can we let companies and farmers put chemicals into the environment that will  lead to people dying from cancer? How can we think any of this is OK?
For me, 2 moments stood out above all of the rest. The first is when Sandra is speaking to a room full of people and shows them a jar of breast milk. She discusses all of the magical aspects of breast milk, like the fact that it has antibodies and brain-building materials. And then she mentions that it is full of toxic compounds, from pesticides to plastics, endocrine disruptors and the like. At the time, I was seeing this move in a theater on the campus I teach at, and was breastfeeding Phoebe. I almost started to cry.
The second moment that really hit home was the last scene. Sandra again is speaking to a room of people and says that in her heart, she knows that our generation will be the last that is allowed to freely dump cancer-causing chemicals into the air and water. We now look back at slavery and think it was completely unthinkable that we ever allowed that to happen. Sandra hopes that her children one day look back at the chemicals we spew into out environment and think that that is also unthinkable. I actually did start to cry at this point. I hope she is right.
I thought this movie was well done and recommend it to anyone who knows anyone with cancer (yes, that is you). Check out the Living Downstream website for screening locations and more information.

P.S.- the book is definitely worth checking out as well!