Sandra Steingraber > Quotes

“I'm beginning to perceive motherhood as a long, slow letting go, of which birth is just the first step.”
― Sandra Steingraber, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood

“In the world outside this glass room, songbirds are feeding and resting in the trees. Some will take off tonight and not land until they reach Venezuela. Sandpipers, plovers, and broad-winged hawks have already left for Patagonia and Panama. Bats are headed for caves in Kentucky and Tennessee. Out in the Atlantic, humpback whales pass by on their way to the Caribbean. Even now, Canada geese are honking toward us from Quebec. It is a good day for the beginnings of journeys.
Every time I look at you, I think, Now I cannot die.”
― Sandra Steingraber, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood

“The time trends and spatial features of cancer’s occurrence around the globe clearly belie the notion that cancer is a random misfortune. Cancer associates with westernization. Whereas forty years ago, cancer was mostly a disease of wealthy nations, half of all cancers now occur in developing nations, particularly those rapidly industrializing.”
― Sandra Steingraber, Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment

“From the right to know and the duty to inquire flows the obligation to act.”
― Sandra Steingraber

“birth defects, as well as congenital heart problems, were elevated in communities served by a drinking water reservoir that had been contaminated with the herbicide atrazine. Atrazine, on the market since 1959 and banned for use in much of Europe, is the most popular pesticide used in the United States.”
― Sandra Steingraber, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood

“Prenatal care means taking care of water, fish, and glaciers.”
― Sandra Steingraber, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood