Cancer Downstream: A Citizen’s Guide to Investigating
Pollution/Health Connections

Steve Dickens

River Network, Shelburne, VT

From Woburn, Massachusetts, to St. James Parish in Louisiana, to the Yukon River Watershed in Alaska, hundreds of ordinary Americans, many of them poor, are grappling with an extraordinary problem that most of us don’t even worry about: the food they eat and the water they drink simply isn’t safe.

Toxic chemicals found in their environment are the likely culprits. Yet making this connection is unthinkable for most of these people, who can find everyday life overwhelming. Few community groups know how to gather existing information to help determine if their concerns are well founded; how to conduct credible, scientifically sound investigations of their own; or how to work within the political, regulatory, and/or legal systems to solve proven water quality problems.

River Network has taken an important step to address this. In January 2007, we will publish "Cancer Downstream: A Citizen’s Guide to Investigating Pollution/Health Connections." This comprehensive guide walks readers through a step-by-step process for evaluating watershed data, testing local waters, researching known health effects and exposure pathways, and conducting public health surveys. The Citizen’s Guide is based on River Network’s extensive experience over the past 8 years assisting communities in New Mexico, Vermont, Texas and Mississippi and other states in addressing human health issues related to wastewater, mercury poisoning, bacteria, chemical plant run-off, lack of basic water supply and more.

River Network’s poster session will highlight the new guidebook and provide an overview of our work with these communities.