Raised in small-town Illinois, cancer seems to run in Sandra Steingraber’s family.  Sandra was diagnosed with bladder cancer when she was just twenty years old.  Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when Sandra was in high school.  Many of her aunts and uncles have struggled with the disease.  One aunt even died from the same form of bladder cancer that Sandra had.  But while cancer runs in her family, she cannot say that it runs in her genes.  Sandra is adopted.  This unusual twist led Sandra to ask what else families have in common besides their DNA.  The answer is all around us: our environment.

Based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., Living Downstream is an eloquent and cinematic feature-length documentary.  This poetic 85-minute film follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links.

As our journey begins, we follow Sandra in her professional life.  After a routine cancer screening, Sandra receives some worrying results and is thrust into a period of medical uncertainty.  Thus, we begin two journeys with Sandra: the private and the public.

But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey – the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move.  We follow these invisible toxins as they migrate to some of the most beautiful places in North America.  We see how these chemicals enter our bodies and how, once inside, scientists believe they may be working to cause cancer.

Public education is the cornerstone of our society, our economy and our democracy.

Countries that have the strongest universal public education programs always have the strongest and most stable economies and societies – and they always recover more quickly from economic or physical disasters than countries with weak public education or no public education.

Universal public education is the strongest predictor of public health. Not health care. If you want to lower your health costs, invest in early childhood education, the K-12 system, trades training and universities.

Public education saves us a fortune, both economically and emotionally. In June 2008, Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, reported that every dollar invested in early years saves $9 in future spending on health, welfare and justice systems.  That same year, Canada spent $70 billion dealing with crime, $1.8 billion of it on prisons.

A properly funded, quality public education for everyone benefits us all, enabling citizens to live happier, healthier lives and participate fully in our democracy.