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Monday, March 16, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Catherine Zeman, UNI associate professor of environmental health, (319) 273-7090, catherine.zeman@uni.edu
Kamyar Enshayan, director, UNI Center for Energy & Environmental Education, (319) 273-7575, kamyar.enshayan@uni.edu
Rebecca Schultze, University Marketing & Public Relations, (319) 273-6728, rebecca.schultze@uni.edu
Expert on environmental links to cancer, reproductive health to speak at UNI April 6 CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Ecologist, author and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber will discuss her work on environmental links to cancer and reproductive health at 3 and 7 p.m., Monday, April 6, at the University of Northern Iowa. The public is invited to all events.
Steingraber's evening presentation will be at 7 p.m. in the UNI Center for Energy & Environmental Education (CEEE) Auditorium. A reception in the CEEE lobby will be held prior to her presentation and a book signing will follow. The internationally renowned biologist also will meet with a UNI environmental law class taught by Catherine Zeman, associate professor of environmental health, at 3 p.m. in the Wellness Recreation Center, Room 252.
"Dr. Steingraber's comprehensive insights into living with and on the Earth in the modern age can help all of us," Zeman said. "The community can benefit from her insightful analysis of toxic and environmental-health issues."
In Steingraber's latest book, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood, she investigates fetal toxicology and the connections between environmental hazards, infant development, and cancer. Steingraber set out to find how toxic chemicals cross the tough sponge of the placenta and find their way into amniotic fluid. She wrote in the book's introduction: "When I became pregnant at age 38, I realized, with amazement, that I myself had become a habitat."
CEEE Director Kamyar Enshayan states, "We hope Steingraber's visit will inspire us to be a lot more proactive in creating healthy environments in our schools, neighborhoods, and homes -- especially for our children."
In 2002, Having Faith was featured on "Kids and Chemicals," a PBS documentary. Steingraber's earlier work includes Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and Environment, which presents cancer as a human rights issue. She has been called the new Rachel Carson, a reference to the biologist and author of Silent Spring who sounded the first alarm on the presence of toxic chemicals in the environment in the 1950s. Steingraber currently serves as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y.
Christine Carpenter, chair of the Cedar Valley Breast Cancer Edu-action organization, said, "Too many young Iowa women have cancer. Iowa Breast Cancer Edu-action hopes Sandra Steingraber's message brings attention to the strong connection between health and the environment."
Steingraber's visit to UNI is sponsored by the Cedar Valley Breast Cancer Edu-action with these UNI entities: Campus Activities Board, CEEE, Davis Wilson Chair in Business Ethics, Department of Biology, Graduate College, Iowa Center on Health Disparities, Iowa Math & Science Education Partnership, Recycle Reuse Technology Transfer Center and Science Education.
For more information, contact Zeman at (319) 273-7090 or Enshayan at (319) 273-7575, or visit www.uni.edu/ceee.
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