When smoke ran like water

pdf version (what's that?)

When smoke ran like water

Devra Davis, Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and Senior Advisor to the World Health Organisation, has successfully linked environmental and workplace safety issues in When Smoke Ran Like Water. Subtitled Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution, her book records some of the key struggles she has been involved in combating the effects of industrial pollution on both human health and the environment.

She begins with her earliest experiences in her home town of Donora, a steel town in Pennsylvania. She recounts how the polluted atmosphere created by the production process ravaged the health of both workers and citizens and persisted long after the works had closed down. In one weekend in 1948, smoke from the furnaces aided by unusual weather conditions killed off 18 people.

Among other examples of the effects of air pollution, she examines the famous smog in London in the winter of 1952. She reveals that this killed 12 000 people, some four times the official estimate.

Professor Davis analyses the statistics on the incidence of breast cancer in the United States and shows how the increase in the disease can be linked to industrial pollution, possibly the increased use of pesticides. She emphasises the importance of political action to tackle the problem, that more is required than just carrying out research.

She also looks at the links between industrial pollution and reproductive health and examines the evidence for an overall decline in human fertility in advanced countries. She explains how industry public relations efforts have been so effective in creating the impression that there is no problem that fundamental research needed to get at the truth is not being carried out.

Professor Davis is equally trenchant about her experiences of the political process in the United States. She records that she held a number of posts with the Clinton administration but that every time her status grew within the government, her power to bring about real change shrank. She notes wryly that ultimately she was so far inside the government that she could not do or say anything to criticise what was going on. One can only speculate what it must be like for an independent scientist who tries to deal with the Bush administration.

The message which comes across from this book is extremely clear. It is that industrial pollution is doing massive injury to human health and the environment. The research evidence for this conclusion is well established and in the public domain. But corporate interests have intervened to obfuscate the arguments and deflect attention away from the action needed to deal with the situation.

Professor Davis is currently working in London and will be speaking at the Hazards Conference in September. If her speaking style is anything like her vigorous and effective writing, her session is bound to illuminate a range of absolutely crucial issues.

Devra Davis, When smoke ran like water, The Perseus Press, ISBN 1-903985-50-1, £14.99

top of page

Resources page