Investments

Epidemiologist and environmental author Devra Lee Davis has long argued that daily exposure to low levels of pollution contributes to a broad spectrum of diseases and that industry and government have hidden information from the public. Davis will make a case for changing public health policies on March 25 at 12:30 p.m. in Carpenter Auditorium, Given Building.

In her National Book Award finalist book, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution, Davis argued that cancer and health problems are linked to exposures to avoidable environmental contaminants. She also reported on promising environmentally sound technologies and business practices.

Daviss narrative includes stories of the 1952 London Smog, when deaths were falsely attributed to influenza; behind-the-scenes machinations by oil companies and auto manufacturers to keep lead in gasoline; and the 1948 smog emergency in Donora, Pennsylvania, with pollution that killed 20 people and caused chronic health problems in many others.

Davis is visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School, honorary professor at London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and advisor to the World Health Organization. Her research, which has appeared widely in professional journals, has also caught the attention of the national media. She has discussed environmental health in interviews on PBS's "Now with Bill Moyers," C-Span, the BBC, NPR and others.

Newsweek wrote "One of the things that makes When Smoke Ran Like Water so powerful is that Davis hasn't merely studied the data, she's lived them." Davis grew up in Donora, the former steel mill town infamous for its pollution.

Davis's lecture, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, College of Medicine, College of Nursing and Allied Health and the Environmental Program. Information: 656-4380

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