Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Sandra Steingraber

Quote by Sandra Steingraber

“Besides, the sense of safety offered by bottled water is a mirage. It turns out that breathing, not drinking, constitutes our main route of exposure to volatile pollutants in tap water, such as solvents, pesticides, and byproducts of water chlorination. As soon as the toilet is flushed or the faucet turned on-or the bathtub, the shower, the humidifier, the washing machine-these contaminants leave the water and enter the air. A recent study shows that the most efficient way of exposing yourself to chemical contaminants in tap water is to turn on a dishwasher.”

Quote by Sandra Steingraber

Create image

Author

Sandra Steingraber
Sandra Steingraber

Sandra Steingraber is a renowned biologist born in 1959. She is known for her research in environmental health and ecology, particularly on the relationship between cancer and environmental pollution. Steingraber's work and lectures emphasize the importance of environmental protection and advocate for public participation in this issue. more

You May Also Like

“Drink a bottle of French water and then step into the shower for ten minutes and you've just received the exposure equivalent of drinking a half gallon of tap water. We enjoy the most intimate of relationships with our public drinking water, whether we want to or not.”

WantEnjoyWaterHalfStepsMinutesDrinkTenDrinkingEnvironmentalIntimateBottlesShowersExposureDrinking WaterGallonsTap Water
Book:Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood
Create image

“From earliest times, water has always been acknowledged as a primary human good and an indispensable natural resource. Around the great rivers of the world, like the Mississippi, great cultures have developed, while over the course of the centuries the prosperity of countless societies has been linked to these waterways. Today, however, the great fluvial systems of every continent are exposed to serious threats, often as a result of man's activity and decisions.”

MenWorldHumansHas BeensTodayCultureCoursesWaterNaturalDecisionResultsCenturySeriousActivityResourcesRiversThreatEnvironmentalProsperityPrimariesExposedContinentsIndispensableLinkedNatural ResourcesMississippi
Author:Pope Benedict XVI
Create image

“Concern for the fate of the great rivers of the earth must lead us to reflect soberly on the model of development which our society is pursuing. A purely economic and technological understanding of progress, to the extent that it fails to acknowledge its intrinsic limitations and to take into consideration the integral good of humanity, will inevitably provoke negative consequences for individuals, peoples and creation itself.”

EarthHumanityIndividualUnderstandingWaterFateProgressFailingEconomicCreationDevelopmentModelsConsequenceConcernNegativeRiversEnvironmentalLimitationAcknowledgeConsiderationOur SocietyProvokingTechnologicalNegative Consequences
Author:Pope Benedict XVI
Create image

“Here in the Great Lakes region, a fourth year in a row of declining water levels has caused millions of dollars in losses for shipping companies, marinas and other businesses and prompted further restrictions on future water withdrawals for expanding suburbs. "A lot of people just can't believe that we may be running out of water, living this close to the Great Lakes," said Sarah Nerenberg, a water engineer with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, which conducted the study on shortages.”

PeopleYearsBelieveMaySaidRunningWaterLossLevelsCompanyMillionsStudyDollarsEnvironmentalPlanningLakesRegionsFourthEngineersExpandingRestrictionSuburbsShortageWithdrawalIllinoisShippingGreat LakesFourth Year
Author:Timothy Egan
Create image

“Industrial agriculture now accounts for over half of America's water pollution. Two years ago, Pfiesteria outbreaks connected with wastes from industrial chicken factories forced the closure of two major tributaries of the Chesapeake and threatened Maryland's vital shellfish industry. Tyson Foods has polluted half of all streams in northwestern Arkansas with so much fecal bacteria that swimming is prohibited. Drugs and hormones needed to keep confined animals alive and growing are mainly excreted with the wastes and saturate local waterways.”

YearsTwoAmericaWaterAnimalHalfAliveGrowingIndustryNeededDrugWasteMajorsYears AgoAccountsEnvironmentalConnectedLocalsStreamsTwo YearsChickensSwimmingFactoriesPollutionAgricultureThreatenedConfinedHormonesClosureTysonBacteriaArkansasTwo Years AgoOutbreaksMarylandShellfishWater PollutionNorthwestern
Author:Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Create image

“It is a fact that the entire Kentucky River system, which the central part of the state complacently depends upon for its future water, is deteriorating rapidly because of strip mining, because of bad farming, because of industrial and agricultural pollutants, because of urban sewage. It is deteriorating, that is to say, because almost nobody cares, or cares to know, where water comes from, so long as it keeps coming.”

KnowsLongStatesFactsCareWaterDependsRiversEnvironmentalUrbanFarmingMiningKentuckyNobody CaresDeterioratingSewage
Author:Wendell Berry
Create image

“The assumption is that people so ignorant and thoughtless and silly and greedy may simply call upon the Army Corps of Engineers in order to receive a clean and abundant supply of water from reservoirs in the mountains. A much likelier outcome is that they will be drinking an ever stronger mixture of sewage and mine acid and mud and cropspray and various other defecations of the industrial paradise.”

PeopleMayOrderWaterMinesMountainArmyStrongerCleanDrinkingEnvironmentalVariousSillyIgnorantOutcomesAssumptionParadiseEngineersGreedyMudMixturesAcidReservoirsSewage
Author:Wendell Berry
Create image

“The procedure has a strange Alice-in-Wonderland quality. The reservoir was created as a public water supply, yet the community, probably unconsulted about the sportsmen's project, is forced either to drink water containing poisonous residues or to pay our tax money for treatment of the water to remove the poisons - treatments that are by no means foolproof.”

MeanWaterCommunityPayQualityStrangeDrinkTaxesProjectsEnvironmentalPoisonTreatmentRemoveProceduresPoisonousWonderlandContainingReservoirsDrink WaterSportsmanSilent SpringFoolproof
Author:Rachel Carson
Create image