Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
about this question of urban excess.Then I got to thinking about what cre-
ates air pollution. The big issue 50 years ago in Donora was the power
plants and the factories. In the United States today, new plants and facto-
ries are pretty well controlled, although the older ones can still be prob-
lematic. The really big issue now is cars, trucks, and buses, especially those
that use diesel fuel. . . .What we are doing to our health and to the planet
by the use of cars now, and lack of use of public transport, is astonishing!”
Children, particularly in developing countries, are being exposed to
heavily polluted air in unprecedented numbers. Their growing bodies are
more susceptible to toxins than those of adults, particularly where children
do not have adequate diets or medical care.A report issued by Davis's office
concludes that investing in improved transport and energy technologies
that reduce the use of fossil fuels could have an immediate, positive effect
on the health of millions of the world's urban children. “I really think,”
Davis says optimistically, “that within my lifetime people are going to ask
'Remember when we used to drive everywhere, poisoning the air and
weakening our bodies?' ”
Davis believes that there will be support to move in this direction.
“Resistance may come from some in industry,” she says, “but not from all.
I think there's generally a move now, as one of my colleagues, Wolfgang
Sachs says, to make sure that we do the right things, and that we do things
right.Those are two different things. . . .What are the most important things
to do? Should we all be drinking designer water? I don't think so. I think
we ought to get our water clean for everybody in the city. Should we all be
buying organic produce? If you can afford it, I suppose it makes you feel
better and it does taste better, but we ought to get the food supply cleaned
up for everybody.Those are the kind of things we need to pay attention to.”
One of Davis's aims is to generate greater public awareness about the
issues that concern her. “When does innovation have an impact?” she
muses. “It's a very interesting question to me. I think that the opportunity
to share information is what distinguishes modern science from, if you will,
ancient science.” She is writing a topic about environmental risk factors in
public health, intended to share information she has gathered with a wide
popular audience; the working title is
Uninformed Consent: How the Environ-
ment Shapes Sex, Life, and Death.
Two near-death experiences—one from an adverse reaction to a drug
that should not have been on the market (and which she later worked to
get off the market) and the other from multiple bee stings—have deepened
