Subscribe Editor's Note Search the Magazine | Dispatches The Latest News from the World of Public Health Profiles by Mike Field PITTSBURGH The landmark incident—now largely forgotten—helped lead to federal clean air regulations and an increased awareness of the dangers of industrial pollution. It also prompted Devra Davis, MPH ’82, a two-year-old Donora native at the time of the tragedy, to write When Smoke Ran Like Water. A scientific yet highly personal account of how pollution can have devastating human health implications, the book was named a 2002 National Book Award finalist in nonfiction.
In her book, Davis makes clear that much more needs to be done to make the nation’s air safe. “We’ve won the war of rhetoric, but now we have to turn our victory to action,” says Davis, a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management. Like much of Davis’ work in the 20 years since she studied at the School with renowned epidemiologist Abraham Lilienfeld, When Smoke Ran Like Water is not without its critics. Dissenters argue that Davis does not have enough scientific evidence to back her assertion that man-made chemicals released into the environment are responsible for increasing rates of cancer, infertility, birth defects, and other health problems. When Smoke Ran Like Water didn’t take top honors at the National Book Awards. That distinction went to Robert Caro for his latest volume on Lyndon Johnson. Davis wasn’t surprised. “I figured my odds were less than 10 percent,” she says, a scientist to the core. |
