When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution

Devra Lee Davis

Basic Books, 2003 - Business & Economics - 316 pages

In When Smoke Ran Like Water, the world-renowned epidemiologist Devra Davis confronts the public triumphs and private failures of her lifelong battle against environmental pollution. She documents the shocking toll of a public-health disaster-300,000 deaths a year in the U.S. and Europe from the effects of pollution-and asks why we remain silent. For Davis, the issue is personal: Pollution is what killed many in her family and forced some of the others, survivors of the 1948 smog emergency in Donora, Pennsylvania, to live out their lives with impaired health. She describes that episode and also makes startling revelations about how the deaths from the London smog of 1952 were falsely attributed to influenza; how the oil companies and auto manufacturers fought for decades to keep lead in gasoline, while knowing it caused brain damage; and many other battles. When Smoke Ran Like Water makes a devastating case for change.

What people are saying

Review: When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales Of Environmental Deception And The Battle Against Pollution

User Review  - Sierra Gergus - Goodreads

Had an amazing message. Was painful for me to read. Glad it's over.

Review: When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales Of Environmental Deception And The Battle Against Pollution

User Review  - Mark Greene - Goodreads

Devra Davis is great. She's a great role model for girls: a brilliant woman scientist who is not afraid to speak the truth.

About the author

Devra Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Professor of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health. She was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board in 1994 and also served as Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Science. She works in Pittsburgh, and lives in Washington, D.C. She is married to Richard D. Morgenstern and has two children and two grandchildren.

Bibliographic information

• Title: When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution
• Author: Devra Lee Davis
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Basic Books, 2003
• ISBN: 0465015220, 9780465015221
• Length: 316 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Green Business; Medical / Health Care Delivery; Political Science / Public Policy / Environmental Policy; Science / Environmental Science