Devra Davis, PhD, MPH

Director, Center for Environmental Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; author, The Secret History of the War on Cancer

Bio: Devra Davis's career has spanned all areas of academia, public policy, and scientific research. President Clinton appointed Dr. Davis to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, (1994-99) an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents, and mitigates chemical accidents. As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, she has counseled leading officials in the United Nations, World Health Organization, and World Bank. She also served as a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the group awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. She is the recipient of a Women’s Leadership Exchange Compass Award, for breaking the paradigms of how women are perceived, and the first Lisa Zhang Environmental Award from the United Nations in January 2008. She is the author of more than 190 scientific publications, the editor of 11 books, and has written two best-selling books.

Book Quote "What concerns me most is the insidious repackaging of information—the distorting, revising, concealing, and ignoring by corporations and the government. Thomas Jefferson said that democracy rests on an informed public that freely consents to be governed—but that assumes we're getting the proper information. And we're simply not. How can we consent when we don't even know they put toxic stuff in a product that we then rub on our babies' bottoms? People often ask me if I think the facts I report are just too alarming. I don't. We all have natural repair processes that keep us healthy much of the time. Getting informed about hazards we can avoid is critical to our health and that of our children and grandchildren. What I do find alarming is the volume of information that's been withheld from us...That's what people should be alarmed about, and what has to change."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Devra and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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