Discussion Leading: Rose Moon

Seabury Stoneburner

WST 3015

Nina Perez

5 April 2010

Steingraber, Sandra. “Rose Moon”. "Violence Against Women."Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives.5^th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 549-557.

“Rose Moon” Sandra Steingraber

Steingraber’s story is generally about the development of a child within the womb. She believes that this concept is one of the most, interesting, important, and beautiful things of life. She addresses the fact that most books and magazines generally forget about the main part of pregnancy around the sixth month. Media is typically so focused on the first stage, such as morning sickness, and then the last few weeks when the woman is very hormonal and has false labor symptoms. She also finds it a quite interesting that none of these pregnancy based media have never gone into detail about environmental issues. They never mention anything about the fact that solvents or pesticides among our lifestyles can threat a child. With sharing this information to her husband, Jeff, she decides to go further in depth in the situation by research.

She states to the readers her two thoughts that have engaged her to look further into the environmental issues. One, “Why is there no public conversation about environmental threats to pregnancy?” and two “In ignorance, abstain. Why does abstinence in the face of uncertainty apply only to individual behavior? Why doesn’t it apply to equally to industry and agriculture?” (Steingraber 551). These two things she wants to figure out seem to do with the past theme of “Public verses Private”. Jeff states that pregnancy and motherhood are treated as private because they are not part of the public world. Their bodies look strange, they seem vulnerable, and people do not want to upset them. Basically, when people see a pregnant woman, they treat her differently. Steingraber goes against her husband as says at the same time many people attempt to tell them what to do, such as not to eat sushi or drink alcohol. Jeff’s response to this is that its private but the industries and agriculture effects on a woman’s pregnancy are public.

The public aspect of their conversation makes Steingraber very interested in how the industries and agricultures can indeed affect a pregnant woman and her fetus. She goes to “1997 Toxics Release Inventory”. She discovers that there are twenty known chemicals that cause harm to a human that are among our world. One specific chemical she goes into excessive detail is lead. Lead has been used in paint and gas for many years. In 1925 the government attempted to banned the element being used in products; however, industries fought against it trying to get their business back. Closer to the twenty-first century the products were finally banned again; although it was already a little too late because many of our buildings were painted with lead paint and the air was filled with gas fumes.

To Steingraber, the sixth month, “sin qua non”, is the most important because it is the time in which the fetal brain begins to develop. Harmful chemicals that may float through the air and breathed into our systems cause harm to any age. An adult female can have some personal health effects but greater effects on her fetus. For example, lead maybe carried to the fetus by the placenta when the fetus absorbs nutrition from the mother. During the sixth month this may be very harmful because it can alter the growth of the brain. This could lead to axons and dendrites not growing properly so the neurotransmitters are off “Neurotoxins can impede synapse formation, disrupt the release of neurotransmitters, or strip off the fatty layers wound around the axons” (553). This is just one out of many examples in which the poisonous toxins can effect the development of a child.

Steingraber comes to the conclusions that it is not just a private issue with bringing a healthy child into the world; the public has a huge impact. Yes, woman can make the choice about drinking alcohol or caffeine or not smoking; however, we cannot protect our child from the toxic fumes that come from car exhaust. The public needs to make one large movement together to improve the health problems in our country. Raising kids may be a private matter; however, it is the public environmental and industry problems that parents face in order to raise a healthy child.