Alumni speaker series makes its debut

Alumni speaker series makes its debut

Friday, December 21, 2007

By Valerie Michael, Allderdice High School (City of Pittsburgh Schools)

On 9 November, Dr. Devra Davis visited Allderdice as the first in a new series of alumni speakers. Davis, the aunt of tenth grade World Cultures teacher Molly Braver, who is organizing the alumni series, came to Allderdice to discuss her research on cancer. Davis arrived armed with a wealth of information about cancer causes and prevention.

Davis explained to the group of students that as identical twins age, their chromosomes become progressively less similar, proving the affect of environment and behavior on health, specifically cancer. She described a number of ways that students could dramatically cut down their risk of cancer. She advised against smoking and binge drinking, because alcohol damages the liver which becomes unable to rid the body of poisons to the body later in life.

The presentation was met with an enthusiastic response from the audience of students. Tenth grader Sanché Mabins said, "I was expecting the assembly to be boring, but it turned out to be more interesting than I thought. She talked about interesting topics and had a lot of charisma."

Sophomore Katia Korzeniwsky said, "The topic was really interesting. It was surprising to learn about everyday things that are adversely affecting our health."

Davis advised against the use of tanning beds and cautioned students not to overuse radiation in diagnostic tests. She encouraged teens to make sure that there is an absolute medical emergency before using tests such as CAT scans. In addition, she suggested the use of a water filter to protect against the toxins present in much of our drinking water.

Before attending Allderdice, Davis lived in Donora,PA, a small town plagued with air pollution problems that caused the death of eighteen people over a three day period in October 1948. Growing up in Donora made her acutely aware of the environment's ability to negatively affect health, and inspired her book, When Smoke Ran like Water. This book tells the story of the tragedy in Donora, along with accounts of various other air pollution disasters. It won a National Book Award Bronze Medal as one of the top nonfiction books of 2002. Her experiences in Donora also led her into her current field of cancer research, discussed in her new book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer. She explains in the book, "I am a cancer orphan." The lives of both of her parents were cut short by cancer; her father had a cancer of the bone marrow, called multiple myeloma or Kahler’s disease. This book exposes how the causes of cancer were initially hushed up by the tobacco industry, which dramatically set back progress in fighting cancer. In addition to speaking about the book, Davis donated two copies to the Allderdice school library.

In an article on the New York Times website, Davis said, "For nearly a century, the following things have been understood to cause cancer: tobacco, benzene, asbestos, tars, sunlight, hormones, and radiation." She expressed particular concern for children who are exposed to benzene in gasoline, whether by pumping gas or by living in close proximity to a gas station or a gasoline storage site.

Reflecting on the alumni aspect of the speech, Davis also discussed her experience attending Allderdice. Coming from a small town, she came to the "big city" and was immediately lost. Davis described her high school self as a "hick" who played in the school band. She then gave the student audience what she considers her most important piece of advice: "Work harder at the sciences. Even if you don’t like it, work harder at it." Davis stressed the importance of the sciences in the modern world and encouraged students to use their education at Allderdice to do great things.

Davis was the first of four speakers to come to Allderdice this year, with a tentative one per quarter scheduled throughout the year. Series organizer Braver stressed the importance of alumni participation. "Our alumni represent a rich and vast resource, and this can make them an integral part of our school community. Students need to know that what they are learning in school does actually apply to the real world," she said.