This paper is written about Sandra Steingraber's book the Living Downstream. Sandra Steingraber, in the first chapter 'Trace Amounts', shows through a host of statistical data how Illinois, from which substantial agricultural resources in the US are obtained, has been employing increasing amounts of pesticides in its farmlands over the years, which have penetrated the water systems, soil particles and even the air have been shown to cause breast and ovarian cancer in humans.