1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910790994903321

Titolo

Powerless science? : science and politics in a toxic world / / edited by Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, [New York] ; ; Oxford, [England] : , : Berghahn Books, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

1-78533-198-1

1-78238-237-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (290 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Collana

The Environment in History: International Perspectives

Classificazione

AK 24400

Altri autori (Persone)

BoudiaSoraya

JasNathalie

Disciplina

338.9/26

Soggetti

Science and state

Science - Political aspects

Science - Moral and ethical aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction. The greatness and misery of science in a toxic world / Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas -- Part I. Knowledge, expertise, and the transformations in regulatory systems -- Precaution and the history of endocrine disruptors / Nancy Langston -- The political life of mutagens: a history of the Ames test / Angela N. H. Creager -- DES, cancer, and endocrine disruptors: ways of regulating, chemical risks, and public expertise in the United States / Jean-Paul Gaudilliáere -- Managing scientific and political uncertainty: environmental risk assessment in a historical perspective / Soraya Boudia.

Part II. Activism and nonactivism: alternative uses of knowledge -- Work, bodies, militancy: the "class ecology" debate in 1970s Italy / Stefania Barca -- What kind of knowledge is needed about toxicant-related health issues? Some lessons drawn from the Seveso dioxin case / Laura Centemeri -- From suspicious illness to policy change in petrochemical regions: popular epidemiology, science, and the law in the United States and Italy / Barbara L. Allen -- Guinea pigs go to court: epidemiology and class actions in Taiwan / Paul Jobin and Yu-



Hwei Tseng.

Part III. Putting knowledge, ignorance, and regulation into perspective -- Reckless laws, contaminated people: science reveals legal shortcomings in public health protections / Carl F. Cranor -- Untangling ignorance in environmental risk assessment / Scott Frickel and Michelle Edwards -- Low-dose toxicology: narratives from science-transcience interface / Sheldon Krimsky -- Unruly technologies and fractured oversight: toward a model for chemical control for the twenty-first century / Jody A. Roberts.

Sommario/riassunto

In spite of decades of research on toxicants, along with the growing role of scientific expertise in public policy and the unprecedented rise in the number of national and international institutions dealing with environmental health issues, problems surrounding contaminants and their effects on health have never appeared so important, sometimes to the point of appearing insurmountable. This calls for a reconsideration of the roles of scientific knowledge and expertise in the definition and management of toxic issues, which this book seeks to do. It looks at complex historical, social, and political dynamics, made up of public controversies, environmental and health crises, economic interests, and political responses, and demonstrates how and to what extent scientific knowledge about toxicants has been caught between scientific, economic, and political imperatives.