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.

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.

List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Greatness and Misery of Science in a Toxic World
Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas

PART I : KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS IN REGULATORY SYSTEMS

Chapter 1. Precaution and the History of Endocrine Disruptors
Nancy Langston

Chapter 2. The Political Life of Mutagens: A History of the Ames Test
Angela N. H. Creager

Chapter 3. DES, Cancer and Endocrine Perturbation: Ways of Regulating, Chemical Risks and Public Expertise in the United States
Jean-Paul Gaudillière

Chapter 4. Managing Scientific and Political Uncertainty. Environmental Risk Assessment in an Historical Perspective
Soraya Boudia

PART II : ACTIVISM AND NON-ACTIVISM: ALTERNATIVE USES OF KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 5. Work, Bodies, Militancy: the “Class Ecology” Debate in 1970s Italy
Stefania Barca

Chapter 6. What Kind of Knowledge is Needed about Toxicant- Related Health Issues? Some Lessons Drawn from the Seveso Dioxin
Laura Centemeri

Chapter 7. From Suspicious Illness to Policy Change in Petrochemical Regions: Popular Epidemiology, Science and the Law in the U.S. and Italy
Barbara Allen

Chapter 8. Guinea Pigs go to Court. Epidemiology and Class Actions in Taiwan
Paul Jobin and Yu-Hwei Tseng

PART III: PUTTING KNOWLEDGE, IGNORANCE, AND REGULATIONN INTO PERSPECTIVE

Chapter 9. Reckless Laws, Contaminated People: Science Reveals Legal Shortcomings in Public Health Protections
Carl Cranor

Chapter 10. Untangling Ignorance in Environmental Risk Assessment
Scott Frickel and Michelle Edwards

Chapter 11. Low Dose Toxicology: Narratives from the Science-Transcience Interface
Sheldon Krimsky

Chapter 12. Unruly Technologies and Fractured Oversight: Towards a Model for Chemical Control for the Twenty First Century
Jody A. Roberts

List of Contributors
Index