Author: toxicexpertise

Alice Mah, University of Warwick Public consciousness of toxic pollution and environmental injustice has changed a great deal since Toxic News was first published in November 2015. The Oxford English Dictionary’s Words of the Year reflect the sweeping societal transformations of this period: the tears-of-joy emoji in 2015; “post truth” in 2016; “youthquake” in 2017; … Continue reading Petrochemical futures and the question of hope

Gwen Ottinger – Drexel University Shannon Dosemagen – Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and Open Environmental Data Project Back in 1995, buckets were a game-changer. The low-cost, easy-to-use air samplers were first developed for a community in Northern California, where the adjacent oil refinery had had a series of toxic air releases. For the first time ever, … Continue reading Ensuring the Bucket’s Continued Place in the Frontline Community Toolbox

Débora Swistun – Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda, Universidad Nacional de General San Martín Autoethnography of environmental suffering More than a decade ago, Javier Auyero and I wrote Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown, published first in Spanish (2008) and then in English (2009). The book has since taken on a life of its own, … Continue reading In search of environmental justice and possible futures for the Flammable neighborhood, Argentina

Lorenzo Feltrin – University of Warwick On 25 September 2020, the news was confirmed that petrochemical magnate Sir Jim Ratcliffe – one of the richest men in the UK with an estimated wealth of £17.5 billions, whose fortunes have only grown during the pandemic crisis – had moved his tax residence to the Principality of … Continue reading Reflecting on noxious deindustrialisation: From paradox to paradigm?

Yuanni Wang – Hohai University Loretta Lou – University of Macau, LSE From the clothes we wear to the medicines we take; chemicals are essential to modern living. While chemical products have brought many conveniences to our daily lives, the chemical industry has also caused significant damage to the environment and human health. In China, … Continue reading Can a hot spring resort coexist with a chemical industry park? The case of Jiangsu, China

Patricio Flores Silva – Department of Sociology, University of Warwick patricio-ignacio.flores-silva@warwick.ac.uk In his famous book 1984, George Orwell describes a dystopian society, a society where people are strictly controlled in every detail of their daily life. In Airstrip One, where the main character of the novel lives, it is not possible to think beyond the … Continue reading Editorial: 2020

Linda Soneryd – Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg linda.soneryd@gu.se In a pandemic situation, defined by the World Health Organization, WHO, as ‘the worldwide spread of a new disease’, we all need to listen to experts to know how to act for the safety of ourselves and others. Since it is a … Continue reading Expert advice in times of crisis: Transboundary risk governance and COVID-19

Abby Kinchy and Dan Walls – Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute kincha@rpi.edu – wallsd@rpi.edu Like many university staff, we have watched the COVID-19 crisis unfold from the relative safety of our homes, trying to continue our research while physically distanced from the people and places that are central to our investigation. … Continue reading Deadly Exposures: COVID-19 and the Slow Violence of Lead Exposure

Sam Mason – Public and Commercial Services Union sam@pcs.org.uk The Coronavirus pandemic has thrust science and technology into the spotlight with urgent and necessary priority. In parallel, assumptions about the nature of work and what skills are valuable in society and the economy have been challenged as health and social care workers, along with many … Continue reading If we want to halt climate change, the next industrial revolution needs to be a workers’ transformative industrial plan