Category: Health impacts

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Living and resisting with agrotoxics in their blood: Struggles for health and environmental rights against sprayings and agrobiofuels pollution in the heart of the Argentinian agribusiness

Mauricio Berger, PhD, Social Sciences, Associate Researcher, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Associate Professor Instituto de Investigación y Formación en Administración Pública, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina (IIFAP, FCS, UNC). mauricio.berger@unc.edu.ar Cecilia Carrizo, Msc, Public Administration, Associate Professor, Instituto de Investigación y Formación en Administración Pública, Facultad de … Continue reading Living and resisting with agrotoxics in their blood: Struggles for health and environmental rights against sprayings and agrobiofuels pollution in the heart of the Argentinian agribusiness

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The Toxic Relationship between Fracked Gas Liquids and Plastics

Diane M. Sicotte, Ph.D. Drexel University Department of Sociology diane.sicotte@drexel.edu The current worldwide boom in natural gas extraction is due to the new hydrofracturing (fracking) method, even though there is ample scientific evidence that fracking creates extreme risks to human and ecosystem health.[1] The production of plastics and the proliferation of plastic waste poses risks … Continue reading The Toxic Relationship between Fracked Gas Liquids and Plastics

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Tenacious Fumes, Chemical Sensitivity, and the Politics of Relation

Sophia Jaworski, Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology, University of Toronto I speak with a visual artist who has been displaced from multiple residences and is sleeping in a minivan. On social assistance, she is in the difficult situation of trying to find a place to rent that is safe for her accessibility needs. She has intense … Continue reading Tenacious Fumes, Chemical Sensitivity, and the Politics of Relation

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Editorial: Measuring and monitoring in complex times – the case of air pollution

Thomas Verbeek and Calvin Jephcote, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick Air pollution is increasingly seen as a major public health issue, with new research outputs covered by international organisations and the national media every few weeks. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that “clean air is a basic requirement of human health and well-being”. … Continue reading Editorial: Measuring and monitoring in complex times – the case of air pollution

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The elemental ambiguity of PM2.5

Emma Garnett, Research Fellow in the School for Population Health and Environmental Sciences, King’s College London Contact:  emma.garnett@kcl.ac.uk / twitter: @emmargarnett Introduction Particle pollution in the air is a mixture of solids and liquid droplets. Comprised of particles of different sizes, air borne particulate matter (PM) includes ash and dust emitted by anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic … Continue reading The elemental ambiguity of PM2.5

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L’air d’un Bruxellois: self-portraits of personal exposure to air pollution

Nicola da Schio (Cosmopolis, VUB) with Arnaud Dubois, Cécile Herr, Katia Xenophontos, Lorenzo Glorie, Matthieu Coulonval. Pictures: ©FrancoisCorbiau & Aircasting.org We are thankful to Kobe Boussauw, Evi Dons, and Anna Plyushteva for their useful suggestions. Background Air pollution was already discussed by an earlier post of Toxic News. By looking at the examples of Ghent … Continue reading L’air d’un Bruxellois: self-portraits of personal exposure to air pollution

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Decisions for a healthy and just city

Heike Köckler, Department of Community Health, Hochschule für Gesundheit, Bochum, Germany Johannes Flacke, ITC, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands A lot is known about environmental quality in cities and its health effects: noise causes sleep problems and has effects on blood pressure, toxic air emissions may cause lung disease and walkable neighborhoods invite everyday … Continue reading Decisions for a healthy and just city

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Editorial: Toxic Visions – Photography and Pollution

In this Special Issue of Toxic News we explore different ways of making pollution visible: Dr Thom Davies, Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick @ThomDavies The Hungarian photographer Robert Capa once said: ‘if your photographs are not good enough, you aren’t close enough’. He was a war photographer and famously captured … Continue reading Editorial: Toxic Visions – Photography and Pollution

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Exposing a Chemical Company

Dr Thom Davies, Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick @ThomDavies Many documentary photography projects attempt to reveal the structural violence that society has wrought. Monsanto: a photographic investigation by photographer Mathieu Asselin is more specific in its aim: it is a visual call for corporate responsibility. Drawing on the theme of temporality … Continue reading Exposing a Chemical Company