Powerless Science? : : Science and Politics in a Toxic World / / ed. by Soraya Boudia, Nathalie Jas.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• MitwirkendeR: Allen, Barbara L.,; Barca, Stefania,; Boudia, Soraya,; Centemeri, Laura,; Cranor, Carl F.,; Creager, Angela N.H.,; Edwards, Michelle,; Frickel, Scott,; Gaudillière, Jean-Paul,; Jas, Nathalie,; Jobin, Paul,; Krimsky, Sheldon,; Langston, Nancy,; Roberts, Jody A.,; Tseng, Yu-Hwei,
• HerausgeberIn: Boudia, Soraya,; Jas, Nathalie,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Environment in History: International Perspectives ; 2
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (290 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Greatness and Misery of Science in a Toxic World -- PART I Knowledge, Expertise, and the Transformations in Regulatory Systems -- CHAPTER 1 Precaution and the History of Endocrine Disruptors -- CHAPTER 2 The Political Life of Mutagens: A History of the Ames Test -- CHAPTER 3 DES, Cancer, and Endocrine Disruptors: Ways of Regulating, Chemical Risks, and Public Expertise in the United States -- CHAPTER 4 Managing Scientific and Political Uncertainty: Environmental Risk Assessment in a Historical Perspective -- PART II Activism and Nonactivism: Alternative Uses of Knowledge -- CHAPTER 5 Work, Bodies, Militancy: The “Class Ecology” Debate in 1970s Italy -- CHAPTER 6 What Kind of Knowledge is Needed about Toxicant-Related Health Issues? Some Lessons Drawn from the Seveso Dioxin Case -- CHAPTER 7 From Suspicious Illness to Policy Change in Petrochemical Regions: Popular Epidemiology, Science, and the Law in the United States and Italy -- CHAPTER 8 Guinea Pigs Go to Court: Epidemiology and Class Actions in Taiwan -- PART III Putting Knowledge, Ignorance, and Regulation into Perspective -- CHAPTER 9 Reckless Laws, Contaminated People: Science Reveals Legal Shortcomings in Public Health Protections -- CHAPTER 10 Untangling Ignorance in Environmental Risk Assessment -- CHAPTER 11 Low-Dose Toxicology: Narratives from the Science-Transcience Interface -- CHAPTER 12 Unruly Technologies and Fractured Oversight: Toward a Model for Chemical Control for the Twenty-First Century -- Contributors -- Index