Chemical Body Burden and Place-Based Struggles for Environmental Health and Justice (A Multi-Site Ethnography of Biomonitoring Science)

Altman, Rebecca Gasior

Full Metadata

Overview

Year:: 2008
Contributor:: Altman, Rebecca Gasior (creator); Brown, Phil (director); , (director); Dill, Ann (reader); Morello-Frosch, Rachel (reader); Brown University. Sociology (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Biomonitoring; body burden; chemical policy; lifecycle analysis; multi-sited ethnography; persistent organic pollutants; public science; Biological monitoring; Chemicals; Chemicals--Government policy; Environmental health; Environmental justice; Environmental sociology; Science; Social movements
Extent:: xv, 425 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z03R0R5X

Files

Description

Abstract:: This dissertation investigates how communities and advocacy groups in Appalachia, Maine, and Alaska use biomonitoring to work toward environmental health and justice. Biological monitoring, or biomonitoring, characterizes the presence of environmental chemicals in human tissue and fluids, a condition commonly called body burden. As biomonitoring has expanded in recent decades, communities and advocacy organizations increasingly use biomonitoring to address the ubiquitous presence of chemicals in everyday, human environments. This dissertation develops a lifecycle framework for studying the intersection of biomonitoring science and contests over environmental chemicals in three places. Each place signifies a different point of contact between chemicals and communities as molecules of persistent, bioaccumulative chemicals pass from cradle-to-grave. These include: (1) sites of production, where chemicals are synthesized or used by industry; (2) sites of consumption, where consumers use goods that contain chemicals; and (3) sites of persistence, the unintended places where chemicals accumulate over time, even if their use has been restricted or banned. Multi-sited ethnography is used to examine how different political-economic relations and histories within each typographical place shape biomonitoring, its meaning and translation, and its implications for advocacy. Case analysis merges several intellectual currents within sociology: political economic analyses of environmental problems; the political sociology of science, which articulates how science shapes and is shaped by political-economic relations; and science and social movement research that informs how civil society groups use science to engage political issues. Building from these insights, this dissertation examines the co-production of science and social relations by exploring how the interconnection of science and political-economic factors shape opportunities for civil society groups to employ science in ways that lead toward progressive environmental and political change. As well, the analysis considers how science conveys power through the relations and alliances it can either inspire or preclude, rather than solely through conferring status or expertise. This dissertation also offers among the first sociological accounts of environmental contests that occur later in the chemical lifecycle.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Brown University (2008)

Content

Access Conditions

Rights: In Copyright
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Altman, Rebecca Gasior, "Chemical Body Burden and Place-Based Struggles for Environmental Health and Justice (A Multi-Site Ethnography of Biomonitoring Science)" (2008). Sociology Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z03R0R5X

Relations

Collection:

Sociology Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Sociology department.
...