Initially marketed as a life-saving advancement, flame retardants are now mired in controversy. Some argue that data show the chemicals are unsafe while others continue to support their use. The tactics of each side have far-reaching consequences for how we interpret new scientific discoveries.
An experienced environmental sociologist, Alissa Cordner conducts more than a hundred interviews with activists, scientists, regulators, and industry professionals to isolate the social, scientific, economic, and political forces influencing environmental health policy today. Introducing "strategic science translation," she describes how stakeholders use scientific evidence to support nonscientific goals and construct "conceptual risk formulas" to shape risk assessment and the interpretation of empirical evidence. A revelatory text for public-health advocates, Toxic Safety demonstrates that while all parties interested in health issues use science to support their claims, they do not compete on a level playing field and even good intentions can have deleterious effects.
Initially marketed as a life-saving advancement, flame retardants are now mired in controversy. Some argue that data show the chemicals are unsafe while others continue to support their use. The tactics of each side have far-reaching consequences for how we interpret new scientific discoveries.
An experienced environmental sociologist, Alissa Cordner conducts more than a hundred interviews with activists, scientists, regulators, and industry professionals to isolate the social, scientific, economic, and political forces influencing environmental health policy today. Introducing "strategic science translation," she describes how stakeholders use scientific evidence to support nonscientific goals and construct "conceptual risk formulas" to shape risk assessment and the interpretation of empirical evidence. A revelatory text for public-health advocates, Toxic Safety demonstrates that while all parties interested in health issues use science to support their claims, they do not compete on a level playing field and even good intentions can have deleterious effects.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Uncertain Science and the Fight for Environmental Health
2. Hot Topics: Flame Retardants in the Public Sphere
3. Defending Risk and Defining Safety
4. Strategic Science Translation
5. Negotiating Science
6. Science of Advocacy
Conclusion: The Pursuit of Chemical Justice
Appendix. Playing the Field: Methodological Reflections
Notes
References
Index
Alissa Cordner is assistant professor of sociology at Whitman College and coauthor (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Peter Klein, and Stephanie Savell) of The Civic Imagination: Making a Difference in American Political Life (2014).
Toxic Safety is an excellent contribution to environmental and
medical social science, and it will be of interest to scholars in
sociology, anthropology, and environmental studies. It is also and
important resource for activists involved in civic movements for
environmental health and environmental justice and for anyone
motivated to build a society free of toxic substances.
*American Journal of Sociology*
Toxic Safety is expansive and detailed; it is well written, and the
story is told with clarity and conviction; and it sheds
considerable light on the history of the flame retardant industry
and the conflicting interests surrounding the use and regulation of
flame retardant chemicals, as well as the limitations of science in
environmental policymaking. This is an essential book for
environmental sociologists interested in risk and environmental
policy.
*Contemporary Sociology*
An important, well-documented, and well-told account.
Recommended.
*Choice*
Toxic Safety makes an important contribution to questions about how
we regulate environmental chemicals and how stakeholders shape this
process. The book will be of interest to a range of readers,
including environmental sociologists, public health advocates, and
those interested in the politics of flame retardants and
environmental health. It could usefully be assigned in advanced
undergraduate courses and graduate seminars that address
environmental politics.
*Medical Anthropology Quarterly*
How could a class of chemicals as dangerous to health and limited
in usefulness as flame retardants have become as widespread as they
have? How could scientists, advocates, legislators, firefighters,
and others mount an effective campaign to curb their use? Toxic
Safety tells this story with great finesse, while setting the bar
for research on chemical controversy. Cordner's notion of
'strategic science translation' and her elaboration of multiple
approaches to risk will be standards for future environmental and
public health scholars.
*Phil Brown, author of Toxic Exposures: Contested Illnesses and
the Environmental Health Movement*
The flame retardant controversy serves as a fascinating case study
of how scientific policies are made. Toxic Safety is a
well-researched, well-organized, and well-written real-life example
of how science contributes to policy.
*Julie Herbstman, Columbia University*
An important contribution to the scholarship of toxic risk. In
particular, the innovative methodology and detailed methodological
appendix will be enormously valuable for graduate students and
established scholars alike.
*Social Science Journal*
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