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Title Powerless science? : science and politics in a toxic world / edited by Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas.

Publication Info. New York : Berghahn Books, 2014.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (viii, 280 pages).
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Series Environment in history ; volume 2
Environment in history ; volume 2.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary 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.
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 KnowledgeChapter 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 ProtectionsChapter 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.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Science and state.
Science and state.
Science -- Political aspects.
Science -- Political aspects.
Science.
Science -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Science -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Genre/Form Electronic book.
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
Added Author Boudia, Soraya, editor.
Jas, Nathalie, editor.
Other Form: Print version: Powerless science? New York : Berghahn Books, 2014 9781782382362 (DLC) 2013017868 (OCoLC)834962163
ISBN 9781782382379 (electronic book)
1782382372 (electronic book)
1306316081 (electronic book)
9781306316088 (electronic book)
9781782382362 (hardback ; alkaline paper)
1782382364 (hardback ; alkaline paper)