Dangerous Trade: Histories of Industrial Hazard across a Globalizing World

229 Pages·2011·1.34 MB·English

by  Christopher Sellers

Dangerous TraDe

Dangerous
TraDe
Histories of Industrial Hazard
across a Globalizing World
edited by
Christopher sellers and
Joseph melling
temple university press
philadelphia
temple university press
philadelphia, pennsylvania 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2012 by temple university
all rights reserved
published 2012
library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication data
dangerous trade : histories of industrial hazard across a globalizing world / edited by
Christopher sellers and Joseph melling.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4399-0468-8 (hardback)
isBn 978-1-4399-0469-5 (paperback)
isBn 978-1-4399-0470-1 (e-book)
1. industrial hygiene. 2. hazardous substances. 3. industrial toxicology.
4. industrial safety. 5. environmental health. i. sellers, Christopher C.
ii. melling, Joseph.
rC967.d36 2011
363.1109—dc22
2011015413
the paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the american national
standard for information sciences—permanence of paper for printed library materials,
ansi Z39.48-1992
printed in the united states of america
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
Contents
list of tables and Figures vii
acknowledgments ix
Introduction. From Dangerous Trades to Trade in Dangers:
Toward an Industrial Hazard History of the Present /
Christopher sellers and Joseph melling 1
ParT I The LaTe nIneTeenTh CenTury To The
earLy TwenTIeTh CenTury
Creating Industrial hazards in the Developing world
1. Rubber Plantation Workers, Work Hazards, and Health
in Colonial Malaya, 1900–1940 / amarjit Kaur 17
2. Work, Home, and Natural Environments: Health and Safety
in the Mexican Oil Industry, 1900–1938 / myrna santiago 33
Knowing and Controlling in the Developed world
3. Global Markets and Local Conflicts in Mercury Mining:
Industrial Restructuring and Workplace Hazards at the
Almaden Mines in the Early Twentieth Century /
alfredo menéndez-navarro 47
vi / ConTenTs
4. Trade, Spores, and the Culture of Disease: Attempts to
Regulate Anthrax in Britain and Its International Trade,
1875–1930 / tim Carter and Joseph melling 60
5. Rayon, Carbon Disulfide, and the Emergence of the
Multinational Corporation in Occupational Disease /
paul d. Blanc 73
ParT II The MIDDLe To The LaTe TwenTIeTh CenTury
new Transfers of Production
6. Shipping the “Next Prize”: The Trade in Liquefied Natural
Gas from Nigeria to Mexico / anna Zalik 87
7. New Hazards and Old Disease: Lead Contamination and the
Uruguayan Battery Industry / daniel e. renfrew 99
new Knowledge and Coalitions
8. Objective Collectives? Transnationalism and “Invisible
Colleges” in Occupational and Environmental Health from
Collis to Selikoff / Joseph melling and Christopher sellers 113
9. Bread and Poison: The Story of Labor Environmentalism
in Italy, 1968–1998 / stefania Barca 126
10. A New Environmental Turn? How the Environment Came
to the Rescue of Occupational Health: Asbestos in France
c. 1970–1995 / emmanuel henry 140
new arenas of Contest
11. A Tale of Two Lawsuits: Making Policy-Relevant
Environmental Health Knowledge in Italian and
U.S. Chemical Regions / Barbara allen 154
12. Pesticide Regulation, Citizen Action, and Toxic Trade:
The Role of the Nation-State in the Transnational History of
DBCP / susanna rankin Bohme 168
13. Turning the Tide: The Struggle for Compensation for
Asbestos-Related Diseases and the Banning of Asbestos /
Barry Castleman and Geoffrey tweedale 181
Conclusion / Joseph melling and Christopher sellers,
with Barry Castleman 195
Contributors 207
index 211
Tables and Figures
Tables
table 1.1 racial Composition of Fms estate labour Force, malaya,
1907–1938
table 1.2 estate mortality rates, Fms, 1911–1923
table 1.3 deaths and death rates, Fms, 1914–1923
table 1.4 C omparative mortality rates for indentured indian labour in
assam, Fiji, surinam, and malaya, 1871–1910
table 1.5 principal diseases, deaths, and death rates, Fms, 1911–1923
table 4.1 animal Outbreaks and human Fatalities from anthrax in
england and Wales, 1899–1910
table 13.1 Compensation for asbestosis
table 13.2 european asbestos Compensation schemes
table 13.3 asbestos action Groups Worldwide
Figures
Figure 1.1 indian migration flows to southeast asia
Figure 1.2 rail network and the distribution of rubber, malaya, 1935
Figure 1.3 admissions to government hospitals in the Fms for malaria, and
the planting and replanting of rubber, malaya
Figure 4.1 dissemination of anthrax: the Kidderminster case, 1900–1914

acknowledgments
We thank the national science Foundation for funding the
stony Brook university conference in december 2007 at which
contributors to this volume first presented their papers to one
another. at stony Brook, we also appreciated the support provided
by the Fine arts, humanities, and social sciences initiative (Fahss);
the Center for Global studies; the humanities institute; the Center for
interdisciplinary environmental research; the dean of the College of
arts and sciences; the dean of the school of medicine; the Office of
the provost; and the departments of history, Chemistry, preventive
medicine, and technology and society. the Wellcome trust in the
united Kingdom also supported many of those attending the conference,
including Joseph melling. a few individuals also deserve thanks for
their contributions to the organizing of the conference: susan Grumet,
the history department’s vital administrator; Jeff hall, who handled
much of the logistics with dispatch; and ann Brody, who was invaluable
in making the local arrangements.
We also are appreciative of the many around the world who sought
involvement in our efforts to build a transnational “invisible college”
around the conference themes. We attracted many fine papers that we
were unable to include in this collection for reasons of space and time;
we look forward to the further work of these scholars. they, as well as
nonauthor participants at the conference, made important comments
and criticisms along the way. in the current volume, we have tried to