Table Of ContentThinking
Through Chemical
Environments
Soraya Boudia
Angela Creager
Scott Frickel
Emmanuel Henry
Nathalie Jas
Carsten Reinhardt
Jody Roberts
Residues
Nature, Society, and Culture
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Residues
Thinking through
Chemical Environments
Soraya Boudia,
Angela N. H. Creager,
Scott Frickel, Emmanuel Henry,
Nathalie Jas, Carsten Reinhardt,
and Jody A. Roberts
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Boudia, Soraya, author. | Creager, Angela N. H., author. |
Frickel, Scott, author. | Henry, Emmanuel, author. | Jas, Nathalie, author. |
Reinhardt, Carsten, author. | Roberts, Jody A., 1976– author.
Title: Residues : thinking through chemical environments / Soraya Boudia,
Angela N.H. Creager, Scott Frickel, Emmanuel Henry, Nathalie Jas,
Carsten Reinhardt, Jody A. Roberts.
Description: New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021010328 | ISBN 9781978818026 (cloth) | ISBN
9781978818019 (paperback) | ISBN 9781978818033 (epub) |
ISBN 9781978818040 (mobi) | ISBN 9781978818057 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Chemical industry— Environmental aspects. | Pollution. |
Chemistry, Technical— Environmental aspects. | Chemistry, Technical—
Social aspects. | Chemicals— Safety measures. | Environmental policy. |
Environmental sociology.
Classification: LCC TD195.C45 B68 2022 | DDC 363.73— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010328
A British Cataloging- in- Publication record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2022 by Soraya Boudia, Angela N. H. Creager, Scott Frickel,
Emmanuel Henry, Nathalie Jas, Carsten Reinhardt, and Jody A. Roberts
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press,
106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this
prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
References to internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither
the author nor Rutgers University Press is responsible for URLs that may have
expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
♾ 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.
www .rutgersuniversitypress .org
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
Acronyms and Abbreviations xi
1.
Residue Properties 1
2.
Legacy 21
3.
Accretion 50
4.
Apprehension 81
5.
Residual Materialism 113
Notes 127
Bibliography 145
Index 171
About the Authors 181
v
Preface and Acknowledgments
It is admittedly odd to have seven midcareer scholars coauthor
a single, short book. Our collective arose out of many conversa-
tions over several years, especially as catalyzed at “Carcinogens,
Mutagens, Reproductive Toxicants: The Politics of Limit Values
and Low Doses in the Twentieth and Twenty-F irst Centuries,” a
meeting organized by Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas at the Uni-
versity of Strasbourg in late March 2010. Several years of working
in tandem and in smaller collaborations made all of us aware of
how much we could gain by pooling our knowledge and disci-
plinary approaches to better understand the growth of the chem-
ical industry, the environmental changes it has set in motion, and
the manifold, often ineffectual, efforts to regulate it.
Rather than compile individual case studies into another edited
volume, we decided to write collaboratively. We worked together
in person in Providence (April 2016), Princeton (January 2017),
Étretat in France (June 2017), Philadelphia (January 2018), Ber-
lin (July 2018), and New Orleans (September 2019). In hours of
discussion, we found ourselves stepping out of our comfort zones
even as we drew on well- developed empirical material from our
own research. The interpretation that emerged is truly collective,
reflected in our amalgamated voice. None of us could have written
this book alone.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the institutions that funded our
meetings or otherwise helped in our endeavor: Brown University
and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Princeton
University, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture,
Food and Environment (INRAE), Université Paris-D auphine,
vii
PSL University, Université de Paris, the Science History Institute
(formerly Chemical Heritage Foundation), and the Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science. Findings from the study of
Ambler, Pennsylvania, presented in chapter 2 were supported by
the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (award
number R25- OD010521- 01); funding for some of the research
that informs chapter 3 was provided by an NIEHS Superfund
Research Program grant (award number P42ES013660). Parts
of chapter 1 appeared originally in Soraya Boudia, Angela N. H.
Creager, Scott Frickel, Emmanuel Henry, Nathalie Jas, Carsten
Reinhardt, and Jody A. Roberts, “Residues: Rethinking Chemi-
cal Environment,” Engaging Science & Technology Studies 4 (2018):
165– 189. A few passages in chapter 4 are reprinted from Angela
N. H. Creager, “Human Bodies as Chemical Sensors: A History
of Biomonitoring,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 70
(2018): 70– 81, with permission from Elsevier. We also acknowledge
the Hagley Museum and Library, Environmental Working Group,
Summit Realty Advisors, GZA Environmental, Inc., and Nicole
and Gérard Voide of the Collectif des riverains et des victimes
du CMMP for letting us use their images.
This project has benefited from discussions with colleagues and
friends. Among others, we thank our terrific interlocutors at the ses-
sions on residues at the 2019 Society for Social Studies of Science
(4S) meeting, especially panelists Ulrike Felt, Christelle Gramaglia,
Evan Hepler-S mith, Pablo Jaramillo, Justyna Moizard- Lanvin, Ryo
Morimoto, Nona Schulte- Römer, Elena Sobrino, and also those
in the audience who offered comments, including Colleen Lanier-
Christensen, Abena Dove Osseo-A sare, Gabrielle Hecht, Michelle
Murphy, and Sebastián Ureta. At Rutgers University Press, execu-
tive editor Peter Mickulas showed unwavering support for this proj-
ect from the beginning and, toward the end, Kristen Joseph blithely
met the challenge of copyediting the glitches and inconsistencies
of a multiauthor text with skill and patience. Special thanks to Sara
Shostak for two rounds of immensely helpful critiques, comments,
and suggestions; if the book’s organization works, it is in no small
part due to her keen intellectual eye and narrative sensibilities. Four
viii Preface and Acknowledgments
Princeton graduate students—P allavi Podapati, Gina Surita, Jack
Klempay, and Francesca DeRosa—p rovided timely assistance in
formatting, editing, and proofreading the text; at Brown, then-P hD
candidate Tom Marlow created the maps that appear in chapter 3;
and Evan Hepler- Smith deserves a shout- out for intellectual sup-
port and collegiality since this project was in its earliest stages.
It turned out, for our particular experiment in collaboration,
there is simply no substitute for working together in person. Con-
sequently, we especially thank our partners and families for their
forbearance and support as we traveled to meet, talk, and write.
Doing so provided the opportunity both to build the intellectual
foundation of this work collaboratively, in real time, and also to
share unexpected moments to ground this work in the everyday
lives we all experience in this residual world. During one mem-
orable moment in the seaside town of Etrétat, we shared with a
local shop owner the reason for our visit and the nature of our
work: “Like the PCBs in the bay! There is no more fishing here
now. Maybe someday there will be again.” In that moment, we felt
both the reassurance of our work’s ability to resonate and a sudden
surge of urgency. Despite the damage of past actions and inactions,
another world is still possible.
We finished our endeavor during the midst of the COVID- 19
pandemic, highlighting other, though related, vulnerabilities of our
globalized systems. Among those are the deadly consequences of
social and racial hierarchies and the inadequacies of national infra-
structures for health care and environmental protection. The current
global crisis may eclipse the apprehension of the long-t erm damage
inflicted on the natural world by our castoffs. Certainly pandemic-
era requirements for sanitary practices in food distribution and
medical care have increased reliance on single-u se containers, bot-
tled water, and disposables of all kinds. At the same time, crises such
as these have a way of unearthing the residues of inequality that
were always with us. We hope to build on this moment of aware-
ness about social injustices, tracking their environmental sources and
costs, before they are buried once again. Residues are here to stay. It
is time to own them in our intellectual, social, and political projects.
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
