Surveying the Chemical Anthropocene

Faced with the non-optional acceptance of toxic chemical artifacts, ubiquitous interweaving chemicals in our social fabric oft en exists out sight and mind. Yet, for many, exposures signal life-changing or life-ending events, phantom threats that fail to appear as such until they become too late mitigate. Assessments toxicological risk consist what Sheila Jasanoff calls “sociotechnical imaginaries,” arbitrations between calculated costs benefits, known risks scientifically wrought justifications safety. Prevalent financial conflicts interest socially determined hazards posed by exposure suggest safety assessments regulations are a form postnormal science. Focusing on histories pesticides DDT, atrazine, PFAS, glyphosate, this article critically reviews Michel Serres’s notion “appropriation contamination.”