Toxic Safety

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).

• 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

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, well-documented, and well-told account. Recommended. CHOICE An important contribution to questions about how we regulate environmental chemicals and how stakeholders shape this process. Medical Anthropology Review