Toxic Injustice: A Transnational History of Exposure and Struggle - Softcover

Bohme, Susanna Rankin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520278992 ISBN 13: 9780520278998

Publisher: University of California Press, 2014

Synopsis

The pesticide dibromochloropropane, known as DBCP, was developed by the chemical companies Dow and Shell in the 1950s to target wormlike, soil-dwelling creatures called nematodes. Despite signs that the chemical was dangerous, it was widely used in U.S. agriculture and on Chiquita and Dole banana plantations in Central America. In the late 1970s, DBCP was linked to male sterility, but an uneven regulatory process left many workers especially on Dole's banana farms exposed for years after health risks were known. Susanna Rankin Bohme tells an intriguing, multilayered history that spans fifty years, highlighting the transnational reach of corporations and social justice movements. Toxic Injustice links health inequalities and worker struggles as it charts how people excluded from workplace and legal protections have found ways to challenge power structures and seek justice from states and transnational corporations alike.

About this title

Review:

"[Bohme] has skillfully brought together an extensive amount of detail from multiple sources. . . Recommended."-- (06/22/2015)

"An invaluable book."--The Journal of American History

"Bohme dissects the sectorial and geographic inequalities around health and regulation as she unpacks the growing evidence for the harm caused by DBCP exposure... [the book] demonstrates how focusing on a single event or process invites us to look at the wider social and historical context in which it occurs, and in doing so reveals the complexities of a political economy in today's global environment."--Latin American Research Review

About the Author:

Susanna Rankin Bohme is Lecturer in History and Literature at Harvard University.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0520278992
• ISBN 13: 9780520278998
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372