The Biopolitics of Farmworker Health in Methyl Iodide Regulation and Adoption

甲基碘监管和采用中农场工人健康的生物政治学

• 批准号: 1228478
• 负责人: Julie Guthman
• 金额: $ 16.99万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-10-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1228478&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Biopolitics; Farmworker; Health; Methyl; Iodide

Understanding how and why chemicals come to be used and when they are withdrawn from use is an important question for policy and for social studies of science. Agricultural chemicals are an especially critical site for the investigation of these processes, given the stakes for growers, policymakers, producers, consumers, and farmworkers. This study contributes to understanding these dynamics through an investigation of the causes of the approval and subsequent withdrawal of methyl iodide, a soil fumigant widely used in strawberry production that was designed to replace methyl bromide, which is planned to be phased out of use by 2015. Methyl iodide was known to have negative effects on human health, but was approved nonetheless. The study investigates how spatial, chemical and social knowledge of the effects of methyl iodide on farmworker health and their offspring and the availability of substitutes entered into regulatory and adoption debates and decisions. Methods include analysis of public hearings and public comment, interviews with constituent groups that participated in the regulatory debates, and interviews with representatives of the strawberry industry. The research results provide new theoretical tools for understanding how scientific knowledge, regulation, and ethical concerns about biological consequences of chemicals intersect to shape the commercial viability of chemicals. More broadly, the research illumiminates how the spatial distribution of chemicals and ethical concerns shape chemical regulation. Research findings are disseminated to policymakers, farmworkers, and to academic researchers. The wide dissemination of research findings enables a range of actors to have access to knowledge needed to engage the process of chemical regulation more effectively.

了解化学品如何和为何被使用以及何时停止使用，是政策和社会科学研究的一个重要问题。考虑到种植者、决策者、生产者、消费者和农场工人的利益，农业化学品是调查这些过程的一个特别重要的场所。这项研究通过调查甲基碘的批准和随后撤销的原因，有助于了解这些动态，甲基碘是一种广泛用于草莓生产的土壤熏蒸剂，旨在取代甲基溴，计划到2015年逐步淘汰甲基溴。众所周知，甲基碘对人类健康有负面影响，但仍然获得批准。该研究调查了甲基碘对农场工人健康及其后代的影响的空间，化学和社会知识以及替代品的可用性如何进入监管和采用辩论和决策。方法包括分析公众听证会和公众意见，采访参与监管辩论的组成团体，采访草莓行业的代表。研究结果提供了新的理论工具，以了解科学知识，法规和对化学品生物后果的伦理问题如何交叉，以塑造化学品的商业可行性。更广泛地说，这项研究阐明了化学品的空间分布和伦理问题如何影响化学品监管。研究结果分发给决策者、农场工人和学术研究人员。研究成果的广泛传播使一系列行为者能够获得更有效地参与化学品监管过程所需的知识。