Doctoral Dissertation: Socio-Political Causes and Effects on Emerging Contaminants

该项目将研究政府官员、监管科学家和有关公众如何理解饮用水供应的安全性。本案例研究将确定涉及专家，监管机构，公民和科学家关于新兴污染物的知识冲突中的见解。它将为更有效地治理新出现的污染物提供有益的经验教训。这项研究的结果将引起决策者、地方和地区政府、社区成员和科学家的兴趣。这项研究将审查饮用水中全氟辛酸（PFOA）污染的情况。研究将包括访谈、参与者观察和政策文件分析。这些来源将用于记录纽约州饮用水政策的历史，研究监管机构和民选官员如何解决有关PFOA的未知数，并分析受影响的居民如何参与和批评监管机构的知识（和无知）的生产。这项研究有助于社会研究的机构，阐明国家和区域的化学品监管方法的变化。本案例研究通过展示州一级的政策如何与联邦监管体系相互作用，以及与地方一级的危机相互作用，做出了新颖的贡献。此外，本研究将关注在社会危机和科学未知的背景下维护权威的理论问题。

This project will study how public officials, regulatory scientists, and concerned publics understand the safety of drinking water supplies over time. This case study will identify insights within knowledge conflicts involving experts, regulators, citizens and scientists about emerging contaminants. It will provide useful lessons for more effective governance of emerging contaminants. The findings of this study will be of interest to policy makers, local and regional governments, community members and scientists.The research will examine the case of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination of drinking water. The research will involve interviews, participant observation, and analysis of policy documents. These sources will be used document a history of New York State drinking water policy, to examine how regulators and elected officials have addressed the unknowns about PFOA, and to analyze how affected residents have worked to engage and critique the production of knowledge (and ignorance) by regulatory authorities. This study contributes to a body of social research that illuminates variation in national and regional approaches to chemical regulation. This case study makes a novel contribution by showing how state level policies interact with federal regulatory systems, on one hand, and local-level crises, on the other. Furthermore, the research will attend to theoretical questions about the maintenance of authority in the context of social crisis and scientific unknowns.