We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Introduction to Part II
Summary
This is an introductory chapter in a social science book framing how invisible toxicants and pollution are embedded in everyday modern life. It is a humanities perspective piece rather than an empirical study of microplastics.
Pollution surrounds us all. From the clothes we wear, to the way we travel, to our consumption choices, we are all -in highly uneven ways -creators and repositories of environmental damage. Toxicants have become increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life, and toxic potential suspends itself between absolute mundanity and perpetual threat. Yet despite the ever-present realities of contamination and environmental damage, pollution is often very difficult to sense or witness. Hazardous substances, for example, are often impossible to observe with the naked eye. According to the dominant narrative (see Kuchinskaya 2014), the dangers of chemical spills, radioactive particles, and air pollution, for example, would all be rendered imperceptible without the intervention of scientific devices; chemical sensors, Geiger counters, air meters, and so on. The human body alone, it seems, is not equipped to grapple with the agencies of late-modern discard. But what is it about pollution that gives it this uncanny characteristic? And moreover, does this narrative of sensorial ignorance correspond with the actually existing experience of living with pollution?
Sign in to start a discussion.
More Papers Like This
The Invisible Threat
This chapter presents microplastics as an invisible environmental and health threat, summarizing contamination across environmental matrices and human exposure pathways. The text is aimed at a broad scientific audience and emphasizes the urgency of addressing plastic pollution before its consequences become irreversible.
Introduction
This chapter provides an introduction to a broader research volume or report on microplastics, framing the scope, significance, and structure of the collection for readers approaching the topic for the first time.
Understanding the Risks of Microplastics: A Social-Ecological Risk Perspective
This chapter examines microplastics as a textbook example of a modern global risk — produced by everyday industrial society, distributed worldwide by ocean currents, and difficult to regulate because the harm is diffuse and slow. The authors analyze scientific, social, and political dimensions of microplastic risk, arguing that policy responses like the US Microbead-Free Waters Act address symptoms rather than the underlying systemic problem.
Toxicological aspects of wastewater
This textbook chapter is not about microplastics specifically; it provides a broad review of environmental toxicology topics including climate change, water and air pollution, and industrial contaminants, with microplastics mentioned only as one of many pollutants.
Introduction: Avowing Fragility
Despite its title referencing fragility, this paper is a work of philosophy and social theory examining how contemporary academia approaches questions of environmental uncertainty and modernity — not microplastic pollution. It discusses concepts from Husserl, Wittgenstein, and sociological theorists and is entirely unrelated to microplastics or human health.