Sara Shostak
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520275171
- eISBN:
- 9780520955240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520275171.003.0007
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
Chapter 6 considers how environmental justice activists perceive the ascendance of research on gene-environment interaction. This chapteropens with a case study of a 2002 court case-Tamiko Jones, et ...
More
Chapter 6 considers how environmental justice activists perceive the ascendance of research on gene-environment interaction. This chapteropens with a case study of a 2002 court case-Tamiko Jones, et al., v. NL Industries, et al. (Civil Action No. 4:03CV229)-in which genetic arguments were used to undermine plaintiffs’ claims that their children’s cognitive and behavioral deficits were caused by lead poisoning. It then describes activists’ fears that research on gene-environment interaction will serve as a “smoke screen” for the social-structural dynamics underlying the disproportionate burden of environmental risks and illness borne by communities of color in the United States. However, it alsoconsiders to activists’ cautious interest in using molecular techniques to generate proof of environmental exposures and their deleterious effects.Less
Chapter 6 considers how environmental justice activists perceive the ascendance of research on gene-environment interaction. This chapteropens with a case study of a 2002 court case-Tamiko Jones, et al., v. NL Industries, et al. (Civil Action No. 4:03CV229)-in which genetic arguments were used to undermine plaintiffs’ claims that their children’s cognitive and behavioral deficits were caused by lead poisoning. It then describes activists’ fears that research on gene-environment interaction will serve as a “smoke screen” for the social-structural dynamics underlying the disproportionate burden of environmental risks and illness borne by communities of color in the United States. However, it alsoconsiders to activists’ cautious interest in using molecular techniques to generate proof of environmental exposures and their deleterious effects.
