ABOUT THIS BOOK

In the industrialized nations of the global North, well-funded agencies like the CDC attend to citizens' health, monitoring and treating for toxic poisons like lead. How do the under-resourced nations of the global South meet such challenges? In Edges of Exposure, Noémi Tousignant traces the work of toxicologists in Senegal as they have sought to warn of and remediate the presence of heavy metals and other poisons in their communities. Situating recent toxic scandals within histories of science and regulation in postcolonial Africa, Tousignant shows how decolonization and structural adjustment have impacted toxicity and toxicology research. Ultimately, as Tousignant reveals, scientists' capacity to conduct research—as determined by material working conditions, levels of public investment, and their creative but not always successful efforts to make visible the harm of toxic poisons—affects their ability to keep equipment, labs, projects, and careers going.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Noémi Tousignant is Lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at University College London.

REVIEWS

"Edges of Exposure has much to recommend it and belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in postcolonial and African science, toxic exposure and risk, global health, or contemporary Africa. At a brisk 149 pages of readable prose and relatively accessible academic language, it would also fit well on graduate or upper-level undergraduate reading lists."

-- Kirsten Moore-Sheeley Journal of the History of Medicine

"Edges of Exposure is a powerful contribution to ethnographically grounded STS research focused on toxicology, global environmental health science, and what might be termed postcolonial laboratory life. . . . It is a unique contribution to the broader anthropology of toxics and global environmental health science studies."

-- Peter C. Little Anthropological Quarterly

"Edges of Exposure . . . drives home the starkness of our uneven global economy of health. . . . Tousignant offers a much-needed ethnography of the ways that scientists can perform an emerging state, coupled with an in-depth exploration of the ramifications therein, and leaves us with the fundamental question of how to address global inequities that demand such precarious performances."

-- Marlee Tichenor Somatosphere

"Tousignant makes the consequences of precariousness, uncertainty, and lack of autonomy in research concrete and tangible. In this regard, Edges of Exposure provides a timely warning of the dangers to which, as inhabitants of an increasingly toxic, interconnected, and unequal world, we are all exposed, both as citizens and as public scientists."

-- Agata Mazzeo Isis

"Edges of Exposure is certainly important reading for those interested in the history and anthropology of African health, science and technology studies in Africa, environmental health, and the growing literature on toxicologies. It is a great addition to these fields and greatly contributes to growing concerns over toxins in Africa."

-- Kristin Peterson Catalyst

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Poisons and Unprotection in Africa 1
1. After Interruption: Recovering Movement in the Polyrhythmic Laboratory 25
2. Advancement: Futures of Toxicology during "la Coopération" 59
3. Routine Rhythms and the Regulatory Imagination 85
4. Prolonging Project Locustox, Instrastructuring Sahelian Ecotoxicology 105
5. Waiting/Not Waiting for Poison Control 125
Epilogue. Partial Privileges 143
Notes 151
Bibliography 179
Index 205

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