Shifting boundary work: Issues and tensions in environmental health science in the case of Grand Bois, Louisiana

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Gieryn (1999 Gieryn T (1999) Cultural Boundaries of Science Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press [Google Scholar]) divides traditional science boundary work into three genres: expulsion (of non‐science or pseudoscience from science), expansion (i.e. distinguishing science from less reliable kinds of knowledge), and protection of autonomy (against the exploitation of science by political or other outside interests). The fact that every citizen of Grand Bois joined in the lawsuit is unusual and goes somewhat against the research of Couch and Kroll‐Smith (1994 Couch, S and Kroll‐Smith, S. (1994). 'Environmental controversies, interactional resources, and rural communities'. Rural Sociology, 59: 25–44. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) showing that exposure controversies tend to divide communities. In this case the community was a multi‐generational, long‐stable community united through both intermarriage and religion. They had also witnessed a similar exposure fight in an adjacent parish (county) where one of the problems was a rise in childhood leukaemia cases. And lastly, the fight was to close the site and locate it elsewhere, so the dispute was not only an 'exposure' dispute. These factors likely led to community unity in fighting the waste site in their town. She was to be joined in the study by Dr Mike Robichaux, the state senator; Dr Richard Brooks, a physician at the local hospital; and Dr Phillip Landrigan, Director of Environmental Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and the EPA's children's health advisor (McMillan, 1997 McMillan J (1997b) 'Toxicologist grilled about study results' Baton Rouge Advocate 5 November [Google Scholar]b). Louisiana state agencies had been complicit a number of times in designing studies that showed nothing was wrong. For example in the 1980s the state Department of Health and Hospitals commissioned a study that was designed in such a way that it disproved popular epidemiological evidence of a high miscarriage rate around chemical plants. Similarly, the Louisiana Tumor Registry has produced data that could be interpreted to mean that it is actually healthier for some populations to live near chemical plants (Allen, 2003 Allen B (2003) Uneasy Alchemy: Citizens and Experts in Louisiana's Chemical Corridor Disputes Cambridge, MA: MIT Press [Google Scholar]). Additional informationNotes on contributorsBarbara L. Allen Address correspondence to: Barbara L. Allen, Director, Northern Virginia Program in STS, Science and Technology Studies Department, Virginia Tech, DC‐Metro Campus, 4200 Wisconsin Av., PMB#106–156, Washington, DC 20016, USA, E‐mail: ballen@vt.edu Address correspondence to: Barbara L. Allen, Director, Northern Virginia Program in STS, Science and Technology Studies Department, Virginia Tech, DC‐Metro Campus, 4200 Wisconsin Av., PMB#106–156, Washington, DC 20016, USA, E‐mail: ballen@vt.edu