Toxic Safety: 
Flame Retardants, Scientific Controversies, and Environmental Health
Columbia University Press 2016

Winner: 2018 Schnaiberg Award for Outstanding Publication, Environmental Sociology Section of American Sociological Association


Toxic Safety examines how environmental health risks are defined and contested, in the face of unavoidable scientific uncertainty and competing, powerful stakeholders. In particular, it answers two far-reaching questions: how do stakeholders develop different definitions of risk and different interpretations of science, and why do these differences matter? It does so with a close qualitative analysis of how flame retardant chemicals are produced, regulated, studied, and contested. Flame retardants have been the subject of a remarkable amount of activist outcry, scientific research, regulatory attention, and industry defense, making them one of the most prominent environmental health controversies of the early 21st century. I completed over 110 interviews and conducted in-depth ethnographic research with the full range of stakeholders involved in controversies over how flame retardants are used and regulated in the United States.

Environmental health policy is supposedly science-based, yet research on environmental risks is inevitably uncertain, resulting in policy decisions that are influenced by non-scientific forces. Drawing on literatures as far-ranging as toxicology, science and technology studies, environmental law, and the new political sociology of science, Toxic Safety demonstrates that risk-based decision making involves a combination of scientific, social, economic, and political forces. This book fills important theoretical gaps by developing the concept of “strategic science translation” to examine the ways in which stakeholders intentionally present scientific evidence to support non-scientific goals. It also fills empirical gaps through its multi-sited analysis of how science is produced, interpreted, and strategically translated by a full range of stakeholders. Although stakeholders sometimes define risk or the components of risk similarly, in practice they construct “conceptual risk formulas” to define the boundaries of risk assessment, and mobilize strategic science translations of the empirical evidence to pursue divergent goals. Toxic Safety shows that all individuals and institutions interested in these contested environmental health issues use science to make competing and strategic claims in pursuit of institutional and regulatory goals. They do so on an uneven playing field, and their divergent goals and tactics have identifiable consequences for public health and environmental protection.      

























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​Reviews

American Journal of Sociology (December 2018)
"Toxic Safety is an excellent contribution to environmental and medical social science, and it will be of interest to scholars in sociology, anthropology, and environmental studies. It is also an important resource for activists involved in civic movements for environmental health and environmental justice and for anyone motivated to build a society free of toxic substances."

Contemporary Sociology (August 2018)
"Toxic Safety is expansive and detailed; it is well written, and the story is told with clarity and conviction; and it sheds considerable light on the history of the flame retardant industry and the conflicting interests surrounding the use and regulation of flame retardant chemicals, as well as the limitations of science in environmental policymaking. This is an essential book for environmental sociologists interested in risk and environmental policy"

 Bulletin of the History of Medicine (December 2017)
"In her conclusion, Cordner mitigates this discouraging description of environmental policy making with recommendations for change. Rather than expecting scientific certainty, stakeholders should use the precautionary principle and act on the best available science to protect public health. Though her approach is evenhanded, she comes down clearly for the necessity for such regulation... A sociological study of policy rather than of material environments and bodies, Toxic Safety ultimately seeks to chart new approaches for regulating toxics without depending on scientific certainty."

Medical Anthropology Quarterly (November 2016)
" Toxic Safety makes an important contribution to questions about how we regulate environmental chemicals and how stakeholders shape this process. The book will be of interest to a range of readers, including environmental sociologists, public health advocates, and those interested in the politics of flame retardants and environmental health. It could usefully be assigned in advanced undergraduate courses and graduate seminars that address environmental politics."


Choice (October 2016)
          "This book blasts the myth that US industry is overregulated and demonstrates that the public is under protected. Industry creates roadblocks and funds misinformation based on scant, faulty, and even fraudulent 'data. Many others have told the same narratives regarding lead, asbestos, mercury, and solvents in pesticides, but this book provides greater detail regarding the challenges that regulators face. This is an important, well-documented, and well-told account."