Nathalie Jas

Introduction: Risk and ‘Risk Society’ in Historical Perspective

Since the mid-1980s “risk” has constituted a sort of banner to which the social sciences have rallied. It has given rise to a whole range of research in the political science, sociology and economics spheres. This paper is a general introduction to a History and Technology special issue which attempt to construct analytical frameworks and research proposals that may contribute to a historization and a denaturalization of risk. This paper considers the role of history in analyzing risks in the fields of science and technology. It aims to show the importance of history in considering risk and the societal mutations to which it gives rise or in which it plays a central role. Ultimately, our aim is to stress the necessity not only to compile a history of “risk”, but also to account for the emergence, development and uses of risk and “risk society”.

Public Health and Pesticide Regulation in France Before and After Silent Spring

By analysing aspects of the development and functioning of the French pesticide registration system up to 1972, this paper highlights four long‐term trends that significantly influenced how that system took charge of public health, while exposing a series of problems with pesticide‐related health management practices. It argues that the function of these practices was not so much to protect populations from the detrimental effects of pesticides but to enable the development of intensive agriculture and the pesticide industry. Ultimately, it stresses the need to introduce long‐term perspectives into risk studies and to place economic interests at the core their analyses.

Chemicals and Environmental History

A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) showed that toxic chemical substances are responsible for 4.9 million deaths every year, i.e. 8.9 per cent of annual deaths. This report also highlights the fact that these figures are largely underestimated, given the significant knowledge gaps. Not only is the number of deaths and diseases caused by pollutants unknown, but most of the very large number of chemical substances in circulation have not been even minimally investigated for potential toxicity.1 The first four of these five books, and certain chapters of the last one, provide important contributions to the growing historical and sociological literature on toxicants and their governance. This literature sheds light on the paradox of the increasingly massive development of (potentially) toxic chemical substances for over a century: while knowledge—especially scientific knowledge — of these substances has been continually expanding, movements denouncing them have constantly evolved, and complex regulatory systems to prevent and improve the substances’ effects have been gradually developed. The books presented here provide insightful and detailed analysis of several major issues underpinning the literature on environmental chemicals. I shall present the five reviewed books focusing on four of those issues.