From 'the Dose Makes The Poison' To 'the Timing Makes The Poison': Conceptualizing Risk In The Synthetic Age

摘要

For scientists at general electric in the late 1950s, the future was plastics. The GE scientists dreamed that scientific understanding of carbon-based (or organic) compounds, specifically polymers such as carbohydrates and proteins, would one day culminate in the creation of the ultimate machine-the "synthetic man." Though at the time only a dream, the rapid development and commercial success of synthetic polymers, notably plastics in the 1950s, fed such grandiose visions of the future. Today General Electric's dream of the "synthetic man," although not actualized as the science fictional character "The Terminator," has nonetheless become a reality. Traces of compounds used to make plastics, as well as pesticides and other industrial chemicals, have been detected in human blood, breast milk, placental tissue, amniotic fluid, and fat. We have literally merged with our material environment to become synthetic humans, a reality discussed and examined in this issue's forum essays by Michelle Murphy and Linda Nash. Determining the biological impact of our new synthetic bodies and the necessary political response to such a transformation informs a contentious contemporary debate about the meaning of chemical risk and toxicity.