The Social Significance of Human Biomonitoring

Over the past few decades, developments in analytical chemistry have made it possible to measure low‐level chemical exposures in human fluids and tissues through a process called human biomonitoring. Recent biomonitoring data suggest that humans are exposed to a wide variety of naturally occurring and synthetic environmental chemicals ranging from pesticides and plasticizers to flame‐retardants. These data have provoked new questions about the safety of many environmental chemicals and the adequacy of environmental regulations. Biomonitoring has also attracted the attention of social scientists and scholars in the humanities, resulting in a small but growing body of literature that examines the social impacts of this technique in the contexts of environmental advocacy and environmental justice efforts, chemical regulation and toxic torts, and studies that provide research participants with personal exposure data. Some work also addresses how biomonitoring data are reshaping notions of the body and its ties to historic and contemporary economic and political processes. This paper shows that while there is agreement that biomonitoring data provide novel information about the relationships between bodies and environments, there is debate about the extent to which this information will be used to advance environmental justice and the adoption of more precautionary chemical policies.