The (Un)making of a Toxic Event. The Case of PFAS in Germany

Abstract

Chemical pollution in social science scholarship is often described as invisible, inversed, normalized, imperceptible, unacknowledged, and unspectacular. This short communication explores conditions of visibility of chemical contamination. Drawing on Barry (2017) and Babri et al. (2022), these conditions are conceptualized as events of first and second order. This paper aims to explore events of toxic chemical pollution and how visibility is achieved during these events, taking the chemical contamination of PFAS (per- and polyfluoralkyl substances) in Germany as a case. The chemical group of around 10,000 per- and polyfluoralkyl substances, known as PFAS, is widely used in various applications. PFAS are persistent and can be found ubiquitously in the environment; however, there exist several hotspots.
Drawing on first research results, the paper will outline initial analytics to explore the (in)visibility of toxic events and the chemical geographies involved. Toxic events exist in a continuum, ranging from anticipation and risk calculation to total surprise and ignorance. They are not predetermined to become toxic events; an occurrence might be significant on a local scale while remaining a “non-event” on a larger scale. Different trajectories have to intersect to transform a first-order event into a second-order event with broader reach and vibrancy. Still, the PFAS case demonstrates that toxic events are finite.