Chemical Futures

Abstract

Here we turn to the strategies that young people use to prevent chemical harms, not just those related to single chemicals but also those related to the feedback loops and compounding effects generated by the multiplicity of chemicals in daily life. Chemical Futures takes as an example youth activists in France, the Générations Cobayes, and their mobilization against endocrine-disrupting chemicals. We examine what contributes to the relative invisibility of toxic risk, pointing especially to the role of corporations in generating uncertainty about scientific evidence. The ChemicalYouth project engaged in a range of collaborative, youth-led projects that demonstrate the many ways youth may be engaged in “harm reduction from below.” We suggest that a ChemicalYouth 2.0 project might involve a wider range of researchers, advisors, and laboratories, to make more visible the multiple toxicities that make up young people’s everyday lives. Finally, we argue that governments should team up with youth and complement their efforts with “harm reduction from above” initiatives to regulate unsafe chemicals and support youths’ efforts to observe the effects of chemicals on their bodies and share information with others.