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My artifact is an image about the Bhopal Union Carbide gas tragedy. Throughout this week’s reading we’ve encountered references to Union Carbide and the havoc they wrought in NJ and in the Bhopal area. I pulled this image from the Wikipedia page. 

Memorial by Dutch artist Ruth Kupferschmidt for those killed and disabled by the 1984 toxic gas release.

I was fascinated by the idea of “body burden”.  I did some more digging about post-mortem body burden and bioaccumulation. I had literally never heard of the term before.

Body Burden and Bioaccumulation (From Lasting Health)

Chemicals vary widely in the timescales it takes for their potency to reduce. Substances such as alcohol break down quickly and are dispelled from the bloodstream within 12 hours, but synthetic chemicals take much longer, up to many years in some instances. Exposure to chemicals such as PFAS can persist in our body for many years; it’s described as a “forever chemical”.

Over time, and with repeated exposure to chemicals, the effect of multiple chemicals entering the body can lead to a bioaccumulation of chemicals that can become toxic to our health, contributing to feeling unwell, and a wide range of illnesses and disease.

“What had seemed like an isolated incident in Minamata, Japan suddenly became one case in a larger more widespread public health dilemma.” (TB/TE,630)

“The protection not only of right to know but the ability to know is what links environmental history with ecology, public health workers, citizen groups, and regulators alike. Increased public awareness of exposures has always been a driving impetus in changing and modifying regulatory practices.” (TB/TE,632)

This reading linked me closely back to a project I’d been working on last semester with the Army Public Health department through the Hacking 4 Defense program. So much stagnation or inaction comes from lack of data but what about our bodies as environmental indicators?

--CR