Sick building syndrome and the problem of uncertainty : environmental politics, technoscience, and women workers

Before 1980, sick building syndrome did not exist. By the 1990s, it was among the most commonly investigated occupational health problems in the United States. Afflicted by headaches, rashes, and immune system disorders, office workers—mostly women—protested that their workplaces were filled with toxic hazards; yet federal investigators could detect no chemical cause. This richly detailed history tells the story of how sick building syndrome came into being: how indoor exposures to chemicals wafting from synthetic carpet, ink, adhesive, solvents, and so on became something that relatively privileged Americans worried over, felt, and ultimately sought to do something about. As Michelle Murphy shows, sick building syndrome provides a window into how environmental politics moved indoors. Sick building syndrome embodied a politics of uncertainty that continues to characterize contemporary American environmental debates. Michelle Murphy explores the production of uncertainty by juxtaposing multiple histories, each of which explains how an expert or lay tradition made chemical exposures perceptible or imperceptible, existent or nonexistent. She shows how uncertainty emerged from a complex confluence of feminist activism, office worker protests, ventilation engineering, toxicology, popular epidemiology, corporate science, and ecology. In an illuminating case study, she reflects on EPA scientists’ efforts to have their headquarters recognized as a sick building. Murphy brings all of these histories together in what is not only a thorough account of an environmental health problem but also a much deeper exploration of the relationship between history, materiality, and uncertainty. Michelle Murphy explores the production of sick building syndrome by juxtaposing multiple histories, each of which explains how an expert or lay tradition made chemical exposures perceptible or imperceptible, existent or nonexistent. She shows how uncertainty emerged from a complex confluence of feminist activism, office worker protests, ventilation engineering, toxicology, popular epidemiology, corporate science, and ecology. In this case study, she reflects on EPA scientists' efforts to have their headquarters recognized as a sick building. Murphy brings all of these histories together in what is not only a thorough account of an environmental health problem but also a much deeper exploration of the relationship between history, materiality, and uncertainty Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 12 [1] Man in a Box: Building-Machines and the Science of Comfort 30 [2] Building Ladies into the Office Machine 46 [3] Feminism, Surveys, and Toxic Details 68 [4] Indoor Pollution at the Encounter of Toxicology and Popular Epidemiology 92 [5] Uncertainty, Race, and Activism at the EPA 122 [6] Building Ecologies, Tobacco, and the Politics of Multiplicity 142 [7] How to Build Yourself a Body in a Safe Space 162 Epilogue 190 Notes 192 Bibliography 224 Index 252 Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Man in a Box: Building-Machines and the Science of Comfort 19 2. Building Ladies into the Office Machine 35 3. Feminism, Surveys, and Toxic Details 57 4. Indoor Pollution at the Encounter of Toxicology and Popular Epidemiology 81 5. Uncertainty, Race, and Activism at the EPA 111 6. Building Ecologies, Tobacco, and the Politics of Multiplicity 131 7. How to Build Yourself a Body in a Safe Space 151 Epilogue 179 Bibliography 181 Notes 213 Index 241

an Account Of Sick Building Syndrome And The Large Number Of Historical Conditions—office Worker Protests, Feminism, Ventilation Engineering, Toxicology, Etc.—that Coalesced To Give This Phenomenon Real Existence.

This is a detailed history of how sick building syndrome came into being: how indoor exposures to chemicals wafting from synthetic carpet, solvents, and so on became something that office workers felt and protested against