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Dryad

Average annual US industrial chemical production 1919-2019

Cite this dataset

Packer, Melina; Lambert, Max (2022). Average annual US industrial chemical production 1919-2019 [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.6086/D12H4C

Abstract

This paper argues that the concepts of “normal” reproductive development that biologists rely upon are undergirded by heterosexism, ableism, and white supremacism, even if implicitly. We illustrate our argument by critically analyzing toxicology’s use of reproductive fitness, focusing on the field of endocrine- disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Toxicology both informs and is informed by fundamental evolutionary and ecological questions, as well as environmental health. Throughout, biologists overwhelmingly assume that “abnormal” reproductive physiologies are both generated by EDC exposure and necessarily threaten species survival. Such assumptions unwittingly obscure fundamental scientific insights while further discriminating against queer, trans, nonbinary, and differently-abled human communities. We agree that scientists should be sounding the alarm over unavoidable, unevenly distributed, and highly hazardous EDC exposures—which cause metabolic dysregulation, cancer, and death—but not because gonads and genitals look different. Instead, we encourage scientists to confront directly how chemical corporations profit from innumerable, irreversible harms to ecological and societal wellbeing, harms which may very well have nothing to do with gonads or genitals. We close with three specific suggestions to help scientists dismantle the human hierarchies embedded into biological frameworks, toward better science and environmental justice. By refusing the oppressive social ideologies assumed by prior research, toxicological and biological scientists will offer exciting new insights into evolutionary processes and urgent, justice-centered findings for environmental health.

Methods

The raw data were downloaded from:

American Chemistry Council. 2020. “Chemical Activity Barometer.” American Chemistry Council. (https://www.americanchemistry.com/chemistry-in-america/data-industry-statistics/chemical-activity-barometer).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 2021. “Data: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17.” Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17. (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/download.htm).

First author Melina Packer aggregated the data (average annual industrial chemical production, in metric tons, 1919-2019) to create the figure in the paper.