Our Chemical Selves

Canadians are suffering the adverse health effects of everyday exposures to common chemicals in their homes, workplaces, and communities – how are current political and social structures enabling these chronic health risks?

This collection provides a critical, interdisciplinary analysis of how everyday exposures to common chemicals are adversely affecting the health of Canadians and reveals the connections between social inequity, environmental risks, and the gendered division of health burdens in Canada.

Chemicals found in homes, schools, and workplaces are having devastating consequences on human health and the environment. Our Chemical Selves examines the gender dynamics associated with these everyday toxic exposures. Written by leading researchers in science, law, and public policy, the chapters in Our Chemical Selves reveal that while exposures to chemicals are pervasive and widespread, people from low-income, racialized, and Indigenous communities face a far greater risk of exposure. At the same time, the risks associated with these exposures (and the burdens of managing them) rest disproportionately on the shoulders of women. This collection hones in on the “political economy of pollution” by critically examining the system that manufactures the chemicals and the social, political, and gender relations that enable harmful chemicals to continue being produced and consumed. It also demonstrates the urgent need to revise existing approaches to the regulation of toxics, including Canada’s current Chemicals Management Plan.