The export of hazards to the third world:

Truer Facts Through Stronger Values: Confronting Science's Sociopolitical Realities

Assaults on science have led scientists to demand "politics-free/values-free" science that safeguards science against error by grounding it in "politically neutral" evidence. Considering racial disparities in lead poisoning, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19, we show the solution is doomed. Politically charged beliefs are essential for assessing public-health research; thus, the beliefs' truth affects the research's accuracy. However, science's sociopolitical uses systematically distort politically charged beliefs. Since errors assimilate into our scientific corpus and inform new hypotheses, scientists need accurate sociopolitical theories of distorting forces to identify errors. Analyzing Black-Panther opposition to violence research, we argue since racial disparities structure society and science has been distorted to buttress racial inequities, knowledgeable anti-racist scientists exert corrective forces on research. They hold accurate politically charged beliefs about sociopolitical forces shaping science and health, and are committed to eradicating distortions. Thus, rather than quarantining politically charged beliefs, scientists should sharpen their sociopolitical theories and normative commitments.

Dependent convergence: the importation of technological hazards by semiperipheral countries

This article complements the substantial body of literature produced over the last three decades on the export of hazards from developed countries to developing countries. After reviewing the central arguments proposed by this literature, the authors add to the debate by focusing on the role of national actors in the importation of these hazards, based on the experience of late 1970s' developments in the petrochemical industry in Brazil. The Brazilian case indicates that social struggles and/or interactions among actors in developing and developed nations determine to what extent hazardous technologies are imported without environmental controls and to what extent their hazardous effects are controlled by these nations. This study suggests that the future development of a more inclusive theory of export-import of hazardous technologies and products should take into account the dialectical relationship established between social actors internal to the exporting and importing countries.